In recent years the Cargo business has taken on a new importance for many airlines. Following some discussions and a high level of interest in this area at the 1988 AGM, this group met in 1989 after a lapse of several years. Topics addressed include all aspects of the Air Cargo business of current interest to Operational Researchers.

Delegates study the process of schedule development with an emphasis on developing techniques and systems to minimize fleet requirements and other scheduled related costs, maximize revenues and analyze punctuality profiles of proposed flight schedules. This group now includes Corporate Planning, which is concerned with strategic decision making, fleet selection, fleet assignment, route planning and medium to long term financial planning, as well as airspace and airport capacity issues.

This group addresses planning and management topics related to cockpit and cabin crew. Discussion concentrates on topics related to planning crew pairings or rotations or pattern construction, and to crew assignments, crew rostering or development of bid lines. North American and European approaches to crew assignment both receive attention at this study group.

All topics in the area of reservations systems activities are covered by this group. These include revenue optimization, overbooking management, demand forecasting, price demand elasticity, waitlist processing and some marketing issues.

All aspects of Flight Operations, Ground Resources, and Maintenance are covered.

Flight Operations - These including dispatch, flight planning, flight watch, weather data provision, operations control, ground to air communications and integration with crew, schedules and maintenance planning. Gate allocation, slot control, ATC and airport management can also be covered. There is increasing use of simulation and expert systems, for the management of irregular operations.

Ground Resources - The use of management science techniques in reducing costs or increasing the effectiveness of manpower has been the concern of this group. Topics addressed include determination of operational manpower requirements, optimal task allocation, production of efficient roster patterns, planning of employment, annual leave, training, reward systems and strategic planning of recruitment. There has been some considerable interest in personal computer applications with demonstrations of systems under development.

Maintenance - Information systems for Maintenance & Engineering and Materials functions have been the focus of this study group. Areas of current interest include component control, aircraft records, maintenance planning, inventory systems, initial provisioning and parts tracking.

The penetration and impact of the Operational Research Department in its airline is a function not just of the technical sophistication of the work done but also critically of the orientation and presentation of the department and its work within the organization. This study group will help Managers of Operational Research Departments to evaluate their impact and to evolve strategies which may help them to position the Operations Research function to maximize its influence on decisions that matter.