Fundamentals of Aviation Operations

Gert Meijer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367332402
• eBook ISBN: 9781000163957
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Technology & Engineering

This book provides a general introduction into aviation operations, covering all the relevant elements of this field and the interrelations between them.

Numerous books have been written about aviation, but most are written by and for specialists, and assume a profound understanding of the fundamentals. This textbook provides the basics for understanding these fundamentals. It explains how the commercial aviation sector is structured and how technological, economic and political forces define its development and the prosperity of its players. Aviation operations have become an important field of expertise. Airlines, airports and aviation suppliers, the players in aviation, need expertise on how aircraft can be profitably exploited by connecting airports with the aim of adding value to society. This book covers all relevant aspects of aviation operations, including contemporary challenges, like capacity constraints and sustainability.

This textbook delivers a fundamental understanding of the commercial aviation sector at a level ideal for first-year university students and can be a tool for lecturers in developing an aviation operations curriculum. It may also be of interest to people already employed within aviation, often specialists, seeking an accurate overview of all relevant fields of operations.

PART I

The aviation sector

This textbook aims to introduce readers to the fundamentals of aviation operations. But before we can turn to the operations of aviation, we need a basic understanding of what aviation is and how this sector is structured. We therefore start with introducing the structure of aviation, and explain how this sector is organized. We will see who the different parties are in aviation, and what the technological, legal and economic fundamentals of this sector are.

One can look at aviation from very different angles. Technicians may primarily see the technological aspects, whereas economists see the vast amounts of money involved. For communities, aviation is a sector that connects their community with the rest of the world. Consumers see aviation as a service industry providing transport to far-away destinations. Aviation is indeed all of this; it is a sector based on many fundamentals. It comprises a multitude of complex technologies; enormous amounts of capital; and, because of its need for safety and its international character, vast political involvement. And, above all, it is all done by humans. People design, produce and operate aviation, whereby they all need to trust each other, in different roles and within different organizations. Many of these organizations are led by market demand and the need for cost effectiveness as well as the need for safety. And as a growth sector limited by many factors, all these different organizations need to act in concert for optimizing aviation operations both in quantity, by means of optimal deployment of capacity, and in quality, by producing reliable and robust air transportation based on demand.

In Part I we will look at the aviation sector from various angles in order to understand the various entities in aviation, all focussing on their specific tasks. We will first look at the three dimensions of aviation – technology, economy and politics – and see how they form the parties in aviation.

All fundamentals of aviation are based on either of these three dimensions, and often on a combination. When in aviation a player, be it an airline or an airport, intends to do something new, their first three questions are always: is it technically feasible (technology), is it allowed (politics) and does it make sense (economics)?

Chapter 1

Theoretical framework

1.1 Many different parties

The aviation sector consists of many profoundly different parties, all with their specific tasks and characteristics. Parties providing products or services to the passenger are very visible and known, like aircraft manufacturers, airlines and airports. Behind the scene there are many more, like Air Traffic Management, ground handlers or leasing companies, and in this textbook, we will take a look at these entities providing indispensable services behind the scenes. Airlines and airports are covered in Parts II and IV of this book.

Crucial for understanding how aviation functions, and for success of aviation, is the level of cooperation between these parties. Obvious as it may sound, it is far from easy since all the different parties have different interests and different priorities. But cooperation is a necessity; aviation cannot operate when the different vital parties do not act in concert. Understanding each other’s differences is the basis for constructive cooperation in aviation.

One of the fundamental differences among parties in aviation is between governmental bodies versus commercial entities. Governmental bodies concentrate on safety and security without a responsibility for profitability. Commercial entities need to operate profitably, with bankruptcy as the final consequence for not meeting this basic requirement. The visible entities, like airlines and airports, provide services to the passengers and are therefore service industries in consumer markets; the entities behind the scenes have a different scope.

A closer look reveals that the different parties in aviation differ also in their development and dynamics. Governmental bodies are guided by politics, airlines and airports are guided by economics, and all are guided by the constant development of technology. If we look at aviation from this perspective, we see the three dimensions that its structure is based upon: technology, economics and politics. These dimensions are connected by the human factors.

1.1.1 The technological dimension

Aircraft are very peculiar machines; it took mankind centuries to invent them. An aircraft conquers gravity by deploying large amounts of energy. It needs to keep moving to fly and cannot stop in an emergency. It needs to be strong enough to fly at high speeds and high altitudes. It needs to protect its occupants by generating and maintaining a liveable environment while flying in atmospheric conditions that are lethal to humans. And, above all, it needs to be as light as possible in its constant energetic fights against gravity.

