AGIFORS News

Important Notice: Postponement of Study Group Meetings

David Foster — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 17:35:22 GMT

After careful review, we have decided to postpone two of our upcoming Study Group Meetings:
• Crew Management
• Revenue Management

These meetings were scheduled to take place next month in Dubai and Doha. Given the ongoing conflict in the region and the uncertain geopolitical situation, we are not comfortable proceeding as planned.

We are currently evaluating several options, including:

Rescheduling the meetings for later in the year
Hosting them in an alternative location
Hosting them as virtual meetings
Cancelling the events altogether

We will share further updates and decisions as soon as they are finalized.

Please note that the Airline Operations and Aircraft Maintenance meetings in Barcelona, Spain will proceed as scheduled.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support.

2025 Fellows Announced

David Foster — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 23:07:47 GMT

The AGIFORS Council has named three distinguished individuals as 2025 AGIFORS Fellows—one of the highest professional honors in our field. This prestigious recognition is reserved for those who have demonstrated exceptional achievements in applying operations research to air transportation, and who have made significant, long-standing contributions to the AGIFORS community through active participation and leadership.

· Dr. John-Paul Clarke holds the Ernest Cockrell, Jr. Memorial Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He is honored for his pioneering work in robust scheduling, integrated recovery, and the interplay between airline operations and air traffic management. A long-serving Council member, Dr. Clarke has been a prolific contributor and presenter at study group meetings and annual symposia.

· Dr. Thomas Fiig, Director Chief Scientist at Amadeus, is recognized for his influential research in revenue management. His work spans forecasting accuracy, simplified fare structure optimization, offer optimization, and dynamic pricing. A regular presence at revenue management study group meetings and symposia, Dr. Fiig has presented over 27 papers, many of which have received Best Presentation awards.

· Dr. Stefan E. Karisch, Director of Air Science & Technology at Amazon, is celebrated for advancing optimization-based aircraft operations planning and scheduling. A long-time AGIFORS member, he has served as both Council President and Vice President, and notably led the planning committee for the 50th Annual AGIFORS Symposium held in Nice in 2010.

Our three new Distinguished Members will be officially recognized at the Gala Dinner at this year's Symposium in London.

Submit your applications for Ken Wang award!

Bazyli Szymanski — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 18:27:37 GMT

Submissions are invited for the 2025 Ken Wang Scholars Program of the Airline Group of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (AGIFORS). The deadline to submit the applications is July 1^st, 2025, 18:00 EDT. Those submitting applications who are selected will receive fully paid registration for the upcoming AGIFORS Annual Symposium in London, UK!

More details available on the Ken Wang application page!

The 2025 Ken Wang Scholars Program is now Open!

Bazyli Szymanski — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 18:51:18 GMT

The 2025 Ken Wang Scholars Program now accepts applications!

The Ken Wang Program recognizes graduate students early in their academic programs (first or second year) who are interested in academic research in applications of operations research in various domains in the airline industry.

Award recipients receive a fully paid registration for the Annual Symposium held in the Fall (dates and location to be announced soon!), and get a chance to meet senior researchers and practitioners working on airline industry problems.

Applications close on July 1, 2025 -- see the application page for more details.

The 2025 Anna Valicek Award Competition is Open!

Bazyli Szymanski — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 12:43:29 GMT

The 2025 Anna Valicek Award Competition is now open!

The AGIFORS’ Anna Valicek Award Competition is destined to recognize graduate students and recent PhD graduates conducting original and innovative research in the application of operations research to airline and/or airline related business problems. We invite you to submit your research paper before June 1^st, 2025!

Refer to the Anna Valicek page for more details on the criteria and eligibility.

64th Symposium: Best Presentations and Anna Valicek Awards

Bazyli Szymanski — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 13:13:04 GMT

The 64^th AGIFORS Annual Symposium at the Grand Cayman is now a wrap -- and we are happy to announce the winners of this year's awards.

For the Technical Program:

Pascale Batchoun (Air Canada) received the Best Presentation Award for her presentation on "Predicting a Schedule's OTP and How that Impacts Schedule Build"
Sergey Shebalov (Sabre) received the Best Innovation Award for his work on "Classless Revenue Management"

In the Anna Valicek Competition:

Iordanis Tseremoglou (Delft University of Technology) won the Silver Anna Valicek Medal for "Condition-Based Maintenance scheduling of an aircraft fleet under partial observability: A Deep Reinforcement Learning approach"
Matıas Villafranca (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) won the Bronze Anna Valicek Medal for "Aircraft maintenance scheduling under uncertain task processing time"

We congratulate the winners and thank everyone who contributed to the Technical Program of the Symposium. The abstracts of the presentations can be found here.

64th Annual Symposium: Presentation Abstract Deadline Extended

Bazyli Szymanski — Sat, 21 Sep 2024 20:04:51 GMT

We still have a few slots open for presentations in the Technical Program at this year's Annual Symposium, hosted by Cayman Airways at the Grand Cayman, October 27-31.

Submit your abstract here by September 27: we will fill them on a first-come, first-serve basis, so don't delay submitting to avoid disappointment!

The Technical Program provides a unique platform for airline experts and decision makers to come together and exchange ideas on key industry challenges. The Symposium will feature recent advancements of analytical solutions in revenue management, disruption management, schedule recovery, crew recovery, workforce planning, and predictive maintenance. Many of these features will feature advanced analytics methods, including machine learning and AI. Experts come from airlines, air transport associations, universities, industrial research labs, consulting firms, and vendors.

2024 Anna Valicek Award Finalists Announced!

Bazyli Szymanski — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 18:04:21 GMT

From a total of 10 submitted articles, the 2024 Anna Valicek Award Committee has selected the two finalists for the 2024 Anna Valicek Award

Iordanis Tseremoglou, Delft University of Technology: “Condition-Based Maintenance scheduling of an aircraft fleet under partial observability: A Deep Reinforcement Learning approach”

Matías Villafranca, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile: “Aircraft maintenance scheduling under uncertain task processing time”

As finalists, they will present their work at the upcoming 2024 AGIFORS Symposium (please visit the Symposium page for more details). Then, the AGIFORS Council will select the winner of the 2024 Anna Valicek Award.

Save the Date for AGIFORS 64th Annual Symposium, 27-31 October 2024

Bazyli Szymanski — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 14:46:41 GMT

We are pleased to announce that the AGIFORS 64^th Annual Symposium will be hosted by Cayman Airways in the Grand Cayman October 27-31, 2024!

We are looking forward to having you join a packed 3.5-day technical program, with presentations on recent advancements in all key areas of the industry: operations, maintenance, revenue management, scheduling, crew management, and more - leveraging modern analytical techniques, machine learning and artificial intelligence!

In addition to the technical program, we are planning a range of social and networking events that will allow you to connect with colleagues, as well as with students participating in the Anna Valicek Award and Ken Wang Scholars Programs who have shown interest in the airline industry through academic work.

Registration for the Symposium, and the call for papers will open by mid-August, so stay tuned for more details!

Event details can be found at the Symposium homepage, and here are more details if you would like to become a Sponsor!

