Apply your knowledge of airline operations acquired over the last several modules to develop a simple flight schedule. The assignment is loosely based on the early years of current Frontier Airlines (there was an earlier Frontier Airlines). It requires some time to do well, so do not leave it until the last moment. Frontier Airlines commenced operations on July 5, 1994. The new airline took advantage of three unique windows of opportunity: A major airline’s dr

Apply your knowledge of airline operations acquired over the last several modules to develop a simple flight schedule. The assignment is loosely based on the early years of current Frontier Airlines (there was an earlier Frontier Airlines). It requires some time to do well, so do not leave it until the last moment.

Frontier Airlines commenced operations on July 5, 1994. The new airline took advantage of three unique windows of opportunity:

• A major airline’s dramatic downsizing of its Denver operations, leaving service gaps in various major markets;
• The construction of Denver International Airport, which replaced Denver’s heavily congested Stapleton Airport; and
• The availability of several key executives from the former Frontier Airlines, who comprised a senior management team with long-term experience in the Denver market.

The instructions below are also available as a document you can download:

Frontier is an affordable fare airline providing service, in this sample scheduling problem, to 6 cities from its Denver hub employing a hub-and-spoke route system.

Note: Before proceeding to construct a schedule, review the hub-and-spoke concept presented in Cook and Billig, Chapter 3 and ensure it is incorporated in your flight schedule.

The table lists the cities served, airport code, mileage from DEN, block time (departure gate to arrival gate) to fly the route to/from DEN, and time zone with the time difference from Mountain Standard Time.

Assets and Facilities

Aircraft: 6 Boeing 737-300
Airport Gates: 3 at DEN, 1 at each spoke station

Constraints

Minimum ground time: 30 minutes at spokes, 45 minutes at DEN
Note: Ensure that for each morning originating flight, there is an evening terminating flight.

Construct a daily aircraft flow sheet attempting to maximize: 1) the city-pairs served; 2) departures at the desirable times – 0700 to 0900 and 1600 to 1800 local time; 3) passenger connections at the DEN; and 4) aircraft utilization. Not all of these goals can be accomplished; compromises are necessary.

US Map

Your flight schedule must be prepared in daily flow aircraft flow chart like that shown in Cook & Billig, chapter 5, the Figure labeled “Aircraft Flow Chart“. It is not necessary, however, to create the crew schedule, only the aircraft schedule shown at the top of the slide.

This flow chart was created in MS Excel, the application recommended for the assignment. If you prefer, it is acceptable to construct the schedule with some other software application or it may be drawn.

Constructing the Flight Schedule Using Microsoft Excel

Here’s how the schedule is constructed in Microsoft Excel. Open the link below to see this graphically. First, format the column width so that 28 or so columns appear on your sheet. Next, show the local times for each US time zone across the top. That is, if you start with Eastern Time and 0600 (6 AM), then complete across the top to 2400 (12 PM). In the next row, show Central Time which will begin at 0500 (corresponding to 0600 Eastern). Complete the next two rows similarly. The only purpose in listing these times zones is to provide an easy local time reference. For example, if your schedule shows an aircraft departing Los Angeles, you can look to the PST line to see the local departure time. An airline schedule would typically show all times in Universal Coordinated Time (or Greenwich Mean Time).

Each leg of the aircraft schedule is a text box. Using the drawing toolbar, size text boxes to the appropriate length for each leg to be included in your schedule (e.g. a 3-hour flight will have a text box that covers exactly 3 columns). Within the text box, type the origin and destination.

LINK to Excel Flight Schedule Example Download Excel Flight Schedule Example

Important Points

In constructing your schedule, keep the following points in mind: 1) Frontier Airlines operates a hub-and-spoke system with passenger connections in DEN, so your schedule should do so as well; 2) Your schedule shows one day’s operation; the same aircraft schedule will begin again the following morning; therefore, if you have an aircraft which ends the day in LGA, it must originate there the following morning. 4) It is not necessary to consider aircraft maintenance requirements at DEN or spoke cities

If you have questions, please post them in the Written Assignments Forum, so that all may benefit.

For this assignment, you will develop a simple hub-and-spoke flight schedule. Along with your Excel schedule, a short paper is also expected to outline the process you used and to cover any problems or trade-offs that you may have run into. This is the third of five assignments for this course and it is due by the posted due date. The assignment is worth 10% of your course grade.