An aircraft is a machine involving physics, mechanics, metallurgy, chemistry and electronics. In order to understand the technology of an aircraft, we have to divide this into three parts: airframe, engines and components.

The airframe is based on applied physics. Aerodynamics define the aircraft’s ability to fly. Mechanics determine its strength, whereas metallurgy and increasingly chemistry define its construction. Electronics defines its operation.

The engines are based on the same combination of these technologies. Here, thermodynamics defines the airflow, the basis of jet engine power. Coping with the high temperatures inside the engine requires metallurgy and chemistry. When coping with the high forces mechanics is crucial. Combustion is defined by thermodynamics and chemistry and it is all controlled by electronics.

The components, all devices that are installed somewhere in or at the airframe, can themselves be classified as mechanic, hydraulic, pneumatic and now increasingly electric, all controlled by electronics. Avionics is predominantly defined by electronics in our digital era.

An effective aircraft needs these technologies in well-balanced combinations, whereby every aircraft design is a compromise between optimal application of each of the different technologies involved.

These complex machines need to be maintained, requiring technical skills to work with all these different technologies.

The essence of flying is to conquer gravity at a high velocity. If it fails it will fall to the ground, fast and hard. This makes flying inherently dangerous, reason why safety and human factors are crucial sciences for aviation.

Aircraft design requires experts on each of these technologies. Designing an aircraft requires many years of research and development and extensive testing. This design is finally produced by sophisticated materials and production techniques. All this combines to make aircraft expensive machines.

1.1.2 The economic dimension

Aircraft are indeed expensive machines to design and produce, and also to operate. Aviation therefore is a capital-intensive sector. Operating aircraft, in the air but most notably on the ground, at airports and hangars, requires many people. Aviation is therefore also very labour intensive.

Aviation is a truly global sector, where the money streams start with the customer paying for transport. In a liberalizing global economy, this makes aviation a very competition intensive sector, requiring optimal cost effectivity by all players and at all parts of the value chain.

Designing, producing, owning and operating aircraft require financial economics as the aviation business is a multi-billion-dollar business. Exploiting aircraft and airports require profound knowledge of business administration and micro economics, and transport economics. On the supply side, managing cost is the economic core.

Understanding and exploiting demand for aviation require customer marketing & sales knowledge. On the demand side, managing income is the economic core.

Keeping the income higher than the cost is the essence for economic sustainability. In aviation, this is a true challenge, and the economic dimension of aviation is therefore characterized by low margins.

As aviation is a global transport sector, it reacts fast and fierce to macro-economic developments. The aviation sector therefore is very cyclic, with steep upturns and deep crises over time.

Economic entities and actors, like countries, regions or cities but also enterprises and organizations, need to be connected. This can be by phone; by data link; or by physical transport modes, like cars, trains and aircraft. Aviation therefore is of crucial economic importance for countries, regions or cities.

1.1.3 The political dimension

The above teaches us that aviation is technology-, capital- and labour-intensive. Aviation is also a sector with huge impact on regions and societies, a source for high educated employment and a creator of vital connections. Flying is inherently dangerous with fatal consequences if things go wrong. Here we have the ingredients for the vast political dimension of aviation.

Governments are a prime finance source of aviation as owner or subsidizer of aircraft production and airline or airport operation. This governmental involvement is considered necessary as economic margins are low and financial risks are high.

In the first decades of aviation direct involvement was the normal modus. With strong political forces towards liberalization and deregulation at many regions in the world as from the end of last century, the indirect forms of state financing have become more important. Indirect financing in aircraft design and production takes place via direct financing of defence or space projects with technical spin-off to commercial projects, state guarantees on commercial loans, scientific R&D budgets, tax relief on design and production cost, and finance support on sales transactions.

The political motivator for this financing is industrial politics, with labour market, technological capability and export market considerations for the nation acting as key drivers.

For the so-called super states, technology and most notably defence aerospace is key to their status in the world. Super states like the US, China, Russia, India, France and Britain finance their aerospace sector for political reasons. Maintaining their status as super power is the key driver here.

Airline and airport operators can be state owned, still common in countries where state involvement in society is high. Cities or regions also can own airports. In deregulated regions, airlines often are supported by discounts on taxes or charges. Even in liberalized countries governments often are shareholder in their national airline(s).

In operations, governments are the enablers; they sign aviation treaties among each other that allow airlines to conduct flights to and from their territory, o...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part I The aviation sector
• Part II Airports
• Part III Aircraft
• Part IV Airlines
• Part V Epilogue
• Index