Applications Open for 2024 Anna Valicek Competition and Ken Wang Program

Bazyli Szymanski — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 12:44:54 GMT

AGIFORS is now welcoming applications for the 2024 Anna Valicek Award Competition and Ken Wang Scholars Program!

The two programs recognize students and recent graduates, whose interests or previous academic work is related to solving problems in the airline industry using operations research as well as other quantitative methods. We are welcoming applicants from all around the world, and we strongly encourage applications from those whose background is historically under-represented at AGIFORS. The deadline to apply is June 1, 2024.

For details on the two programs, refer to the Anna Valicek and Ken Wang Scholars page.

Celebration of Life of AGIFORS Fellow Ellis Johnson

Bazyli Szymanski — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 17:18:42 GMT

We regret to inform that AGIFORS Fellow, Professor Ellis Johnson has passed on February 20, 2024. A Celebration of Life will be held Saturday, March 23, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. in the Sugar Creek Chapel at Hundred Acre Farm, followed by a reception in the Red Barn.

With the permission of Mixed Integer Programming Society at mixedinteger.org, we are reposting the obituary:

Ellis L. Johnson, renowned professor and mathematician, died on February 20, 2024, at his home near Madison, Georgia. He was a distinguished figure in the fields of operations research, mathematical programming, and industrial engineering. He made significant contributions throughout his career, leaving a lasting impact on the academic community and the airline industry.

Born on July 26, 1938 to Glenn Irvin and Edna Volberg Johnson, he grew up on a farm outside Athens, Georgia. He graduated from Georgia Tech with a B.S. degree in Applied Mathematics in 1960. He obtained a Ph.D. in Operations Research in 1965 from the University of California at Berkeley, where he studied under George Dantzig, one of the founding fathers of Operations Research. He began his professional career teaching at Yale University for three years, then joined the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, where he worked for 26 years. In 1982, he founded the Optimization Center and served as its manager until 1990, when he was named an IBM Corporate Fellow, the highest honor a scientist, engineer, or programmer at IBM can achieve. From that year until 1995 he taught and conducted research at Georgia Tech, while also serving as an IBM Fellow. In 1995 he retired from IBM and became the Coca-Cola Chaired Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) at Ga. Tech. With Professor George Nemhauser he co-established and co- directed the university’s Logistics Engineering Center, which would form what is now the Supply Chain and Logistics Institute. He was also instrumental in the creation and early development of the elite Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization PhD program.

Throughout his career, he held visiting and part-time positions at several universities. These included the National University of Singapore; State University of New York, Stony Brook; University of Pisa; New York University; Columbia University; IBM Paris Scientific Center; University of Florida; University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. During his professional life, he received many honors. In 1980-1981, he was at the University of Bonn, Germany, as recipient of the Alexander Von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award. In 1983 a paper he wrote with Mandred Padberg and Harlan Crowder on solving large-scale zero-one linear programming was published in the journal Operations Research and won the Frederick W. Lanchester Prize. In 1985, he received the George B. Dantzig Award for his research in mathematical programming. The Dantzig Prize is awarded every three years for original research which by its originality, breadth, and depth has a major impact on the field of mathematical optimization. It is awarded jointly by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and the Mathematical Optimization Society (MOS). In 1988 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for his “fundamental contributions to discrete optimization and software design, and its practical applications to distribution and manufacturing systems.” In 2000 he was co- recipient of the John von Neumann Theory Prize in recognition of his fundamental contributions to integer programming and combinatorial optimization. In 2002 he received the Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice, and was named a fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). Also in 2002, his work with Delta Airlines on qualification training for airplane pilots earned him a finalist position for that year’s Daniel H. Wagner Prize, awarded annually for quality and coherence of analysis used in practice. In 2009 he was named a Fellow in the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematicians (SIAM). He was also a fellow of the Airline Group of the International Federation of Operations Research Societies.

Dr. Johnson’s contributions to the airline industry were particularly noteworthy. His research in crew scheduling, fleet assignment and routing, disruption management, and integrated planning and operations made him the leading academic researcher in the world on these airline problems. His work in this field has had a profound impact on the efficiency and optimization of airline operations.

Beyond his academic achievements, Johnson was known for his passion for teaching and mentoring. He was highly regarded for his intellect, patience, and ability to lead by example. His dedication to his students and colleagues left a lasting impression on those who had the privilege of working with him.

After he retired from Georgia Tech in June 2012, he dedicated himself to his 100-acre farm in Madison, Georgia, known as the Hundred Acre Farm in memory of where he and his siblings grew up. He established The Farmhouse Inn at Hundred Acre Farm, the bed and breakfast he established on the property, has become one of the top ten bird-watching B&Bs in the country.

Ellis Johnson’s passing is a great loss to the academic community and the fields of operations research and industrial engineering. His contributions will continue to shape the way we approach optimization and mathematical programming. He will be remembered for his groundbreaking research, his dedication to teaching, and his commitment to preserving Georgia's natural beauty. He leaves behind a lasting impact on the land, his family, and on the world of academia, and the airline industry. He is survived by his wife Crystal Du Johnson; two brothers, Fred and Allen Johnson, also graduates of Georgia Tech; his sister, Janet Tanksley; two sons, Michael and Fred Johnson; a daughter, Catherine Robison; and four grandchildren.

New Revenue Management Study Group Leaders

David Foster — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 14:14:13 GMT

I am pleased to announce that Daniel Fry from Alaska Airlines and Michael Wittman from Amadeus have taken on leadership of the Revenue Management and Distribution Study Group. Both have been active participants in the study group and should be well known by all. In addition, Michael was an Anna Valicek finalist in 2016.

I also want to thank Virginie Lurkin and Dennis Buitendijk for their leadership these past few years and organizing successful meetings virtually during the pandemic and then back in person in Helsinki last year. Virginie stepped down to focus on gaining tenure and we wish her all the best. Dennis has joined the Council as an appointed member and will be leading the Ken Wang Scholar program. Both intend to remain active in the RM study group.

2023-2026 Council Announced

David Foster — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 01:13:06 GMT

Every three years we elect a new council to govern the organization. This year’s Symposium was the last one for the current council and at its conclusion a new council took over. The 2023-2026 Council consists of:

David Foster, Delta Air Lines, President
Richard Cleaz-Savoyen, Air Canada, Vice President
Laurie Garrow, Georgia Institute of Technology, Past President
Eric Ruhlin, United Airlines, Treasurer
Lisa Noell, Boeing, Secretary
Semi Gabteni, Groupe ADP, Symposium Co-Chair
Tim Niznik, American Airlines, Symposium Co-Chair
Sergey Shebalov, Sabre, Sponsorship Coordinator

2023 Ken Wang Scholars Introduced

David Foster — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 13:57:36 GMT

At the 63rd Symposium in Montreal last week, we were pleased to introduce 5 new Ken Wang Scholars.

Abdul Ahad Khan, Indian Institute of Technology - Kanpur
Haochen Wu, University of Michigan
Jenny Tonka, HEC Liège - University of Liège
Mohand Ryad Chelbani, Polytechnique Montréal
Xiyitao Zhu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Ken Wang Scholars program recognizes students who are in the early stages of their careers and are engaging in airline operations research. Details are on our Ken Wang Scholar webpage.

