published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

机票超售,即售出的機票多於飛機客艙座位的數量，已經作為“國際慣例“被航空公司廣泛採用。但是这种做法是有争议的，因為其容易導致航班超售，使得旅客被拒登機而滯留，影響航空公司的聲譽。在這篇論文中，我們使用逆向拍賣的機制尋找自願放棄登機資格的旅客以收回部份已預售的低端機票來滿足高端旅客的需求，并同時根據拍賣實現的結果來賠償被拒絶登機旅客。具體地說，我們建立一個二期的機票銷售模型，並且假定低端與高端旅客分別在第一第二個銷售期到來，而航空公司通過決定其在兩個銷售期的銷售策略，使得其利潤最大化。在模型中，航空公司可利用逆向拍賣的方法，要求低端旅客在購買機票的時候，提交一個其在因為航班超售時，自願放棄座位的赔偿要求。當航班超售時，航空公司可根據低端旅客的競投信息，從中挑選出價最低的旅客，通過滿足他們的賠償要求，收回他們的機票以滿足高端旅客的需求。我们发现我们的机制在大多数情况下，可以提高航空公司的利润，改善航班的登機效率，同时，也能滿足部份低端旅客通過改變計劃行程獲取賠償的需求。我們也會比較逆向拍賣機制與其他現有機制，例如固定價格補償機制。此外，我們也會就逆向拍賣機票銷售模型中的定價问题进行研究。 / With increasing applications of revenue management, airline companies often oversell their tickets. This practice is controversial because some passengers would not be able to board when the number of show-up customers exceeds the available seats. And this might make the affected customers upset and thus affect the future revenue of the airline. In this paper, we propose a new mechanism - a call-back auction, in which the passengers are asked to submit a bid to indicate the compensation they would like to receive for giving up their seats and changing their original flight schedule. This could provide the airline with information to select passengers with the lowest compensation requirements and also reduce the negative impact on customer relationship. We develop a model with booking limit decision and examine the impact of this call-back auction mechanism on the airline's profitability and compare it with other existing mechanisms such as fixed-price compensation. We find that our mechanism can lead to higher profit for the airlines in most cases. In this study, pricing issues are also examined. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Zhong, Zhiheng. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-76). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Table of Contents --- p.vii / Chapter 0 --- Notation / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.7 / Chapter 3 --- Call-back Auction --- p.13 / Chapter 3.1 --- The Concept --- p.13 / Chapter 3.2 --- Implementation --- p.14 / Chapter 4 --- A Two-Period Model with Call-back Auction --- p.19 / Chapter 4.1 --- Uniform Price Call-back Auction --- p.21 / Chapter 4.2 --- Numerical Examples --- p.27 / Chapter 4.3 --- First-price Call-back Auction --- p.35 / Chapter 4.4 --- Revenue Comparison --- p.39 / Chapter 4.5 --- Call-back Auction with Reserve Compensation --- p.41 / Chapter 4.6 --- Alternative Information Structure --- p.50 / Chapter 5 --- Endogenous High-fare Price --- p.59 / Chapter 5.1 --- Additive Demand Function --- p.60 / Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.68 / Bibliography --- p.72

Thesis (Ph.D)--Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Co-Chair: George L. Nemhauser; Committee Co-Chair: Martin W. P. Savelsbergh; Committee Member: Bruce K. Sawhill; Committee Member: Joel Sokol; Committee Member: Ozlem Ergun. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

This thesis addresses two planning problems motivated by the operations of PSOD air transportation: scheduled maintenance planning, and base location and fleet allocation. In the first part of the thesis, we study tactical planning for scheduled maintenance which determines the daily maintenance capacities for two operating conditions: a growth phase and the steady state. We model tactical maintenance capacity planning during the growth phase as an integer program and develop an optimization-based local search to solve the problem. Tactical planning of steady state maintenance capacity concerns a special case for which we determine the optimal and the long run capacities with a pseudo-polynomial time algorithm. In the second part of the thesis, we address operational planning for scheduled maintenance which is concerned with assigning itineraries to jets and determining the specific jets to be scheduled for maintenance on a daily basis given a certain maintenance capacity. We present a solution methodology that employs a look-ahead approach to consider the impact of our current decisions on the future and decomposes the problem exploiting the differences between jets with respect to the proximity to their next maintenance. We further develop an integrated framework in order to capture the interaction between operational level maintenance decisions and flight scheduling. In the third and final part of the thesis, we present the tactical level base location and fleet allocation problem. As PSOD air transportation experiences changes in travel demand and fleet size, decisions regarding where to open new bases and how to allocate the number of jets among the bases are made. We first present a solution approach in which high level information about flight scheduling is used in a traditional facility location problem. We next develop a model that works directly with transportation requests and integrates a simplified version of flight scheduling with the base location and fleet allocation decisions in order to capture more detail.

