Session 9 – Air Transport

Olja Čokorilo – Urban Air Mobility: Safety Challenges / Aviation industry has increased its potential in the last 100 years. From the first steps whereas aviation 1.0 can be defined as the period between the first powered flight (1903) and the advent of the first commercial airliner that was operated on a scheduled international route, the Airco DH.16 (1919) between London and Paris, humanity has faced with the (r)evolution which goes by the many names of flying cars, air taxis, personal air vehicles (PAVs), electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOLs) vehicles, and finally, Urban Air Mobility. Therefore, the concept of safety and its evolution has been changed for many times. Those changes are influenced by different approaches which roughly align with eras of activities in the aviation science and practice. Main approaches, by the time of occurrence, are: technical era (from early 1900s until late 1960s), human factors era (from early 1970s), organizational era (from mid 1990s) and total system era (from the beginning of the 21st century). Compounding evolution of technology and development in aviation industry and safety treats and aspects, this paper provides overall analysis of creating dominant safety management principles in aviation industry. Moreover, paper considers aircraft accidents caused by flight crew errors since it could be the main problem in urban air mobility safety issues. The final part is dedicated to the States role in performing aviation safety and challenges they are faced with. The purpose of the paper is to show the impact of a flight crew error on safety in aircraft operations since it could be of high importance when involving new technology trends such as Urban Air Mobility. The new technology era in aviation will open many safety issues which have to be understand and implement by new safety goals and safety management principles. For the end, one of the interesting points was that drones at first was just a toy and now is one of the most dangers objects that provoke the air accidents.

Mario De Luca – Evaluation of Runway Bearing Capacity using International Roughness Index / In the airport field, to improve the APMS (Airport Pavement Management System), it may be advantageous, in economic terms, to evaluate “Bearing Capacity” using the International Roughness Index (IRI).
This paper explore the relationship between the bearing capacity (dynamic modulus – HWD) and the IRI; the study was conducted on the Lamezia Terme Airport (IATA: SUF, ICAO: LICA), located near Lamezia Terme in the Calabria region in southern Italy.
Bearing Capacity data (from 2010 to 2014), detected   Through H.W.D. (Dynatest 8000) and data on surface features (in terms of IRI) detected through Laser Profilometer, for the same period, were acquired for the goals of this study.
The data were processed using a series of statistical procedures; in particular two models were obtained: Model 1 was obtained by MultiVariate Analysis (MVA) and the Model 2 was obtained using the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique. Comparing the two models, it emerged that Model 2 is better than Model 1 because the total sum of the residual is lower.
In summary, through these two models, knowing simply the IRI, it is possible to indirectly evaluate the “bearing capacity” in any points of runway.

Maria Grazia Bellizzi, Laura Eboli and Gabriella Mazzulla – Air Transport Service Quality Factors: a Systematic Literature Review / The socioeconomic development of a country necessarily relyies on the improvement of all transport services. With the introduction of new technologies, transport industry has developed considerably in recent years, and as a consequence people habits and travel choices changed. In this context, air transport has a significant role.
Evaluating air transport service quality is important as it is for the other public transport systems. Travellers would be certainly more attracted by more modern airport infrastructures, and by more comfortable and safer airlines. The multicultural nature of air transport industry and the variety of the services offered in the airports (services on the land side) and in flight (services on the air side) make complex the assessment of quality and passenger’s satisfaction.
While literature regarding the evaluation of road and rail public transport service quality is well established, literature concerning air transport service quality is not very substantial. Just recently, a growing number of researchers have been analysing air transport services by distinguishing the factors concerning the services offered in the airports from the ones provided by the airlines. However, there is still no consensus on the selection of the factors. In this work, we want to propose a systematic literature review of the most relevant papers dealing with air transport service quality. Specifically, we provide a summary of the factors used for describing services offered on the land and the air side as well. The main selection criteria of the papers concern: the year of publication, which has to fall within the last decade (2008-2018); the journal, which has to be highly qualified; the keywords.
A such review would be a useful instrument to select the air transport service quality factors that have to be evaluated by the passengers, with the final aim to identify possible critical service aspects.

Angela Stefania Bergantino, Mario Intini and Nicola Volta – The spatial dimension of competition among airports at worldwide level: a spatial stochastic frontier analysis / In the last decade, academic literature posed a great focus on the estimation of airport efficiency and productivity. One of the main interests has been the analysis of potential impact of airport competition on cost and technical efficiency. The novelty of our research lies in applying a spatial approach which allows for the inclusion of a distance matrix for the estimation of the impact of competition on efficiencies. In this work we follow the approach implemented by Fusco and Vidoli (2013). Spatial dependence is incorporated in technical efficiency analysis by using an autoregressive specification of the inefficiency. By analysing statistical differences between a traditional and a spatial model, it is possible to identify possible competition effects. In this study, we analyse 206 airports for the year 2015 located in Europe, North America, and Pacific Asia sourced from the ATRS database. Given the scope of our analysis, we included different cut-off distances in estimating the stochastic frontier. We define the cut-off distances of 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 and 350 km. Our results show the existence of a spatial component which is not captured by the traditional stochastic frontier analysis. We find that competition has an effect on the efficiency level of an airport, and moreover, these effects can be positive or negative depending on the distance considered in the spatial model. Specifically, comparing SFA and SSFA model, splitting the analysis among airports with and without competitors, we found a positive mean efficiency difference until 250 km distance and a negative one starting from 300 km. Overall, we can confirm that the spatial stochastic frontier analysis (SSFA) is a valid instrument to estimate the levels of efficiency also in a worldwide context as we proved, that the competition dynamics are strongly dependent on the spatial distance among airports, thus requiring a detailed analysis to understand its implications on efficiency and on regulatory and competition policies. Furthermore, policy makers when deciding on promoting the development of specific airports should consider the spillover effect on the neighbouring ones, considering the different patterns of competition.