2023 Anna Valicek Award Winners Announced

David Foster — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 20:05:06 GMT

Silver: Thomas Hagspihl, from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, has been recognized by AGIFORS as Winner of the 2023 Anna Valicek Award and was presented with the Silver Anna Valicek Medal for the paper “Apron Layout Planning - Optimal Positioning of Aircraft Stands”.

Bronze: Jan-Rasmus Künnen, from WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar, Germany, has been recognized by AGIFORS as Second Place Winner of the 2023 Anna Valicek Award and was presented with the Bronze Anna Valicek Medal for the paper “The value of flexible flight-to-route assignments in pre-tactical air traffic management”.

Symposium Technical Program Abstracts Posted

David Foster — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 20:17:54 GMT

Our 63rd Annual Symposium in Montreal, hosted by Air Canada, is just over a month away on October 2–5, 2023 and it is shaping up to be a good one.

The Technical Abstracts are now available on the Technical Program Abstracts page.

There is still time to register using the link at 63rd Annual Symposium.

Deadline for Abstracts Extended

David Foster — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 16:02:58 GMT

We still have a few slots open for the Technical Program at this year's Symposium. We will fill them on a first-come, first-served basis, so don't delay submitting to avoid disappointment!

Those interested in giving a technical presentation, please complete the online submission form HERE. If you have any questions please contact Lavanya Marla and Semi Gabteni (technical program co-chairs) at technical_chair@agifors.org

Finalists for the 2023 Anna Valicek Award Competition Announced

David Foster — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 12:38:43 GMT

In preparation for the Symposium, we are glad to announce the selection of the 2 finalists for the 2023 Anna Valicek Award competition:

Jan-Rasmus Künnen, WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar, Germany: The value of flexible flight-to-route assignments in pre-tactical air traffic management
Thomas Hagspihl, Technical University of Munich, Germany: Apron Layout Planning - Optimal Positioning of Aircraft Stands

For the attendees interested in reading them ahead of the Symposium, the papers are accessible on the Anna Valicek Award page.

63rd Annual Symposium will be October 2–5 hosted by Air Canada in Montreal

David Foster — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 13:31:57 GMT

We are delighted to welcome you to Montreal this October when (with a bit of luck) the full fall colors of the Canadian forest will be on display! In addition to 3+ days of technical presentations, we will be recognizing our student Anna Valicek finalists and Ken Wang scholars. The conference will be held at The Fairmont Queen Elizabeth, centered in a spacious conference room on the top floor with sweeping views of Quebec’s most populous city. There will be several networking events, including a Welcome reception on Monday evening, a sponsored dinner on Tuesday, and a networking event and Gala banquet on Wednesday. Sponsor booths will provide ample opportunities for interacting one-on-one with participants and showcasing products.

The AGIFORS Symposium’s Technical Program provides a platform for airline experts and decision makers to come together and exchange ideas on key industry challenges. The Symposium will feature recent advancements in revenue management, disruption management, schedule recovery, crew recovery, workforce planning, and predictive maintenance. Many of these features will feature advanced analytics methods, including machine learning and AI. Experts come from airlines, air transport associations, universities, industrial research labs, consulting firms, and vendors.

Event details can be found here.

2023 Council Elections

David Foster — Mon, 10 Jul 2023 01:47:31 GMT

Elections for the 2023-2026 Council open on Monday July 10 and run through the end of the month. Bios of the candidates can be found on the Council Election 2023 page (must be logged in as a member to view.) If you are a member, you will receive an email sent to your registered address with a link to cast your vote.

AGIFORS Names Karl Isler, Tim Niznik, and Richard Ratliff as Fellows at 62nd Annual Symposium

Benedikt Zimmermann — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 18:52:57 GMT

Distinguished Honor Given for Exceptional Accomplishments and Contributions

The Airline Group of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (AGIFORS) has named Karl Isler, retired Senior Director at Swiss Air Lines, Tim Niznik, Director of Analytics for the Integrated Operations Center at American Airlines, and Richard Ratliff, Executive Scientist at Sabre Labs, as AGIFORS Fellows at its 62nd Annual Symposium held in Toulouse, France.

AGIFORS is a professional society dedicated to the advancement and application of Operational Research in the airline industry with members representing more than 500 airlines, airline manufacturers, universities and aviation related companies and associations. An AGIFORS Fellow is reserved for individuals who have demonstrated outstanding and exceptional accomplishments and experience in the application of operations research to air transportation and who made significant contributions to the AGIFORS community over an extended period of time through participation and leadership.

Laurie Garrow, President of AGIFORS, describes the accomplishments of each new Fellow.

“Karl Isler was instrumental in motivating the airline industry to think about ways to manage revenue when low cost carriers entered the market. Not only did he motivate us to look at revenue management methods for undifferentiated products, he gave us a roadmap for how to do it and worked with IATA to make changes in distribution capabilities. Karl has always been a wonderful mentor to junior staff, and many of his former employees are now in important leadership positions in the industry.”

“Tim Niznik’s passion for improving airline operations and helping make aviation more sustainable is legendary. He has spent his career at American Airlines developing innovative solutions for managing disruptions that have resulted in several patents and features in multiple media outlets including the Charlotte local news station, the New York Timesand CBS This Morning. He has also collaborated with the FAA, NASA and other federal agencies to design and implement solutions that have shaped today’s air transportation system. For example, he worked closely with NASA to help improve aircraft arrival, departure, and surface movement predictability and efficiency and supported operational demonstrations of these new strategies at Charlotte-Douglas and Dallas Ft.-Worth airports. These strategies saved over 1M gallons of jet fuel and 22M pounds of carbon dioxide. Tim has been a strong advocate for AGIFORS and introduced more than 50 new members to the organization during his 17-year tenure as Co-Chair of the Operations Study Group.”

“Richard Ratliff has made sustained contributions in revenue management over the last three decades across multiple areas spanning retail optimization, dynamic pricing, customer choice modeling, customer segmentation, and network revenue management forecasting and optimization under dependent demands and competition. For example, he was instrumental in the development and implementation of Sabre’s advanced origin-destination revenue management systems at multiple airlines including American, Canadian, and US Airways. Richard has served on the AGIFORS Council and other leadership positions for more than two decades, and has help build and strengthen research collaborations among academics, airlines, and vendors. Richard has given more than 35 presentations at AGIFORS events and continues to deliver thought-provoking presentations at our events.”

The AGIFORS Council congratulates Karl Isler, Tim Niznik, and Richard Ratliff on their sustained contributions to the airline industry and commitment to mentoring the next generation of airline professionals. Congratulations!

Winners of best paper, best innovation and best presentation awards at the Symposium

Benedikt Zimmermann — Sat, 24 Sep 2022 14:27:56 GMT

During the 62nd Annual Symposium in Toulouse, the technical program was filled with exciting research. As is tradition, AGIFORS honored outstanding contributions in three categories:

best paper: Vikrant Vaze and Luis Cadarso Morga, "Passenger-Centric Integrated Airline Schedule and Aircraft Recovery"
best innovation: Andrea Gasparin, Lorenzo Castelli, Federico Julian Camerota Verdù, "Inter Airline Slot Trade Opportunities Provider (ISTOP)"
best presentation: Giacomo Bonciolini, "Automatic adjustment of dynamic pricing under turbulent market conditions"

Congratulations to all the winners!

