AIRLINE PLANNING

PROCESS

6.1 FLEET PLANNING

6.1.1 Airline Fleet Planning Decisions
Commercial

Aircraft Categories and Characteristics

Technical

and Performance Characteristics

Financial

and Economic Issues

Other

Aircraft Selection Criteria

Commercial Aircraft Categories and

Characteristics

119 commercial large aircrafts, long haul from Boeing and

Airbus company;

41 commercial small aircrafts, short-haul Airbus A319LR and

A320-200 series;

16 cargo or freight aircrafts; 7 Airbus A330, 8 Boeing 777 and 1

Boeing 747 series and;

9 Qatar executive aircrafts from Bombardier and Gulfstream.

Other Aircraft Selection Criteria

Qatar

Airways is now planning to change their

Airbus A320neo because of:
Hydraulic

problems
Software problems
High temperatures

6.1.2 Fleet Planning Methods

Approaches in Fleet Planning method:
Forecast

aggregate passenger or freight

traffic.
Convert traffic forecast to a capacity
forecast based on load factor assumptions.

 Project

capacity available from the current

fleet.
Calculate

the additional requirements for

growth and replacement, considering the
fleet mix, airplane productivity and system
characteristics.

QATAR AIRWAYS FLEET PLAN:

It

aims at outlining a strategic retail plan with

regard to Qatar Airways a retail company with
continental presence in Asia. The strategic
retail plan would help the company in
forecasting on how to increase revenues,
profits and enjoy the economies of scale.

TOOLS TO USE:
SWOT

Analysis

oStrengths,

Weaknesses, Opportunities,
and Threats

PEST

Analysis

oPolitical,

Economic, Social, and

Technological

FLEET PLANNING
METHODS

TRAFFIC FORECAST

passenger

airline traffic can be measured

in terms of the number of passengers
transported.

revenue

passenger kilometer (rpk) is the

most common measure of airline traffic.
therefore, 1 rpk is defined as one paying
passenger transported 1 km.

Airbus A319-100LR flight carrying

110 passengers over a distance of
1000 km generates 110 000 rpk of
airline traffic.

Load factor
-defined as the number of passengers
divided by the number of seats of the flight.
Airbus A319-100LR flight = 110/150 = 73%
average load factor

Asm (available seat mile) / ASK requirement

-is

the most common measure of airline output .

1 ask is defined as one available seat flown 1
kilometer.
Airbus A319-100LR flight operates over a distance
of 1000 km with a 150-seat aircraft, generates 150
000 ask of airline output.

AIRPLANE

Airbus A319

# OF
DEPARTURES

DISTANCE

SEATS

3.6

1000

Airbus A320

3.9

1116

124

Airbus A321

4.0

957

146

156

INVESTMENT REQUIRED

The number of aircraft to be acquired has

nancial impacts in terms of investment funding,
depreciation and interest expenses. At the same
time, analysis of expected operating costs for
the aircraft type leads to a combined forecast of
operating costs and nancial impacts.

Approaches to Fleet Planning Evaluations

Top-Down(Macro) Approach
Planning Load Factor establishes ASKs
needed to accommodate forecast RPK
growth.
Capacity Gapdefined as required future
ASMs minus existing ASMs and planned
retirements

Assumptions about average aircraft

stage length and daily utilization
determine aircraft productivityin
ASMs per day, used to calculate number
of aircraft required
Estimates of aircraft operating costs
can then be used to compare economic
performance of different aircraft types.