Every aircraft at an airport needs a parking spot, called a stand.
When flights run late, the parking plan breaks — and today people fix it by hand, one phone call at a time.
This concept shows an optimisation engine that re-plans in seconds, and how an airport would decide whether to trust it.
The problem
Every aircraft at an airport needs a parking spot, called a stand. When flights run late, the parking plan breaks — and today people fix it by hand, one phone call at a time.
This concept shows an optimisation engine that re-plans in seconds, and how an airport would decide whether to trust it.
- Stand
- an aircraft parking spot.
- Remote stand
- a stand away from the terminal; passengers go by bus.
- Tow
- moving an aircraft between stands with a vehicle.
A flight is late
Each row is a stand (an aircraft parking spot); each bar is a flight’s turnaround, its stay on that stand.
Why planners can trust it
Every stand comes with its reasons. This is flight ALT 214: why it got its stand, what the alternatives would cost, and what a planner can do about it. A hard rule can never be broken (a big aircraft needs a big stand, for example). Cost is a score for softer preferences: lower is better.
What the trial saves
Stand: an aircraft parking spot. Remote stand: a stand away from the terminal, so passengers go by bus. Tow: moving an aircraft between stands with a vehicle.
Headline savings and the decision
Trial scorecard
Stand plan
A stand is an aircraft parking spot. A turnaround is one aircraft’s stay on a stand, from landing to departure. A tow moves an aircraft between stands.
Your carrier
A turnaround is one aircraft’s stay on a stand, from landing to departure.
Operations control
AOCC is the airport operations control centre, the team that runs the day.
Turnaround board
A turnaround is one aircraft’s stay on a stand, from landing to departure.
Data and solver
Time runs 05:00 to 24:00. Select a flight bar for its explanation. A red outline marks a broken hard rule. Hatched areas are stands out of service. A dashed bar shows an aircraft that is towed between stands.
Move or remove a flight and watch the optimised plan re-plan. The current plan does not re-plan: planners fix it by hand, one change at a time. You can see what they would then have to fix.
Rules checked on this plan
How the stand rules work
Every flight is checked against six rules. Four are hard and must never be broken: the aircraft fits the stand, there are at least 15 minutes between flights on a stand, the jet bridge and pre-conditioned air are there when needed, and the stand is in service. Two are soft and traded off by cost: the airline’s preferred pier, and a contact stand for flights with tight connections.
- Every rule is checked on both plans, for every flight.
- Every choice is explained: select any flight to see why it has its stand and what the alternatives would cost.
- The planner decides: accept a proposal or override it, with a reason. The rules are re-checked and the impact shown first.
How these figures are measured (illustrative)
- Stand plan changes: the number of flights whose stand differs from the plan issued the day before, plus flights that still have a rule conflict to fix. Both plans are measured over the same operating day and the same delays. For the current plan (rule-based assignment plus manual fixes), the changes are the late fixes the planners made by phone and radio after the resource management system (RMS) issued its plan. For the optimised plan, they are the flights the solver moved when it re-planned. If you apply a further disruption, the current plan is not re-planned (fixes stay manual, one at a time), so any new conflict counts as a change still to be made.
- Tows: aircraft moved between stands during a long stay.
- Remote-stand use: turnarounds that use a remote stand for arrival or departure (bus boarding).
- On-time departure: share of turnarounds with less than 15 minutes of delay. A flight that arrived late departs late in both plans. Remote stands, tows, conflicts and missing equipment add minutes on top, and these differ between the plans.
- Turnaround delay: total delay minutes across the day: the delays as operated, which are the same in both plans, plus the minutes each plan adds.
- Planner hours per day: an illustrative effort model. Current method: 4.0 h of planning plus 0.35 h for each change or conflict. Optimised: 2.5 h to review and accept proposals plus 0.30 h for each change.
- Three plans: the trial compares the current method, a classical solver and the new engine. This demo shows the current method and the engine.
All values are modelled on invented data for this concept. They show how the trial would be measured, not results from a real airport.