2022 Anna Valicek Competition

Benedikt Zimmermann — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 20:58:36 GMT

Kevin Wang, from the International Center for Air Transportation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, has been recognized by AGIFORS as Winner of the 2022 Anna Valicek Award and was presented with the Silver Anna Valicek Medal for the paper “Dynamic Offer Creation for Airline Ancillaries Using a Markov Chain Choice Model”.

Simon van Oosterom, from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, has been recognized by AGIFORS as Second Place Winner of the 2022 Anna Valicek Award and was presented with the Bronze Anna Valicek Medal for the paper “Dispatching a fleet of electric towing vehicles for aircraft taxiing with conflict avoidance and efficient battery charging”.

Symposium Detailed Agenda Published

Benedikt Zimmermann — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 19:26:32 GMT

The detailed agenda of the AGIFORS Symposium has been published on the event website:

AGIFORS - 2022 Symposium Agenda

Check it out and join us in Toulouse for four exciting days!

Symposium Technical Program Abstracts Posted

David Foster — Sat, 27 Aug 2022 02:36:18 GMT

The abstracts for all the papers being presented at the 2022 annual symposium are now available on the event website HERE

2022 Anna Valicek Award Finalists!

Benedikt Zimmermann — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 12:20:47 GMT

From a total of 8 submitted articles the 2022 Anna Valicek Award Committee has selected the two finalists for the 2022 Anna Valicek Award

Kevin Wang, MIT: Airline Dynamic Offer Creation using a Markov Chain Choice Model
Simon Van Oosterom, Delft University of Technology: Dispatching a fleet of electric towing vehicles for aircraft taxiing with conflict avoidance and efficient battery charging

As finalists, they will present their work at the upcoming 2022 AGIFORS Symposium (check the Symposium page for more details). Then, the AGIFORS Council will select the winner of the 2022 Anna Valicek Award.

AGIFORS on the BBC

Benedikt Zimmermann — Sat, 16 Jul 2022 15:39:48 GMT

AGIFORS president Laurie Garrow was recently interviewed for the BBC World Service as part of their Inquiry radio and podcast series. The segment - a deep dive on air travel - will air on 21JUL. Check it out here to learn more about the most pressing issues in air travel!

The 2022 Anna Valicek Award Competition is open!

Benedikt Zimmermann — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 08:58:16 GMT

AGIFORS’ Anna Valicek Award competition is destined to recognize original and innovative research in the application of operations research to airline and/or airline related business problems. We invite you to submit your research paper before June 1^st, 2022!
Refer to the Anna Valicek page for more details on the criteria and eligibility.

The 2022 Ken Wang Scholars Program is open!

Benedikt Zimmermann — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 08:57:04 GMT

AGIFORS’ Ken Wang Scholars Program is destined to recognize researchers who are in the early stages of their careers and engaged in an airline operations research. We invite you to submit your application before June 1^st, 2022!
Refer to the Ken Wang Scholars page for more details on the criteria and eligibility.

2021 Anna Valicek winners

Benedikt Zimmermann — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 19:02:46 GMT

The winners for the 2021 Anna Valicek medal have been decided!

Silver: Ingeborg de Pater, from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, has been recognized by AGIFORS as Winner of the 2021 Anna Valicek Award and was presented (virtually) with the Silver Anna Valicek Medal for the paper “Predictive maintenance for multi-component systems of repairables with remaining-useful-life prognostics and a limited stock of spare components”.

Bronze: Greta Laage, from IVADO Labs and École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada, has been recognized by AGIFORS as Second Place Winner of the 2021 Anna Valicek Award and was presented (virtually) with the Bronze Anna Valicek Medal for the paper “Assessing the impact: Does an improvement to a revenue management system lead to an improved revenue?"

Annual Symposium Agenda and Abstracts Posted

David Foster — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 01:03:14 GMT

The agenda for this year's Symposium can now be found at: Detailed Agenda Symposium 2021

The abstracts for the Technical Program are at: Technical Program Symposium 2021

Congratulations Prof. J-P Clarke

David Foster — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 19:08:35 GMT

Professor John-Paul Clarke, a long-time member of AGIFORS who has twice served on the AGIFORS Council (as Communications Officer and Secretary) was appointed Deputy Chair of the Board of Directors of Cayman Airways. His two-year appointment by the Cabinet of the Cayman Islands commenced on the 23rd of August. Professor Clarke is well known throughout the airline community for his expertise in the areas of airline schedule planning and operations control. Notably, he has been a fixture at the Airline Operations Study Group for many years. The current AGIFORS Council congratulates Professor Clarke on his appointment.

2021 Ken Wang Scholars Program recipients!

Benedikt Zimmermann — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 20:10:59 GMT

We are very happy to announce the first 2 recipients of the Ken Wang Scholars Program:

Dhandabani Srinivasan
Kevin Wang

Both are invited to present their work and research objectives at the upcoming 2021 AGIFORS Symposium (check the Symposium page for more details).

2021 Anna Valicek Award Finalists!

Benedikt Zimmermann — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 13:21:45 GMT

From a total of 12 submitted articles the 2021 Anna Valicek Award Committee has selected the two finalists for the 2021 Anna Valicek Award:

Ingeborg de Pater, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands: “Predictive maintenance for multi-component systems of repairables with Remaining-Useful-Life prognostics and a limited stock of spare components”
Greta Laage, IVADO Labs & École Polytechnique de Montréal, Québec, Canada: “Assessing the Impact: Does an Improvement to a Revenue Management System Lead to an Improved Revenue?”

As finalists, they will present their work at the upcoming 2021 AGIFORS Symposium (check the Symposium page for more details). Then, the AGIFORS Council will select the winner of the 2021 Anna Valicek Award.

The 2021 Ken Wang Scholars Program is open!

Benedikt Zimmermann — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 19:11:42 GMT

AGIFORS’ Ken Wang Scholars Program is destined to recognize practitioners and researchers who are in the early stages of their careers and engaged in airline operations research. We invite you to submit your application before June 1^st, 2021!

Refer to the Ken Wang Scholars page for more details on the criteria and eligibility.

The 2021 Anna Valicek Award Competition is open!

Benedikt Zimmermann — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 19:09:17 GMT

Refer to the Anna Valicek page for more details on the criteria and eligibility.

AGIFORS featured in INFORMS podcast

Benedikt Zimmermann — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 17:16:15 GMT

If you want to stay in touch with AGIFORS topics, tune in to an episode of the INFORMS podcast Resoundingly Human featuring AGIFORS president Laurie Garrow! In the podcast, Laurie is explaining ways airlines have pivoted and adapted to the challenges of the pandemic.

https://pubsonline.informs.org/do/10.1287/orms.2021.01.23p

In addition to being featured in conjunction with OR/MS Today magazine online, the podcast is also available for download on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play and Spotify.