Zvonimir Rezo and Sanja Steiner – South East Common Sky Initiative Free Route Airspace – implementation aftermath / In a short period since South-East Axis Free Route Airspace (SEAFRA) and Slovenian Austrian Cross-border Free Route Airspace (SAXFRA) were established, during 2018 two Free Route Airspace (FRA) areas operationally merged into South East Common Sky Initiative Free Route Airspace (SECSI FRA). Nowadays, SECSI FRA represents a joint venture with the aim of shaping sustainable future European Air Traffic Management (ATM) development. It is a good example of regional cooperation, which includes stakeholders from six adjacent states and four Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs). Also, successful SECSI FRA implementation led to the creation of one of the largest international free route airspace area what represent a major step towards achieving a 2022 plan for a common FRA across whole Europe. The quantitative research aims to assess the SEAFRA, SAXFRA and SECSI FRA deployment effects and the resulting impacts on the whole European ATM network. Hypothetical question is in what extent the FRA has had an impact on the regional performances in air traffic flows management, including terms of safety too. Through with applicable simulations and analysis of performance indicators in European airspace, an impact review addressing safety aspect of a FRA deployment at South-East Axis has been provided. Within a comprehensive analysis, FRA deployment impacts at South-East Axis have been analyzed, compared with other European network’s performances and presented throughout this research paper.

Dariusz Tłoczyński and Katarzyna Hebel – Accessibility of Polish regional airports for potential passengers as a result of the development of airport links / Over the last decade there have been major changes on the Polish market of air transport services. They are mainly caused by the dynamic development of air traffic, including the result of free movement of EU citizens within the whole EU. Poles benefit from this privilege from May 1st, 2004. During this period international connections ceased to be the domain of Chopin Airport in Warsaw and the development of regional airports has been developed, which currently offer an attractive network of domestic and international flights.

The development of Polish regional airports is also connected with increasing their accessibility to passengers. The synergy effect is noticeable in this respect, as the increase in demand for air transport services contributes to increasing the accessibility of airports, which in turn leads to the development of landside areas and as a consequence further development of the feed-shuttle system to and around airports.

Based on the presented problem, the aim of the article is to analyse the time and cost accessibility of Polish regional airports from the point of view of passengers. As a result of original, author’s, primary research regarding the way of travelling, taking into account the structure of travellers and the analysis of changes in the supply of the feed-shuttle system, there was a relationship between the demand and supply of air transport services and the development of the airport links system. In addition, guidelines for proper cooperation between regional airports in Poland and public transport operators were formulated.

Paolo Ventura, Michele Zazzi, Silvia Rossetti and Carra Martina – Urban Development and Airports in Northern and Central Italy: Main Trends and a Focus on Parma Giuseppe Verdi Case Study / The proposed contribution aims at highlighting some regional development and territorial planning issues related to the air transport system in Italy, with a focus on the case study of “Giuseppe Verdi” airport in Parma. The paper analyses the constraints of Giuseppe Verdi airport site in relation to the urban development of Parma, and also its competition (and the possible synergies) with the nearest airports (Bologna, Milan Linate, Verona and Pisa).
In 2014 there has been a significant increase in air passengers in Northern Italy, with a sharp growth in International and European traffic. Malpensa airport has the second place in traffic volumes in Italy with 18,85 millions passengers, followed by Linate and Bergamo respectively with 9,03 and 8,77. Fifth place is taken by Venice Marco Polo and then Bologna. Torino retains a positive trend with 2,4 millions passengers and also Genova which recorded a +12% over the previous year but Parma airport, despite being built in late nineteenth century, has one of the lowest traffic in Italy and suffers an important financial crisis and strong crisis of Alitalia because of low-cost companies. Parma airport since 2009 had strong downhill with a numbers of passengers from 285.000 in 2009 to just 75.253 in 2018, evidently no coordination with region system.

The case study can therefore be useful to analyse the dynamics of many so-called “service” airports, questioning their possible development and the necessary integration at the National and International level, justified by the presence of key managerial, commercial, industrial and also tourist centers.
Furthermore the case study of Parma is useful to single out conflicts and incoherencies between Airport Planning and Urban Planning, which are unlikely usual in current competitive and bottom-up planning system, and to draft possible improvements or some business plan for cargo air mobility of for example like Aeroporto di Beauvais Tillè .

CHAIRMAN: Olja Cokorilo