• Category: Aviation management

    Researcher: Peter Ayerakwa

    Supervisor: Professor Gabriel Lodewijks

    Level: PhD 

    Status: Current

  • The fundamental units for the measurement of the level of service (LOS) at airport terminals are per passenger space and waiting time. The IATA framework measures passenger density and waiting time separately, which could lead to conflicting measurements when passenger density and waiting time indicates different LOS levels. 

    This thesis is therefore aimed to develop a combined spatial and temporal LOS (ST-LOS) framework to guide terminal planning. 

    The first stage 

    In the first stage of this thesis, a passenger survey was conducted, which involved the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT), a questionnaire, an experiment and a semi-structured interview. Results showed that two-thirds of the participants perceived a decreased service quality associated with crowdedness at airports, and 85 per cent of the RGT constructs indicated dissatisfaction regarding space.  

    47 per cent of the senior Australian participants previously complained about inter-person-spacing (IPS) at airports, while none of the senior Korean participants did so. The young Australian participants were tolerant of smaller personal space, 15cm smaller IPS on average, compared to the senior Australian participants.  

    These findings revealed a moderating role of age and cultural background in the personal space demand of passengers and suggested the necessity of an alternative LOS standard that incorporates the concept of perceived personal space as a spatial LOS attribute.  

    The second stage 

    In the second stage, computer simulation was used to test the proposed ST-LOS framework under different terminal and passenger settings. The ST-LOS was built by combining the temporal and spatial measurements and aimed to allow at least 50 per cent of passengers to experience the optimum LOS.  

    In the base simulation, 65 per cent of passengers experienced the optimum LOS according to the ST-LOS. However, only 22 per cent of passengers experienced the optimum LOS defined by the current IATA standard. To meet the IATA standard, the check-in queue width had to be reduced from 1.5m to 1.2m that differed from the recommended queue width (1.4m-1.6m) by IATA.  

    A case study based on Sydney International Airport illustrated the application of the ST-LOS framework for LOS measurement. The case study revealed that our ST-LOS framework better represents the LOS that passengers will experience, and that incorporating personal space demand of passengers will improve the LOS standard.

    Category: Aviation management 

    Researcher: Dr Tae Hyun (Danny) Kim 

    Supervisor: Dr Cheng-Lung (Richard) Wu 

    Level: PhD 

    Status: Completed 

  • An increased use of automation within the air traffic management environment is seen to be one possible enabler for a significant capacity increase of the air traffic management system.  

    However, often automated tools and systems are rejected by the air traffic controller's unwillingness to cooperate with it. This research defines the threshold along the automation dimensions ‘decision selection’ and ‘action implementation’, where the support of the operators tips into skepticism and refusal to collaborate with it. 

    Category: Aviation management 

    Researcher: Marek Bekier 

    Supervisor: Dr Brett Molesworth 

    Level: PhD 

    Status: Completed 

  • This research seeks to investigate the relationship of airline service quality with price, service value, airline image, passenger satisfaction and passengers' behavioural intentions.  

    By acquiring data from both Korean and Australian passengers, the purpose of this research is to study and to understand choice behaviour of airline passengers. To test the conceptual framework, path analysis technique via structural equation modeling is applied to data collected from airline passengers. 

    Category: Aviation management 

    Researcher: Jin Wu Park 

    Supervisor: Dr Cheng-Lung (Richard) Wu 

    Level: PhD 

    Status: Completed 

  • Since 1990, aviation mishaps have cost the Australian Defence Force (ADF) the loss of over 44 highly trained personnel and 23 aircraft, and a financial loss of several hundred million dollars. In contrast, Australian Regular Passenger Transport (RPT) operations have incurred no fatalities or aircraft losses. 

    Whilst at first glance one may suspect the hazards of combat have influenced the significant losses within ADF aviation, Boyd's research shows that none of the losses have occurred whilst operating in military campaigns. Equally significant is the finding that only one ADF aviation mishap occurred outside Australian territories. 

    Boyd's research provides a new analysis of data collected from approximately 1,000 ADF aviation professionals by an ADF survey based on the Flight Management Attitude Questionnaire developed by the University of Texas Crew Research Project. 