Save the date: 2022 Symposium from 12SEP to 16SEP 2022

Benedikt Zimmermann — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 11:07:33 GMT

While 2021 is still very much a year full of iuncertainty due to COVID-19, we expect the year 2022 to be more stable and easy to plan for. Therefore, AGIFORS has already now fixed a date for the Symposium 2022, which will be held in person from 12SEP-16SEP. In the meantime, stay posted for updates on the 2021 Symposium as well as the Study Group conferences!

Article on 2020 Symposium published

Benedikt Zimmermann — Sun, 10 Jan 2021 17:16:43 GMT

AGIFORS as well as the whole airline industry can look back at a year full of tremendous change - its impact, risks and opportunities explored in great depths in the 2020 Symposium. In the article "How COVID-19 is impacting and reshaping the airline industry" published in the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Laurie Garrow and Virginie Lurkin give an overview of key themes emerging in the key note addresses and RM panel discussions. Read the paper here in case you missed some of the discussions or in case you want to refresh your memory!

Proceedings of 2020 Airline Operations Study Group meeting

Benedikt Zimmermann — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 17:46:01 GMT

The proceedings of the 2020 Airline Operations Study Group meeting are available now to all our members. Have a look at all the exciting presentations!

2020 Anna Valicek Competition

Jonas Rauch — Fri, 23 Oct 2020 14:56:02 GMT

Olivia R. Natan, from the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA, has been recognized by AGIFORS as Winner of the 2020 Anna Valicek Award and was presented (virtually) with the Silver Anna Valicek Medal for the paper “Incorporating Search and Sales Information in Airline Demand Estimation”.

Guodong Zhu, from the Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA, has been recognized by AGIFORS as Second Place Winner of the 2020 Anna Valicek Award and was presented (virtually) with the Bronze Anna Valicek Medal for the paper “Decision Making under Uncertainties for Air Traffic Flow Management”.

More information on the Anna Valicek Award web page.

AGIFORS Symposium has started - how to join

Jonas Rauch — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 13:00:19 GMT

All conference registrants have gotten an email with instructions on how to join the online session on the GotoWebinar platform. If you did not get this email, please check your spam folder. Information for the first day is also posted on the conference web site.

AGIFORS Symposium next week!

Jonas Rauch — Sat, 17 Oct 2020 20:35:57 GMT

The 60th AGIFORS Annual Symposium is going to take place online next week, starting on Tuesday 20th October. For information about how to register, the detailed agenda and more, please see the conference web page.

Some technical information for all participants: You will receive an email from Mike Irrgang on each day of the conference with the link necessary to join the online conference platform. If you do not receive a link please visit the conference web page, where we will post more information on how to join.

2020 Anna Valicek Award Finalists!

Jonas Rauch — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 11:20:29 GMT

From a total of 13 submitted articles the 2020 Anna Valicek Award Committee has selected the two finalists for the 2020 Anna Valicek Award

Guodong Zhu, Iowa State University, IA, USA: “Decision Making under Uncertainties for Air Traffic Flow Management”
Olivia R. Natan, University of Chicago, IL, USA: “Incorporating Search and Sales Information in Airline Demand Estimation”

As finalists, they will present their work at the upcoming 2020 AGIFORS Symposium. Then, the AGIFORS Council will select the winner of the 2020 Anna Valicek Award.

Council Election Results

Jonas Rauch — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 14:49:41 GMT

The poll for the 2020 Council election has closed and the following candidates have been elected to the Council for the 2021-2023 term:

Zeliha Akca
Richard Cleaz-Savoyen
Semi Gabteni
Laurie Garrow
Lisa Noell
Eric Ruhlin
Benedikt Zimmerman

Congratulations to all future Council members!

The Council Election is open!

Jonas Rauch — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 21:45:24 GMT

Voting for the election of the next AGIFORS Council is open starting today, Sunday, 14 June 2020 until Sunday, 5 July 2020. Please see the 2020 Council election page for the list of candidates and a link to the poll.

The AGIFORS Council consists of at least eight members and is responsible for governing and administering to the AGIFORS community. The positions on the council currently include President, Vice-President, Past-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Study Group Coordinator, Symposium Chair, Symposium Technical Chair, Membership Secretary, Communications Officer.

Our current President David Foster will serve as Past President, and seven candidates are elected to the Council by means of this election. Consequently, each AGIFORS Member and Fellow will be able to cast seven votes across the nine candidates, with a maximum of one vote per candidate.

In addition, the president in consultation with the council can appoint additional members to the council who provide necessary services in the best interest of the organization. It is then the responsibility of the council itself to assign the various positions based on each member’s interest and qualifications.

Short bios of each candidate and their involvement with AGIFORS so far can be found here.

Nomination of Candidates for the 2020-2023 AGIFORS Council

Jonas Rauch — Sat, 09 May 2020 10:02:41 GMT

AGIFORS is an all-volunteer organization and its continued success and growth relies on the support of our members. Everyone is encouraged to play an active role. Serving on the Council is a rewarding way for members to give back to the OR community by sharing your time, experience, and ideas.

AGIFORS invites all qualified members to consider running for a seat on the council for the 2021-2023 term.

The Council consists of at least eight members and is responsible for governing and administering to the AGIFORS community. The positions on the council currently include President, Vice-President, Past-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Study Group Coordinator, Symposium Chair, Symposium Technical Chair, Membership Secretary, Communications Officer. In addition, the president in consultation with the council can appoint additional members to the council who provide necessary services in the best interest of the organization.

Members are elected to the council, and it is the responsibility of the council itself to assign the various positions based on each member’s interest and qualifications.

Within the guidelines set forth by our constitution, we are hereby accepting nominations for the upcoming AGIFORS Council elections. If you wish to nominate someone (including yourself), please submit your nomination at Council Nominations or through the following link https://forms.gle/dN36KaCPpCQSZ5xCA until May 15, 2020.

On the form, please include the following information about the proposed candidate:

Full Name
Contact information (email, phone)
Affiliation (Airline, University, Company (solution vendor, consultancy))
AGIFORS involvement (presenter, attendee at study groups and/or symposium)
A brief summary (100 word max) of why the nominated candidate is suitable for serving on the council

Please note that only candidates that have been full AGIFORS members for at least 5 years are qualified to stand for election.

The election process will be administered online during the months of May/June 2020, and the general AGIFORS community will be given the opportunity to ‘meet’ each candidate through online profiles/biographies. The polls will remain open for at least two weeks, and the final results will be communicated back to the community before the start of the 60th Annual AGIFORS Symposium scheduled for this fall in Toulouse.

If you may have any questions or to want to learn more about serving on the Council, please don’t hesitate to contact AGIFORS Secretary John-Paul Clarke (secretary@agifors.org), AGIFORS President David Foster (president@agifors.org), or any of the current council members.

The 2020 Anna Valicek Award Competition is open!

Richard Cleaz-Savoyen — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 15:13:32 GMT

AGIFORS’ Anna Valicek Award competition is destined to recognize original and innovative research in the application of operations research to airline and/or airline related business problems. We invite you to submit your research paper before June 1^st, 2020!
Refer to the Anna Valicek page for more details on the criteria and eligibility.