This study attempted to establish the travel behaviours and choice criteria of the South African domestic air passenger and how they differed between low-cost carriers (LCCs) and full-service carriers (FSCs). The study was quantitative and used structured questionnaires to collect data via personal interviews. Descriptive and inferential techniques were used to analyse the data, including a binomial logistic regression to identify predictors of model choice. Analysis This study attempted to establish the travel behaviours and choice criteria of the South African domestic air passenger and how they differed between low-cost carriers (LCCs) and full-service carriers (FSCs). The study was quantitative and used structured questionnaires to collect data via personal interviews. Descriptive and inferential techniques were used to analyse the data, including a binomial logistic regression to identify predictors of model choice. Analysis showed that passengers had a limited understanding of the functioning of the models. This results in consumer perceptions and expectations being discordant with the true differences. In distinguishing between models, LCC passengers rate LCCs more favourably than FSC passengers, but both rate FSCs higher than LCCs. This shows the need of consumers to have the features and services of the FSCs. Amongst the key findings was the absolute importance of price to the passengers on both models when purchasing the ticket. The analysis showed that LCC passengers are highly price sensitive and show loyalty to the lowest price (not airline model). It was apparent that frequent flyer programmes (FFP), or linkages to 3rd party loyalty programmes, for LCCs need to be reconsidered. Younger LCC passengers especially, indicated a need for a simple FFP to receive some form of ‘reward’, as well as benefits traditionally only offered by FSCs. FSC passengers show a greater degree of loyalty and less fare sensitivity. This provides the FSCs with a degree of fare flexibility and the opportunity to move their loyal, less price-sensitive consumers up the price curve to maximise revenue. It was shown that, in distinguishing themselves from FSCs, it is important that LCCs are perceived as being more affordable than FSCs and are offering a value-for-money service. In essence, LCCs have to defend their positioning by (i) ensuring that their fares are not perceived to be as high as a FSCs and (ii) watching that the FSC fares are not declining to a level where FSCs are perceived as being as cheap as a LCC. For LCCs, brand building strategies around issues other than fare need to be devised, with attention paid to identifying determinant factors. / Business Management / D. Com (Business Management)

Organizations specifically the airlines industry are increasingly facing the challenges of operational efficiency measurement. During the last years enormous attention has been given to the assessment and improvement of the performance of productive systems. However, literatures show that there are limitations of the existing models to measure efficiency uniformly and exhaustively across the airlines. The problems are due to lack of the technical efficiency measuring model which unifies and integrates different measuring models into a single model.Therefore, this thesis investigates assessment of the operational performance of world major airlines by employing integrated comparative models to address the above problems. In this study, technical efficiency is addressed among many performance issues by using three types of modes of performance measurement: a non parametric one, represented by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and; a parametric one, represented by Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and the Balance Scorecard (BSC) which is a strategic management tools. Unlike most of the previous studies, this study integrates the BSC concepts into DEA and SFA model. To evaluate technical efficiency of major international airlines, the study use panel of unbalanced data for the year 2007-2014 to make integrated comparative analysis. The research project incorporates seven leading variables and four lagging variables taken from BSC concept to implement into the DEA and SFA. All the three models of performance measurements have their own strength and limitation if they are used alone. But if the three models are integrated and combined together, they would yield better comparative and quality of efficiency assessment. Therefore, the study primarily developed a model beginning from the theoretical framework assumption into building of a unified comparative model of integrated comparative operational efficiency assessment of airlines. The research design and methodology uses secondary data collection i.e. annual reports and business reports of airlines which are collected from the airlines own website. The huge amount of financial and operational data cannot be collected by using primary data collection method as it would make it practically impossible and expensive. So by employing secondary data collection method saves time, money and a panel data can be accessed and generated easily. Hence, from 100 world major airlines population which are ranked by revenue, simple random sampling is used to select 80 samples airlines for this study. First, the BSC identifies the input and output variables. Next, the DEA model ranks the efficiency measurement, identifies the slack variables and benchmarks the airlines. Third, the SFA model identifies technical efficiency, the random error and technical inefficiency. Finally, the technical efficiency estimates obtained from the two techniques are analyzed comparatively. The research makes further analysis of particular case of the Ethiopian Airlines in relation to the most efficient and inefficient airlines and in comparison of the regional analysis. After extensive tests have been conducted, ‘Balanced Frontier Envelopment’ model is developed. According to this model, it is a paramount to measure efficiency with combining the strength of three models together and gives better results than the previous one or two combined models. The developed and integrated strategic model enhances measuring of the operating technical efficiency of airlines. This model benefit the airlines industry in many ways such as minimizing the cost and maximizing profit through managing technical efficiency which lead into the success of the airlines. From the model perspective, therefore, result of DEA model is much higher than the result of SFA model. DEA model is easier to manipulate than the SFA model because the former does not need the functional form while the later requires a functional form. Furthermore, according to the efficiency finding of the study, first, the European regional airlines are relatively more efficient than the rest of regions in the world. Second, the North America regional airlines are the second more efficient regional airlines in the world. Third, the Ethiopian airlines are the most efficient in Africa when we compare among Egyptair, Kenyan Airways and South African Airways. Fourth, high revenue does not necessarily leads to the technical efficiency of the firm. / Business Management / D.B.L. (Business Leadership)