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Payload Controlled Availability (PCA) is a new module added to PerformOps suite of products. The module guarantees the maximum quantity of seats to be available for sales on every flight, within the Restricted Take-Off Weight (RTOW) limits of the operating aircraft.
Each route per aircraft type is configured by the operator, to reflect a pre-calculated Available Payload for every date and time in a year. The PCA module will then ‘look up’ the relevant payload determined by the date, time, route and aircraft type of the flight, and will re-calculate the availability (quantity of seats) for sales, remaining within the Payload captured.
Average baggage weight per passenger per route is configured, to allow for accurate calculations of the expected payload during the entire sales cycle.
Furthermore, PCA will re-calculate and re-adjust the availability after every seat is booked (or released back into stock for sales), applying the regulated weight values per Male/Female/Child quantities on the flight.
This means that the predicament of having to ‘bump’ baggage and/or passengers due to exceeding aircraft weight limitations is something of the past.
Most significantly, this ensures maximum availability, and maximum potential revenue per flight, as the actual ratio of the Male/Female/Child and the corresponding weights are calculated and applied to the Available Payload Configured.
In the true nature of PerformOps, again, we give you the competitive edge
Mobule Detail
Objectives
To enable the maximum quantity of seats to be sold on every individual flight, considering the available payload and combination of male/female/child/infant quantities of the particular flight.
Relevant Factors
Payloads
Aircraft performance is heavily dependent on environmental conditions such as
Density Altitude
(elevation, pressure & temperature), wind, wet/dry runway surface etc.
The airport data has an impact just as significant, with parameters such as runway length, stop-way, clearway, gradient, obstacles etc being prominent.
Usable Payload per flight is a function of flight/route data (total fuel, catering etc), and all the above.
Aircraft manufacturers provide performance tables/software (per aircraft type) for calculating an accurate Restricted Takeoff Weight (RTOW) for every flight, which considers all relevant factors.
Payload can therefore be calculated for every Route/Aircraft combination that the airline operates, with only the environmental conditions being variables in the calculations.
It is imperative to be absolutely sure what unit of measure is being used for Passengers, Cargo and Payload. It is not practicable to design this module requiring the same unit of measure throughout. PerformOps allows for modules doing unit conversions, but care must be taken to ensure that PerformOps and the related data is configured and captured in the correct units.
Environmental Conditions
At a given airport, the most prominent of the environmental conditions that influence the usable payload are temperature and wind (direction and speed).
The season (date) and time of day are the macro drivers that will enable fairly accurate prediction of temperature and wind.
Age-group/Gender
Regulating Authorities prescribe Standard Weights for Male/Female Adults, Children and Infants that must be used when calculating aircraft payload weights.
These Weights are set per aircraft type and category of operation.
We can not predict the Age-group & Gender ratios per flight, but we can calculate the resultant available payload after every passenger has been booked.
Baggage Weight
The total weight of all passengers on a flight, the total of all baggage and cargo has to ‘fit’ in the available payload per flight.
Airlines usually have statistics of average baggage weights per route, and have set Maximum allowances for baggage.
Cabin Capacity
Every cabin per aircraft type has a limited number of seats. Regardless of payload availability, passengers booked (excluding infants) must never exceed the capacity of the cabin.
Flight Profiles
Flight Profiles determine the quantity of seats per fare class. The objective of this module is to adjust seat quantity availability, depending on available Payload (weight). This will create the situation where cabin capacity may be X, but Payload Controlled Availability (PCA) could be substantially less. The raises the question, what fare class must be sacrificed, or how must the new ‘capacity’ be proportioned?
PerformOps calculates and recalculates the quantity of seats per fare class according to the capacity of the relevant cabin, as configured per aircraft type. When PCA is enabled,
Solution Scope
High Level Functionality
Payloads
The Payload Controlled Availability module (PCA) incorporates ‘Setup Pages’ to allow ‘pre-configuring’ of Payload, as a single payload figure:
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Per Aircraft Type -> Unlimited Types
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Per Route -> Unlimited Routes
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Per Season -> One or More Season
·
Per ‘MonthPeriod’ -> One or More ‘MonthPeriod’
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Per ‘DayPeriod’ -> One or More ‘DayPeriod’
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Time of day -> One or More ‘TimeSegments’ to a minimum size of 1 min
We anticipate that not all routes for all aircraft types will require PCA, and it therefore includes an ‘on/off’ logic, when a Payload is configured for a date/time, it is applied, but in the absence of a payload, standard cabin capacity applies.
Age-group/Gender
PerformOps already allows for the configuration of Standard Weights for Male and Female Adults, Children and Infants.
We use these weights to dynamically update the available payload of a flight, as passengers are On- or Off Loaded (dynamically during the booking cycle).
Baggage Weight
PerformOps already allows for the configuration of Max Baggage allowed per passenger, per Route Group.
PCA implements a system parameter to configure ‘
Average Baggage
’ weight per passenger (different to ‘MAX per Pax’), which we will use to update the available payload as the passengers are on- or off-loaded.
Cabin Capacity
PerformOps already allows for cabin capacity configuration per aircraft type. PCA retains this the ‘Maximum’ capacity, regardless of payload availability.
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