A Message from the President

David Foster — Sat, 11 Apr 2020 19:23:10 GMT

Dear AGIFORS Members and Friends,

Most importantly, I hope this letter finds you and your loved ones safe and healthy. As we continue to navigate through this unprecedented situation, I know many of you are wondering about how this pandemic might affect AGIFORS, both now and in the future. Unfortunately, in many instances, the answer is simply “we don’t know yet.” However, I will try my best to answer some of the questions that I know you must have.

Study Group Meetings

As many of you already know, we have had to cancel all our Study Group meetings this spring. We were excited to once again have a full set of meetings around the world. Planning for Crew Management in Istanbul (hosted by Turkish Airlines), Revenue Management in Helsinki (hosted by Finnair) SSP in Dallas/Fort Worth and the Airline Operations/Aircraft Maintenance joint meeting in Oman (hosted by Oman Air) were well underway when we had to make the decision to cancel. At this time, for a variety of reasons, we are not planning to reschedule them but will skip them this year and resume them as usual in Spring 2021. Nonetheless, as an alternative, we are exploring hosting virtual meetings to replace this year’s physical meetings; more on that later in this letter.

The good news is that all the host airlines agreed to remain as hosts next year as well as all the hotels. Therefore, we will still be going to those locations, albeit in 2021. New dates will be announced later this year. The meetings are always interesting and informative but should be especially so next year as we talk about how we went about winding-down our respective airlines and how we addressed (and continue to address) issues with ramping back up. We look forward to seeing you all next year.

Many thanks go to all the study group chairs, Marcel Sol (QR), Samuel Rosat (Ivado Labs), Virginie Lurkin (Eindhoven), Hunkar Toyoglu (McKinsey), Cumhur Gelogullari (AA), Yuxi Xiao (AA), Michael Irrgang (Boeing), Judith Semar (LH), Rod Tjoelker (Boeing) and Mei Zhang (AA), for all their hard work on first organizing and then canceling the meetings.

Annual Symposium

As I write this letter, we are still planning to hold the 60^th Annual Symposium as scheduled from 14 to 17 September in Toulouse, France with Air France/KLM and Airbus as our hosts. AGIFORS was founded in 1960 by Air France and KLM, among others, and the first annual symposium was held in the south of France, so we are looking forward to celebrating our 60^th birthday at the same location hosted by our founders. That said, while we are going to continue to proceed with our planning, we will follow the lead of governments and public health experts to determine if it is safe and appropriate to meet. I cannot emphasize this enough – the health and safety of our members and our entire global community is our number one priority and that will be our guiding principle as we decide if and when to hold the conference. Semi Gabteni (OpenAirlines) and Rodrigo Acuna-Agost (Amadeus) will be sending out updates as they become available.

Anna Valicek Competition and Ken Wang Scholar Program

We are also proceeding with both the Anna Valicek Competition and the Ken Wang Scholar program. This will happen even if the symposium is cancelled. Traditionally, the two Anna Valicek finalists present their papers at the symposium. While we hope that will be possible this year, we will make alternative arrangements if necessary, to select the Silver and Bronze medals this year. Be on the lookout for the official announcement from our competition director, Richard Cléaz-Savoyen (AC), soon.

While we are also looking forward to announcing our first Ken Wang Scholars at the symposium, regardless of what the future holds, we will be selecting two recipients this year. More on that to come from Dr. Laurie Garrow (Georgia Tech).

Virtual Study Group Meetings

As we cannot meet in person this year, we are exploring the possibility of holding a virtual conference. Airline Operations and Maintenance Operations are taking the lead in organizing one and working out the technical and practical logistics. We are still working on the challenges of presenting to a globally dispersed audience in multiple time zones while keeping the intimacy of live interactions and selecting the best technology to use. More details will be posted on our website (agifors.org) as soon as they are available. If you are interested in participating or helping to organize it, please contact the organizers at ops@agifors.org.

If successful and there is enough interest, we may expand the concept to other groups.

Council Elections

This year we will also be holding elections for the Council. Every Council member is elected for a three-year term with the new Council taking office immediately on the conclusion of the annual symposium. Later this year, we will be electing seven new officers to run our organization. Officers are elected to the Council as a whole and must include at least four airline employees. At the first council meeting, the new council will select the president, treasurer and all other positions from those elected. A request for nominations will be issued soon. If you have been a member for at least five years, we hope you consider running.

Financial Impact on AGIFORS

Fortunately, we entered this year with a good financial reserve. As an all-volunteer organization, our overhead costs are minimal. Moreover, as a non-profit, we run our meetings with the goal of breaking even. As the extent of the pandemic became clear, we were able to cancel our Spring meetings before we incurred any significant non-refundable costs. In addition, the hotel sites have worked with us to apply any deposits we may have already made to next year’s meetings. Thanks to the hard work of our Treasurer, Eric Ruhlin (UA), and all the Study Group chairs, the financial impact on AGIFORS has been manageable.

In closing, I would just like to acknowledge that this is a devastating situation for so many people across the world and for the airline industry. Never in my lifetime (and I was born at the dawn of the jet age) have so few people in America flown on any given day as they did this week, and for the first time since the Wright brothers, no one anywhere in the US was building a commercial airplane. Nonetheless, I know we will recover and find ways to once again succeed. We are in the business of Connecting the World (or Uniting the World, according to my friends in Chicago) and before long people will start flying again. As the industry reboots itself, new problems (as well as all the old ones) will need to be solved and the AGIFORS community is ideally positioned to address them. I do not know when that will happen, but I do know this – following the directives of our public health experts is paramount. So please continue to stay at home as much as possible, always practice social distancing and frequently wash your hands. Most importantly, it saves lives. But secondarily, it will help us get back to doing the things that we love to do sooner rather than later. I can’t wait to get to the other side of this and welcome everyone again at our annual meetings and symposium and to hear all the innovative ways we are helping with the industry’s recovery.

Best wishes,

David M. Foster
Delta Air Lines
President – AGIFORS
president@agifors.org

SSP SG Meeting CANCELLED

Jonas Rauch — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 11:58:38 GMT

Dear Colleagues,

As the situation with the coronavirus all around the world kept deteriorating rapidly, we had no choice but to decide to cancel the AGIFORS Scheduling and Strategic Planning Meeting in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX, USA this year. We believe this is the best decision, given the ongoing uncertainty, travel restrictions, drastic cost-cutting initiatives taken by all airlines, vendors, and other companies; but most importantly, for the health and safety of all our members.

We would like to thank you all, for always supporting the SSP community, by sharing your knowledge and expertise and recent developments, as well as for caring for each other.

Thank you for your understanding. We are looking forward to a resolution of the situation sooner than later and meeting with you all next time.

Take care, stay safe.

Yuxi Xiao and Cumhur Gelogullari

ssp@agifors.org

RM SG Meeting CANCELLED

Jonas Rauch — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 08:18:01 GMT

Today as the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, we had no choice but to take the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 AGIFORS Revenue Management Meeting in Helsinki. This decision was taken with heavy heart, but was inevitable given the rapid deterioration of the situation around the COVID-19.

