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Lorenzo Castelli

DEEI - University of Trieste Via Valerio 10 34127 Trieste - Italy

Phone: +39 - 040 - 676 7134Fax: +39 - 040 - 676 3460email: castelli@univ.trieste.it

L. Castelli – Univ. Trieste, G. Manzon – AirDolomiti

R. Pesenti – Univ. Palermo, W. Ukovich – Univ. Trieste

Compensation schemes due to ATC delays

CARE Innovative ATM Research Workshop EUROCONTROL Brussels 

14th & 15th March 2001

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Basic idea

• Proposal of new en-route charges definition schemes;

• ATC unit is represented as a service provider;

• It has to attain some given levels of service;

• The airline perspectives are considered.

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Airlines

• Airlines may be interested in defining new ways to interact with the ATC centers.

• Punctuality is a major concern.

• Only a small percentage of the delays caused by an ATC center are eliminated by:– “Ready” calling– Re-routing

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ATC center

• It may be considered as a service provider;

• When congestion occurs, a slot is allocated to their customers, i.e., to airlines;

• The quality of the service provided could be measured as a function of the possible delays imposed.

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Airlines vs ATC

• New possible formal agreements between ATC centers (or ATC national authorities) and each single airline may be envisaged;

• The airline pays the ATC unit for the services received, but compensation schemes may be also considered.

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Pricing & Compensation Schemes

Charge

ATC Delay

ATCDelay

Charge

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Cost of the delay

• Flight characteristics – peak or peak-off hour, – point-to-point or connection flight– long-haul, short-haul flight

• The size of the airline

• International, national or regional carrier

• The number and type of boarded passengers

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Benefits

• Competition among ATC centers arises;

• An inefficient ATC center would produce losses instead of revenues;

• Reduction of airline complaints;

• Increase of airline (technical) efficiency, i.e., better knowledge of internal process is required.

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Open issues

• The structure of the competion: the degree of market regulation.

• The determination of the cost of delay per unit of time is not often formally computed by the airlines: only rough estimates are available.

• Equity and fairness issues arise.

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How to proceed

• Development of a (mathematical programming or simulation) model able to compare different scenarios taking into account airline characteristics;

• A possible outcome of the research activity could be the creation of suitable pricing schemes automatically generated.