The development of a linear programming model to allocate runway capacity at Washington National Airport.

The slot allocation model discussed in this report is formulated as a linear programming model and tailored to operations at Washington National Airport. The model is designed to accept as input the slate of slot requests presented to the Airline Scheduling Committee for the airport. The model allocates slots among users by maximizing industry profits (the sum of profits for all airlines operating at the airport) subject to constraints on runway capacity, equity, public service and noise pollution. Two versions of the model were formulated and tested. The first leads to an allocation of slots by airline, by hour of the day, but gives no information on markets served. Some representation of markets served is desirable, particularly to judge the impact of allocation on short- versus long-haul service. A second version of the model was, therefore, formulated which leads to a daily allocation by airline and by market (short-, medium-, and long-haul), but not by hour or the day. Hourly allocations can be obtained by using the daily allocations generated by the second version of the model as a constraint in the first or hourly version. Both existing and proposed operating regulations for the airport were examined and alternative objective functions (maximizing passengers carried and maximizing passenger-miles generated) were tested. (Author).

Over the past several decades, commercial air traffic has been growing at a far greater rate than airport capacity, causing airports to become increasingly congested. How can we accommodate this increased traffic and at the same time alleviate traffic delays resulting from congestion? The response outside the US has been to set a maximum number of slots and use administrative procedures to allocate these among competing airlines, with the most important consideration being 'grandfather rights' to existing carriers. The United States, on the other hand, has used administrative procedures to allocate slots at only four airports. In all other cases, flights have been handled on a first-come, first-served basis, with aircraft queuing for the privilege of landing or taking off from a congested airport. While recognizing the advantages of slot systems in lessening delays, economists have criticized both approaches as being sub-optimal, and have advocated procedures such as slot auctions, peak-load pricing and slot trading to better utilize congested airports. Edited by an international team of air transport economists and drawing on an impressive list of contributors, Airport Slots provides an extremely comprehensive treatment of the subject. It considers the methods currently used to allocate slots and applies economic analysis to each. The book then explains various schemes to increase public welfare by taxing or pricing congestion, and describes alternate slot-allocation schemes, most notably slot auctions. In addition, Airport Slots outlines the complexities involved in slot-allocation methods, including the requirement for multiple slots - a take-off slot at London Heathrow is useless unless there is a landing slot available at Frankfurt for a London Frankfurt flight. Finally, the book explores the economic pitfalls of slot-allocation schemes; for example, controls may not be required if external delay costs are internalized by a dominant carrier at its hub. Airport Slots provides a valuable contribution to the debate on how best to limit airport congestion. The book's comprehensive treatment of the subject matter provides the reader with a 'one-stop' volume to explore airport congestion and slot-allocation schemes, offering valuable insights to academics and practitioners alike.

Over the past several decades, commercial air traffic has been growing at a far greater rate than airport capacity, causing airports to become increasingly congested. How can we accommodate this increased traffic and at the same time alleviate traffic delays resulting from congestion?Airport Slots provides a valuable contribution to the debate on how best to limit airport congestion. The book's comprehensive treatment of the subject matter provides the reader with a 'one-stop' volume to explore airport congestion and slot-allocation schemes, offering valuable insights to academics and practitioners alike.