Safety of our attendees was our biggest concern when taking the decision. In addition, many airlines, vendors and academic institutions around the globe have introduced travel restrictions following the advices of their national authorities.

No need to say that we are extremely sad to have had to cancel our meeting. We sincerely apologize to all participants who were looking forward to join us in Helsinki. Of course, we will refund all those who have registered already, as well as all the sponsors we received.

We want to express a very big thank you to the team at Finnair for their help and support during the last months. We are very glad to announce that they already accepted to remain our co-host for next year meeting and we therefore hope to see you all in Helsinki in 2021!

Finally, we want to thank you, the AGIFORS RM members, for the ongoing trust you place in our community, and for your sense of understanding and caring. Without you, this study group would not exist in the first place.

We wish you all the best, and assure you that we are fully committed to make the next Revenue Management Meeting an extraordinary one!

Take care of yourself!

Virginie Lurkin and Hunkar Toyoglu.

“Our power is in our choice of how to respond to the challenges and crisis in our lives”.

Crew Management Study Group Meeting CANCELLED!

David Foster — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 13:13:17 GMT

Today we have had to take the decision to cancel the 2020 Agifors Crew Management Meeting in Istanbul.

We are very sad to have had to take this this decision, but given the uncertainty that surrounds the COVID-19 Virus, we had no other option than to take this. There are currently numerous travel restrictions imposed by national authorities around the globe, restricting people traveling from one country to the other. And more of these restrictions are being imposed on a moment by moment basis.

The current situation is so much in motion at this moment, that there is no way for us to predict how it will continue to develop in the 40 days leading toward the projected start date of the event. We could not take the responsibility in case our delegates could not return timely and safely to their point of origin. But foremost we do not want to add the tiniest bit of risk to the health of anybody.

At this point we want to apologize to all who were, like us, looking forward to the event. Those who have registered already will get a full refund. This also applies to all the sponsors of the event. Their sponsorship fees will be refunded also.

Also we do want to express a mountain of thanks to the absolutely marvelous team at Turkish Airlines. They have done a outstanding job, and we were heading towards a truly wonderful event. So sad, that it was not to be, at least not in 2020. However, very much hope to retain Turkish Airlines as the co-host for the 2021 Agifors Crew Management Meeting.

Our thanks also go to all those who took the effort to register already, and to those who intended to do so in the coming weeks. Without you, this event would not be here! We do hope that you will all bear with us, and continue to support the Agifors community next year. We will be back, better and bigger than ever!

All the Best, stay healthy, and stay safe.

Samuel Rosat

Marcel Sol

Update: 2020 Meetings

David Foster — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 23:25:41 GMT

Details are still being worked out, but we are planning a full schedule of meetings next year. All Study Group Meetings will take place April/May and the Symposium in September/October. Exact dates will be announced as soon as possible.

Study Groups:

Crew Management: Istanbul, Turkey – Hosted by Turkish Airlines - 20-22 April
Revenue Management: Helsinki, Finland – Hosted by FinnAir - 5-7 May
Airline Operations (including Maintenance Operations): Muscat, Oman - Hosted by Oman Air - 1-4 June
Schedule and Strategic Planning: TBD

Annual Symposium:

Toulouse, France – Hosted by Air France/KLM and Airbus

Winners of the 2019 Anna Valicek Competition

Jonas Rauch — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 09:33:36 GMT

Keji Wei, from the Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA, has been recognized by AGIFORS as Winner of the 2019 Anna Valicek Award and was presented with the Silver Anna Valicek Medal for the paper “Airline Timetable Development and Fleet Assignment Incorporating Passenger Choice”

Maximilian Pohl, from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, has been recognized by AGIFORS as Second Place Winner of the 2019 Anna Valicek Award and was presented with the Bronze Anna Valicek Medal for the paper “Runway Scheduling during Winter Operations”

Congratulations to both winners! Links to the papers and more information can be found on the Anna Valicek Award web page.

Keith Rapley 1945-2019

David Foster — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 22:10:56 GMT

AGIFORS and the airline OR community has lost one of its most endearing and thoughtful personalities in Keith Rapley. He was the AGIFORS President from 1993-1996. For Keith, OR was not so much a matter of methodology as a way of looking at the world, a stance that enriched the community of both those working directly on operational research projects and those in the wider airline community. His obituary will appear in the December edition of Inside OR. RIP.

59th Annual Symposium Summary

David Foster — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 21:12:05 GMT

Last month, Boeing and Alaska Airlines hosted the 59th Annual Symposium in Seattle. Long time AGIFORS member Ira Gershkoff of T2RL wrote a nice summary for their internal newsletter. He has graciously shared it with us and we've made it available to you. First View: AGIFORS Symposium

2019 Anna Valicek Award Finalists!

Jonas Rauch — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 11:29:06 GMT

From a total of 16 submitted articles the 2019 Anna Valicek Award Committee has selected the two finalists for the 2019 Anna Valicek Award

Keji Wei, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA: “Airline Timetable Development and Fleet Assignment Incorporating Passenger Choice”
Maximilian Pohl, Technical University of Munich, Germany: “Runway Scheduling during Winter Operations”

As finalists, they will present their work at the upcoming AGIFORS Symposium, to be held in Seattle, WA, USA, between September 30th and October 4th, 2019. Then, the AGIFORS Council will select the winner of the 2018 Anna Valicek Award. In addition, given the exceptional quality of the articles submitted this year, an Honorable Mention has been awarded as well as the Highlight for Societal Application. Read more on the Anna Valicek Award page.

AGIFORS Technical Chair - presentations selection

Jonas Rauch — Thu, 27 Jun 2019 11:17:55 GMT

As technical chairs, we want to promote the value of the presentations which are given at AGIFORS events.

We want to illustrate the benefit of attending AGIFORS events and the Symposium in particular.

Also, we want to stress the opportunity for any airline analytics professional to interact with the experts in their respective fields.

So, without disclosing all AGIFORS proceedings, which are available to AGIFORS members, and which include decades of presentations, we here share FOR FREE, a selection of presentations based on their respective number of downloads.

We welcome your feedback in the comments section below.

In the near future, we will be sharing the next batch of files in this series.

Rodrigo Acuna-Agost and Sémi Gabteni, Technical co-chairs

The 2019 Anna Valicek Award Competition is open!

Jonas Rauch — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 19:51:35 GMT

The Anna Valicek Award competition is destined to recognize original and innovative research in the application of operations research to airline and/or airline related business problems. We invite you to submit your research paper before June 1st, 2019!
Refer to the Anna Valicek page for more details on the criteria and eligibility.

Results of Study Group Chair Elections 2018

Jonas Rauch — Thu, 17 Jan 2019 21:20:23 GMT

Dear AGIFORS community,

Thank you for participation in the study groups chairs election. Below are the winners who will assume their positions in 2020 (except Judith and Michael who are stepping in 2019 already):

Ops - Judith Semar and Michael E. Irrgang
Crew - Marcel Sol and Samuel Rosat
RM - Virginie Lurkin and Hunkar Toyoglu
SSP - Cumhur Gelogullary and Yuxi Xiao

We are actively working on organizing all 4 study group meetings and a special session on MRO that would be combined with Ops/SSP meeting. Please expect communications on the details of the meetings soon.

