报告题目：Major Airline Challenges
报告人： Ellis Johnson, Coca-Cola Chair and Professor
School of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA, USA
时间: 2008年12月12日（周五） 2:00pm-3:00pm
地点: 中主楼 511
Abstract:
The four major challenges discussed are: 1 Fuel Cost, 2 Environmental Concerns, 3. Security from terrorism, 4. Lower profits, High Loads, and Increased Passenger Delays. We discuss each of these, point to some current work being done in operations research, and look at long-range solutions.
Fuel cost has risen to be the dominant factor in operating costs. Operating practices need to be adjusted to take into account this new reality. For example, planes are frequently speeded up to get back on schedule. Perhaps schedules need to have longer block times to reduce this fuel inefficient practice. This example is just one of many. Long range solutions will be discussed.
Environmental concerns focus mainly on emissions and noise. Clearly reducing fuel usage addresses both 1 and 2. But, for example, using biofuels would ease concern over CO2 emissions but may not reduce fuel cost.
Security remains a concern and airlines have to deal with passenger delays due to screening. Some ideas on airport design will be discussed. New airports need to look at screening and the costly renovations of existing airports to account for security concerns.
Finally, the contradictory state of high loads and low profits will be discussed. Reasons for it include breakdown of market segmentation due in part to increased use of online booking. The result has been more passengers at lower fares. The resulting high loads have made rebooking passengers difficult and has led to excessively long passenger delays. These delays are just one factor in a rising tide of dissatisfaction leading to calls and legislative action on "passenger bill of rights."
Biography：
Prof. Johnson’s main area of research is mathematical programming, especially integer programming. He has developed theory and computational approaches and has worked on problems in manufacturing, distribution, and transportation. Much of his recent work has been in airline planning and scheduling. His research with NUS focused more on air cargo and included projects with SATS (Singapore Air Terminal Services) and SIA Cargo. More recently, he is collaborating on projects with NASA and FAA on air traffic flow management. He has worked with Sabre on airline solutions for the last 20 years, particularly in crew scheduling. He was co-editor of two books and has published a research monogram and over eighty papers. He was awarded the John von Neumann Theory Prize from INFORMS in 2000, the Dantzig Prize from SIAM and the Math Programming Society in 1985, and the Lanchester Prize from ORSA/TIMS in 1983. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1987, and in 1990 was named IBM Fellow. He was a fellow of AGIFORS and INFORMS.
