Aircraft Fleet Planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Aircraft Fleet Planning - Essay Example Understanding the fundamentals of all these factors are essential to successfully managing the operations of an airline (The Global airline industry program, 2009). Tendency of fleet planning is becoming more market oriented as the airlines are placing more emphasis on the financial matter other than technical side of business. Aircraft acquisition planning is more challenging now than earlier with more new models on the market and countless pre-owned aircraft and refurbishment packages to choose from. So, airlines have mainly focused on following factors while implementing their fleet planning strategy. Costs: As like in other industries, in aviation also cost is a major factor towards a company’s success. The knowledge and control of the costs provided by the latest aircraft models, engines and fleet universality are the important aspects in the assessment of future fleet necessities. Along with fuel price hike airlines are also encountered with high input costs. Increasing manpower costs due to shortage of trained and skilled technical personnel exerts more burdens on aviation. Management has to provide high salaries and other benefits to employees to retain talented employees which cost more on them. The cost levels incurred by the airline will affect the ability to achieve profits from the operations and will determine the service level provided to customers, depending of the airline model. Officials have to take all these costs into account while planning their flight strategies. Price: Many airlines are applying low cost strategy in their fleet planning. Because, passengers preferred  low fares  than other facilities.  Low cost carriers  making available the air travel to people who were unable to travel by plane in the past. Pricing reflects the high levels of competition of the market. Demand: Demand is another factor where the strategy makers considered at the time of aircraft fleet planning. The demand by the customer regarding the ser vices provided and the fares offered would be the main aspect in ascertaining the appropriate fleet for a company. Capacity: Seating capacity  and its utilisation would also to be looked upon by the companies. The seats available for each route would be depending on the demand, frequently offered the type of aircraft to be deployed and specific characteristics of the routes. There are some regulatory issues which could reduce the capacity of an airline to operate on certain routes between two countries. These are implemented by respective countries in order to protect their national carriers or strategic routes. After evaluating all these factors, a reasonable profit earning fare would be fixed by the airline companies. They base their evaluation on a  cost benefit analysis  based on these factors when comparing the different available options for the fleet planning. At last, costs and revenues play their major role in deciding their strategy (Paul Clark, 2007). When adding mo re aircraft of the same The biggest revenue/cost saving of adding more aircraft of the same type is the compatibility and similarity. For example, The Boeing 777-200 is a long range jet airliner, and the world’s largest twinjet having a seating capacity of over 300 passengers. The Boeing 777 aircraft has