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 thesis charts the increasing volume and changing nature of tourism in Europe. It was allowed by the liberalization of air travel market (the emergence of Low-Cost Carriers), and by the emergence of sharing economy (Airbnb). Followed by these changes a new segment of tourists, who were described as independent travelers, emerged. The thesis focuses on the interaction of those three factors and their effect on urban space - thus on its socio- geographic, socio-economic and socio-cultural fabric. Because of Low-Cost Carriers, tourists and travelers are concentrated in several European cities - those which were able to accommodate its environment for these airlines. In the cities, tourism spread from the concentric zones of the city center to the zones of the inner city, where a new tourist industry was adjusted for independent travelers. This touristification deepens the process of gentrification and spatial inequalities. Because of Airbnb, the limited hotel supply in the city center was surpassed, and the accommodation sector was integrated into residential fabric of the inner city. Those touristified spaces of the city become socio-culturally heterogenic. However, with increasing costs of living in the inner city, this space is more and more socio- economically homogenous. Consequently,...

Целью исследования является совершенствование инструментария повышения эффективности деятельности авиакомпаний в сфере региональных воздушных перевозок. Предложен методический подход к повышению эффективности региональных воздушных перевозок, элементами которого являются выработка стратегических решений по совершенствованию структуры парка воздушных судов, тактических решений по их распределению по маршрутам региональных перевозок, обоснование направлений совершенствования системы полетного сервиса и методическое обеспечение этих элементов. Предложенные автором рекомендации позволяют повысить эффективность деятельности авиакомпаний в сфере региональных воздушных перевозок. / The aim of the work is to improve the instruments of operational efficiency in the regional airlines. Methods to improving operational efficiency in the regional airlines consist of the development of strategic solutions to improve air fleet efficiency, tactical decisions of aircraft routing on regional air traffic, the rationale for the flight services improvement and methodological support of these elements. The author’s methods make it possible to improving operational efficiency in the regional airlines.

In studying organisational change in Air Seychelles, the context, content and process of change together with the interconnections of the airline and the tourism industry in Seychelles through time is explored. The literature review shows that the substantive issues of interest to this study, contextualism as a theory of methods in management research, requires a case based research in particular with regards to the following gaps in the literature: the integration of inner and outer perspectives on sustaining competitive advantage, and conceptual insights on how strategy links firms and their environment. The study adopted a contextual and processual framework to build a theoretical perspective of competitive advantage. The study contributes to the field of strategic management and tourism development in Seychelles in the following ways: firstly, the development of a contextual and processual framework to explain the transformation of firms over time; secondly, the development of an understanding of the historical context of the tourism industry and its interactions with other sectors of the Seychelles economy; thirdly, developing an understanding of how Air Seychelles developed its resources and capabilities to sustain competitive advantage; fourthly, linking change processes and action to performance and in a sense developing an understanding on strategy implementation of strategic management practice in Air Seychelles. The study sheds some light on strategy formation and implementation at the firm level, and the dynamics between the firm and the industry. The findings suggest that firms respond opportunistically to external discontinuities in a dynamic environment - the entrepreneurial leadership of a firm prepares and support managers to operate under conditions of great uncertainty and ambiguity and allows them to behave opportunistically. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / DBL / Thesis (D. B. L.)

The rapid expansion of the postwar commercial aviation industry in Canada was made possible, in part, by the thousands of wartime pilots who filled the ranks of the nation’s major airlines beginning in 1944. Through mentorship of subsequent generations of peacetime aviators, wartime pilots had lasting impacts on the Canadian commercial aviation industry during their time flying for companies such as Trans Canada Airlines (TCA). Following an examination of the agreements made between the Royal Canadian Air Force and TCA between 1944 and 1945 for the transfer of pilots between the two organizations, this thesis tracks the development of the professional culture of wartime RCAF aviators through an analysis of their training and subsequent operational flying during the war. It concludes that while there were numerous benefits for commercial aviation in Canada through this process, there were, likewise, a series of negative repercussions for the safety of the Canadian aviation industry.

In studying organisational change in Air Seychelles, the context, content and process of change together with the interconnections of the airline and the tourism industry in Seychelles through time is explored. The literature review shows that the substantive issues of interest to this study, contextualism as a theory of methods in management research, requires a case based research in particular with regards to the following gaps in the literature: the integration of inner and outer perspectives on sustaining competitive advantage, and conceptual insights on how strategy links firms and their environment. The study adopted a contextual and processual framework to build a theoretical perspective of competitive advantage. The study contributes to the field of strategic management and tourism development in Seychelles in the following ways: firstly, the development of a contextual and processual framework to explain the transformation of firms over time; secondly, the development of an understanding of the historical context of the tourism industry and its interactions with other sectors of the Seychelles economy; thirdly, developing an understanding of how Air Seychelles developed its resources and capabilities to sustain competitive advantage; fourthly, linking change processes and action to performance and in a sense developing an understanding on strategy implementation of strategic management practice in Air Seychelles. The study sheds some light on strategy formation and implementation at the firm level, and the dynamics between the firm and the industry. The findings suggest that firms respond opportunistically to external discontinuities in a dynamic environment - the entrepreneurial leadership of a firm prepares and support managers to operate under conditions of great uncertainty and ambiguity and allows them to behave opportunistically. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / DBL / Thesis (D. B. L.)

In the 1960s Czechoslovak Airlines (ČSA) set up offices in the countries to which they operated regular flights. ČSA branches abroad were to match high standards of other airlines premises. In those years travelling by air was still regarded a luxury. ČSA had to take these facts into consideration. The same group of architects, designers and artists who participated in the design of ČSA branch offices took also part in the outline of the new Prague Ruzyně international airport checking-in hall. This thesis aims to depict some former, now vanished, ČSA premises. In the 1990s ČSA closed down some offices abroad and the Prague Ruzyně international airport checking- in hall (now Terminal 1) was completely reconstructed. Press and other articles, archive documents, monographies as well as information provided directly by architects, designers and artists or their relatives were used in order to describe some previous ČSA publicly accessible premises and works of art that they included. On the basis of ascertained facts, it is obvious that in the 1960s ČSA offices abroad were not only to promote the good company reputation but further fulfilled a political role to create a positive picture of the Czechoslovak Republic. ČSA offices were designed by groups around Karel Filsak and Jan Šrámek. Their signatures can...