GIS Application for Airline
Flight Scheduling
for presentation at TUGIS 2004
(March 22, 2004)
by
Rachana Bhatawdekar
(Univ. of Maryland, College Park)
and
Dr. Manoj K. Jha, P.E.
(Morgan State University)
Agenda
 Introduction
 Current Route Network Systems
 Proposed GIS based Route Network System
 Step by Step procedure
 Future Enhancements
 Questions and Comments
7/11/2017
2
Introduction
 This presentation is part of Rachana’s project presentation
for the ENPM808C course and also part of her internship
when she worked on a FAA project
 (due to a family emergency Rachana could not be here today)
 GIS is being used in many areas these days and airline
industry is one of them.
 This is the first of two presentations by us this afternoon. It
will focus on airline flight routing. The second presentation
will focus on airport planning and design.
7/11/2017
3
Introduction (Cont…)
 Airline flight scheduling is a complex Operations Research
(OR) problem, which has been extensively studied without
the aid of GIS.
 GIS’s spatial analysis capability allows us to develop
algorithms using real maps. In this presentation however,
we are not concerned with the OR part, rather we develop a
simple ArcGIS-based tool.
 The process of maintaining a flight route network is very
important to any airline.
 The presentation highlights an application that would be
useful for a lot of airlines in viewing the different routes in
which they operate.
7/11/2017
4
Introduction (Cont…)
 The Airline Route Network System aims on providing information to
users like travel agents, surfers of the web, or in general the customers of
the airline industries on a click of a button.
 The application provides information to airlines about what is the
different source and destination of a particular route, what is the
frequency, what kind of aircraft is used, what is the current status and
lot more by just selecting/clicking the route on the GIS map. (please
keep in mind that this application can be thought of as a piece of a
comprehensive airline flight scheduling system once all nuts and bolts
are integrated)
 At this time this work can be considered as an excellent tool which can
be used as a customer information system.
7/11/2017
5
Current Route Network
Systems
 Most airline website lack a route network system, all they
usually have is a flight booking option where you can select
your source and destination, day of flight etc.
7/11/2017
6
Current Route Network
Systems (Count…)
 Even if they have a route network system they are usually
dumb system. By dumb systems I mean they do not have
much information associated with them.
7/11/2017
7
Current Route Network
Systems (Count…)
 Further, most routing systems do not give you the option to
link your route to a particular document or a link on the
internet.
A good example of this
kind of a route network
is the route map of Quantas
Airline
7/11/2017
8
Proposed GIS based route
network system
 The GIS based route network system was developed using
ArcGis8.3
 This System displays the route networks of the following
airlines





7/11/2017
Austrian Air – Displays the entire network of the airline
Air India – Displays the flight network with code sharing
Hawaiian Air – Displays the flight network of a domestic airlines
Quantas – Displays flights over the Pacific
Virgin Atlantic – Displays flights between two countries
9
System Specifications
 The system shall use a GIS Map to display information.
 The system shall take into consideration the flight route of
all the major categories of airlines
 The system shall display the source, destination, time to
travel, frequency per day, frequency per week, and the link
to the reservation website
 The System shall link to the reservation website
 The system shall be portable over different system
 The system shall be secure
7/11/2017
10
Proposed GIS based route
network system (Cont…)
7/11/2017
11
Proposed GIS based route
network system (cont..)
 Austrian
Air
7/11/2017
12
Proposed GIS based route
network system (cont..)
 Air India
7/11/2017
13
Proposed GIS based route
network system (cont..)
 Hawaiian Air
7/11/2017
14
Proposed GIS based route
network system (cont..)
 Quantas
7/11/2017
15
Proposed GIS based route
network system (cont..)
 Virgin Atlantic
7/11/2017
16
Step by Step procedure
 Steps Involved










Identify categories of airlines
Select the airlines for which data were to be collected
Identify the fields of the shape file (i.e., the information to be
displayed)
Collect data for the different airlines
Create shape files for the different airlines
Add data to the shape files.
Add the map of the world in the ArcMap document
Identify USA and color code the map of the world
Add the cities of the world in the ArcMap document
Color code the cities
7/11/2017
17
Step by Step procedure
 Steps involved (cont)








7/11/2017
Add the shape files of Austrian Air, Air India, Hawaiian Air,
Quantas, and Virgin Atlantic to the ArcMap document.
Color code the different routes
Open the property pallet of the shape files added above to set the
hyperlink field.
Chang the path setting to take relative paths, so as to make this
portable
Set the view of the map to the layout view
Add the area locator, legend, and the north arrow
In the publisher properties set the added options for password
protection.
Publish the ArcMap document to a PMF format so as to view it
using ArcReader.
18
Future Enhancements
 Automatic Status display
 Link to a dynamic database in order to get
information on the flight
 Integrate it with a flight reservation system
 Incorporate all the airlines
 Pricing Information
 Seats available
 Integrate with an airline flight schedule model
7/11/2017
19
A Potential Real-World Project
 A Model to be developed for a new Charter
Operation by Ghana Airways from BWI to
Lagos, Nigeria. The charter operation is to
expected to start from June 2004.
7/11/2017
20
Questions and Comments
7/11/2017
21