This dissertation aims at improving the efficiency, robustness, and flexibility of airport operations through intelligent gate assignment. Traditional research on gate assignment focuses on the accommodation of passengers' demands such as walking time of passengers, and the robustness of gate assignment. In spite of its importance on the ramp operations, there is a lack of research to account ramp congestion when gates are assigned. Therefore, this dissertation proposes a new perspective on the gate assignment that accounts for ramp congestion. For that purpose, a ramp operations model based on observations at Atlanta airport is presented to understand the characteristics of aircraft movement on the ramp. The proposed gate assignment problem minimizes passenger-time spent on ramp areas. In addition, this dissertation is conducted to satisfy the needs of passengers, aircraft, and operations from the perspectives of passengers. Using actual passenger data at a major hub airport, the proposed gate assignment is assessed by means of passengers' transit time, passengers' time spent on the ramp, and passengers' waiting time for a gate. Results show that the proposed gate assignment outperforms the current gate assignment in every metric. This dissertation also analyzes the impact of gate assignment on departure metering, which controls the number of pushbacks in order to reduce airport congestion. Then, some of departing flights are held at gates, so it increases the chance of gate conflict, which reduces the efficiency of departure metering as well as ramp operations. In order to analyze the impact of gate assignment on departure metering, this dissertation simulates departure processes at two airports. Results show that the proposed robust gate assignment reduces the occurrence of gate conflicts under departure metering and helps to utilize gate-holding times to some extent.

With the increase in fuel prices, the efficient movement of aircraft around an airport can impact the profitability of a flight and an airline. The assignment of a flight to a specific gate not only impacts passenger satisfaction, but also impacts the efficient movement of aircraft from the departure gate to the runway. There have been bodies of research investigating aircraft taxi problems and gate assignment problems. However, each of these research bodies has not included the effects of the other research areas into their respective areas. This research presents a proposed framework that integrates the passenger or freight movement within a terminal with the taxiing of the aircraft to support an integrated approach to solving the gate assignment problem. A solution technique that incorporates a job shop scheduling solution method is presented and demonstrates that a large problem can be solved efficiently and in a short time using both deterministic and stochastic data.

Less-than-truckload industry has a valuable potential for applications of operations research in two areas, network design and efficiency improvement within existing networks. This thesis focuses on the latter, specifically the less-than-truckload terminals where cross docking operations occur. The assignment of incoming trailers to inbound docks is one of the critical decisions that affect the performance of less-than-truckload terminals. This research reviews existing models in literature and introduces an optimal mixed integer quadratic model with the objective of generating assignments that are robust against variability in system parameters such as truck arrival and service times, terminal characteristics and trailer load content. The computational limitations of the optimal model are discussed. A dock assignment heuristic is developed to overcome the computational difficulties reported with the optimal model to solve realistic size problems. It is concluded that the heuristic is generally applicable and is robust against system variably. A dynamic dock assignment heuristic is later introduced to implement the decision process at real time. It is concluded that the dynamic dock assignment heuristic is also robust against system variability. The last part presents a case study that benchmarks the dynamic dock assignment heuristic and existing static assignments at a real terminal. The results show that the dynamic dock assignment heuristic outperforms the static assignment under system variability. Conclusions and future research areas are finally addressed in the last chapter.

Much research has been undertaken to gain insight into business alignment of IT. This alignment basically aims to improve a firm’s performance by an improved harmonization of the business function and the IT function within a firm. The thesis discusses previous approaches and constructs an overall framework, which a potential approach needs to fit in. Being in a highly regulated industry, for airports there is little space left to increase revenues. However, the retailing business has proven to be an area that may contribute towards higher income for airport operators. Consequently, airport management should focus on supporting this business segment. Nevertheless, it needs to be taken into account that smooth airport operations are a precondition for successful retailing business at an airport. Applying the concept of information intensity, the processes of gate allocation and airport retailing have been determined to appraise the potential that may be realized upon (improved) synchronization of the two. It has been found that the lever is largest in the planning phase (i.e. prior to operations), and thus support by means of information technology (for information distribution and improved planning) may help to enable an improved overall retail performance. In order to determine potential variables, which might influence the output, a process decomposition has been conducted along with the development of an appropriate information model. The derived research model has been tested in different scenarios. For this purpose an adequate gate allocation algorithm has been developed and implemented in a purposewritten piece of software. To calibrate the model, actual data (several hundred thousand data items from Frankfurt Airport) from two flight plan seasons has been used. Key findings: The results show that under the conditions described it seems feasible to increase retail sales in the magnitude of 9% to 21%. The most influential factors (besides the constraining rule set and a retail area’s specific performance) proved to be a flight’s minimum and maximum time at a gate as well as its buffer time at gate. However, as some of the preconditions may not be accepted by airport management or national regulators, the results may be taken as an indication for cost incurred, in case the suggested approach is not considered. The transferability to other airport business models and limitations of the research approach are discussed at the end along with suggestions for future areas of research.

Much research has been undertaken to gain insight into business alignment of IT. This alignment basically aims to improve a firm’s performance by an improved harmonization of the business function and the IT function within a firm. The thesis discusses previous approaches and constructs an overall framework, which a potential approach needs to fit in. Being in a highly regulated industry, for airports there is little space left to increase revenues. However, the retailing business has proven to be an area that may contribute towards higher income for airport operators. Consequently, airport management should focus on supporting this business segment. Nevertheless, it needs to be taken into account that smooth airport operations are a precondition for successful retailing business at an airport. Applying the concept of information intensity, the processes of gate allocation and airport retailing have been determined to appraise the potential that may be realized upon (improved) synchronization of the two. It has been found that the lever is largest in the planning phase (i.e. prior to operations), and thus support by means of information technology (for information distribution and improved planning) may help to enable an improved overall retail performance. In order to determine potential variables, which might influence the output, a process decomposition has been conducted along with the development of an appropriate information model. The derived research model has been tested in different scenarios. For this purpose an adequate gate allocation algorithm has been developed and implemented in a purposewritten piece of software. To calibrate the model, actual data (several hundred thousand data items from Frankfurt Airport) from two flight plan seasons has been used. Key findings: The results show that under the conditions described it seems feasible to increase retail sales in the magnitude of 9% to 21%. The most influential factors (besides the constraining rule set and a retail area’s specific performance) proved to be a flight’s minimum and maximum time at a gate as well as its buffer time at gate. However, as some of the preconditions may not be accepted by airport management or national regulators, the results may be taken as an indication for cost incurred, in case the suggested approach is not considered. The transferability to other airport business models and limitations of the research approach are discussed at the end along with suggestions for future areas of research.