Analysis of Depeaking Effects for Zurich Airports Ground Handler

Most large airlines today operate using a hub and s poke strategy and have one or several hubs. The hub carrier’s flight schedule is highly optimized at it s hub airports. This means that flight arrivals and departures are coordinated such that most connectio ns have short transfer times. The result is a high number of flight arrivals and departures during the peak periods but only a few movements in the off- peak periods. This imbalance means that infrastruct ure and personnel are used inefficiently. De-peakin g, which consists of spreading flights more evenly thr oughout the day to smooth or remove the peaks and valleys in aircraft movements, allows airlines and ground handlers to use their resources more efficie ntly. It could also help reduce energy consumption by red ucing the amount of time aircraft spend running the ir engines on the ground and circling airports due to congestion on the ground. De-peaking has been successfully applied at major airline hubs. In thes e cases the motivation for de-peaking was based on capacity constraints. The goal of this research was to evaluate the cost savings potential of de-peaking for a ground handle r. The research evaluated several de-peaking scenarios using data from the Zurich Airport. The paper describes the research study and its results in ter ms of cost impacts for the main hub carrier. The re search shows that de-peaking mainly results in a reduction of extreme workload peaks enabling staff and equipment to be used more efficiently and thereby r educing costs. The results for Zurich Airport show that with a minimal amount of schedule adjustment d e-peaking can reduce the ground handler’s equipment and personnel costs by about 8 percent. U nder the maximum schedule adjustment scenario, de-peaking could reduce costs by up to 20 percent. The research can be extended to include additional peak-oriented costs such as airline company costs a nd costs of energy as well as revenue impacts of reduced flight connectivity.