    A key innovation of Boyd's research is that, unlike previous research that merely compares culture and aviation safety between countries, his thesis examines the differences within the ADF organisation via a methodology based on military-specific categories of personnel groups or sub-cultures. 

    Boyd's research highlights the significant impact of military rank upon attitudes towards flight management: a finding with safety benefits through human performance in both military and commercial aviation in Australia.

    Category: Aviation Management

    Researcher: Dr Boyd Falconer

    Supervisor: Dr Steve Shorrock

    Level: PhD 

    Status: Completed

  • Airline scheduling is a complex process. The conventional way of scheduling is to use outputs from one stage as inputs of a following stage from fleet assignment, aircraft routing, crew pairing, then crew rostering. 

    A major challenge in this conventional scheduling practice is the measurement of the operational performance of a schedule plan. Without detailed costing and simulation, current practices in the industry are commonly to benchmark the performance (eg. on-time performance) against an arbitrarily chosen target. Thus, this project is to improve upon this industry practice and improve how airlines benchmark schedules and actual performance.

    Category: Aviation Management

    Researcher: N/A   

    Supervisor: Dr Cheng-Lung (Richard) Wu

    Level: PhD, MSc

    Status: Future

  • Airport retail is the single largest source (32.9 per cent) of airports’ non-aeronautical revenue. Its average compound annual growth rate (CAGR) rate of 7.2 per cent over the last five years has continuously reminded people about its sheer importance to airports’ financial sustainability and stability. 

    It’s even more significant given that an airport’s aeronautical revenue stream is under surging pressure due to airlines’ intense competition to reduce operating costs such as landing fees. Despite the importance of airport retailing to the sustainability of the airport industry, there is a lack of focused academic research on how airport terminals could be optimised to maximise retail revenue. 

    This study will explore how future airport terminals can be better designed to maximise airport retail opportunities using an agent-based simulation approach. The result of this project will lead to a much-needed discussion on the efficiency of the existing airport terminal design practise. It will also bring a better understanding of the airport terminal design, thus, contributing to the future improvement of airport terminal design guidelines from an airport retail perspective.

    Category: Aviation Management

    Researcher: Yimeng Chen

    Supervisor: Dr Cheng-Lung (Richard) Wu

    Level: PhD 

    Status: Completed

  • To provide a reduction in aviation emissions whilst still allowing for growth, it is likely that a variety of economic, operational and technological mitigation will be required. 

    This research will utilise aircraft lifecycle cost models and the Driving, Pressures, State, Impact, Responses (DPSIR) framework to provide an analysis of commercial aircraft configurations. Correlations between airframe, engine and emissions will be identified and compared with operational costs, providing aircraft manufacturers, airlines and aircraft financiers with an enhanced understanding of the operational and climate implications of their aircraft configuration decisions.

    Category: Aviation Management

    Researcher: Roger Millar

    Supervisor: Dr Ian Douglas

    Level: PhD

    Status: Current

  • Airports as modes of air transport are influenced by other modes of transport and this research intends to identify these correlations by responding to issues such as:  

    • what other modes of transport in the vicinity of an airport affect the demand of an airport 
    • how other airports in the network influence the demand for an airport in that network 
    • how a network model (hub and spoke, point to point or hybrid) affects the overall performance of the network  
    • how people respond to different network models.

    Category: Aviation Management 

    Researcher: Pedram Keshavarzian 

    Supervisor: Dr Cheng-Lung (Richard) Wu 

    Level: PhD 

    Status: Completed 

  • This research examines the feasibility of LTAA for freight operations within Australia. LTAA as a new mode of freight transportation is viewed as having significant potential to assist the freight industry in meeting the growing freight task in Australia, which is predicted to double by around 2030.

    LTAA has the potential to increase the efficiency of the freight network, with its increased speed and carrying capacity, and its ability to provide innovative solutions to existing freight tasks. This research aims to assess how LTAA would be viewed by the industry and if it will be a viable form of freight transportation in general and for specific freight types, eg. Out of Gauge.

    Category: Aviation management

    Researcher: Craig Neal

    Supervisor: Dr Tay Koo

    Level: MSc 

    Status: Completed