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Abstract:
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Delays in the United States air transportation industry are increasing every year, with correspondingly
increasing costs. Delays are particularly bad at hub airports, due to the extra
demand placed on these connecting points. This paper addresses one approach to help alleviate
this problem, that of shifting capacity from hub-and-spoke flights to nonstop flights.
In order to evaluate the effects of such a change, we analyze the market share and revenue
benefits of adding new nonstop flights to a market previously served only by connecting
service, and examine the actual cost of delays. The MIT Extensible Air Network Simulation,
developed in support of this work, is also presented. For a sample analysis for
Continental Airlines, it is found that over $550,000 per day in additional profit could be
obtained by reassigning flights away from the congested hubs. |