Anna Valicek Award Winner

Jonas Rauch — Sun, 02 Dec 2018 20:57:56 GMT

At the 2018 AGIFORS Symposium in Tokyo, Nuno Antunes Ribeiro has been recognized as Winner of the 2018 Anna Valicek Award for the paper “An optimization approach for airport slot allocation under IATA guidelines”. See the Anna Valicek page for more details.

Study Group Chair Elections 2018

Jonas Rauch — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 21:08:06 GMT

AGIFORS is conducting an election to determine the two Chairs of each of the four active Study Groups. Voting opens on Friday, 30 November 2018 and is open for two weeks. Eligible voters will receive an email with a link to the poll. Details about the process and information about all candidates can be found here: Study Group Chair Elections 2018.

Welcome Rodrigo and Sergey

Jonas Rauch — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 19:18:16 GMT

The AGIFORS Council has been expanded to include two additional Members. Rodrigo Acuna-Agost will share the role of Symposium Technical Chair with Semi Gabteni. Sergey Shebalov is taking over the role of Study Group Coordinator from John-Paul Clarke, who will remain on the Council as AGIFORS Secretary.

AGIFORS needs you!

Jonas Rauch — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 18:58:31 GMT

Specifically, the AGIFORS Council is seeking nominees who are willing to serve a three-year term as a co-Chair of one of our four Study Groups.

As you know, Study Groups are an integral part of what we do in AGIFORS. They provide a home for members who share a common interest––whether it be crew management, airline operations, revenue management, or scheduling and strategic planning––and a venue to which we return each Spring to learn about the latest thinking and advancements in our specific field of interest. Thus, it is critically important that these study groups have active and dedicated leadership.

So, if you are (or know someone who is) willing to contribute to the advancement of airline OR by serving as a Study Group co-Chair, please send a short bio (no longer than 150 words in length) to the Study Group Coordinator, Sergey Shebalov (Sergey.Shebalov@agifors.org) and the AGIFORS Secretary, John-Paul Clarke (secretary@agifors.org) on or before Friday 26 October.

Self nominations are strongly encouraged. That said, if you decide to nominate someone else, please make sure they agree with being nominated.

2018 Anna Valicek Award Finalists!

Jonas Rauch — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 07:41:16 GMT

From a total of 14 submitted articles the 2018 Anna Valicek Award Committee has selected the two finalists for the 2018 Anna Valicek Award

Nuno Antunes Ribeiro, CITTA, University of Coimbra Polo II: “An optimization approach for airport slot allocation under IATA guidelines”
Adam Bockelie, MIT ICAT: “Total Revenue Optimization with the Ancillary Marginal Demand and Ancillary Marginal Revenue Transformation Heuristics”

As finalists, they will present their work at the upcoming AGIFORS Symposium, to be held in Tokyo, Japan, on October 8-12, 2018. Then, the AGIFORS Council will select the winner of the 2018 Anna Valicek Award. Given the exceptional quality of the articles submitted this year, 2 Honorable Mentions have been awarded as well. Read more on the Anna Valicek Award page.

Registration and call for papers for 58th Annual Symposium

Jonas Rauch — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 09:54:59 GMT

The 58th Annual Symposium hosted by All Nippon Airways will take place October 8-12, 2018 in Tokyo, Japan. Event registration and detailed information is available on the event website.

In particular, if you are interested in giving a presentation or becoming a sponsor please refer to the respective sections on the event page on how to submit your information.

Job posting and AGIFORS forums

Jonas Rauch — Wed, 16 May 2018 13:38:44 GMT

There is a new job posting by Boeing here: The Boeing Company: Marketing Modeler

We would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone of our forums, which are available to all members after log-in via the navigation menu. Please feel free to use the forums as a platform to share job opportunities or discuss interesting airline OR topics.

New Council Positions

David Foster — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 00:14:12 GMT

After the end of the Annual Symposium, the newly elected council met and decided on the following positions:

President: David Foster, Delta Air Lines

Past President: Laurie Garrows, Georgia Institute of Technology

Vice President: Richard Cleaz, Air Canada

Treasurer: Eric Ruhlin, United Airlines

Secretary & Study Group Coordinator: John-Paul Clarke, Georgia Institute of Technology

Membership Secretary: Anne Jan Beeks, Air France/KLM

Communications & Webmaster: Jonas Rauch, Deutsche Lufthansa

Symposium Technical Chair: Semi Gabateni, Amadeus

Sponsorship Coordinator: Zeliha Akca, Turkish Airlines

The AGIFORS study group presentations from Spring 2017 are available

David Foster — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 12:46:51 GMT

All the presentations from this year's AGIFORS study group presentations have been uploaded to our searchable database. They are now available to all AGIFORS Members.

In case you haven’t used the new search feature yet, you need to login first and then look under the MEMBERS section or click here.

If you are not a Member, please join us by submitting your application by clicking here.

Last Chance to Register at Pre-Conference Rates for the Symposium

David Foster — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 19:46:00 GMT

British Airways Chairman and CEO Confirmed as Keynote Speaker

David Foster — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 19:28:31 GMT

Alex Cruz, the Chairman and CEO of British Airways is confirmed as the Keynote Speaker at the Annual Symposium. Alex will be speaking at 8:30 am on Wednesday, October 4.

Alex began his professional career at American Airlines Decision Technologies in 1995, spending half his 10 years at the group with its travel technology arm, Sabre, in London, working with a range of European airlines. In 2000, he became a partner at Arthur D Little before setting up his own aviation consulting firm in 2002. In 2005, he joined Accenture as its head of aviation. In 2006 he founded Clickair, a Barcelona-based airline, merging the airline with Vueling in 2009 and becoming Vueling’s Chairman and CEO. Vueling was acquired by International Airline Group (IAG) in 2013, with Alex joining the IAG Management Committee. In April 2016, Alex was appointed Chairman and CEO of British Airways.

He is also a visiting lecturer at the IESE Business School in Madrid and the ESADE Business & Law School in Barcelona.

Alex is 50 years old and originally from Bilbao in Spain. He has a degree in industrial engineering from Central Michigan University, an MSc from the Ohio State University, and Business Management & Administration degree from the Cox School of Business in Dallas. He is married with four children and lives in London.

For more information on the Symposium, held this year from October 2-6 in London, England, visit the meeting website at 57th Annual Symposium.

2017 Symposium Abstracts Posted

David Foster — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 13:17:47 GMT

Abstracts for the upcoming Annual Symposium in London are available on the Technical Program Abstracts page.

As always, this year's Symposium will offer the latest innovation in airline operations research. Various topics to be discussed include airline operations, airline strategy, cargo logistics, crew scheduling, e-commerce, information technology, OR management, revenue management, robust planning, and scheduling planning. Representatives from airlines, air transport associations, universities, industrial research labs, and consultants will discuss new ideas and present technical papers. The conference includes a vendor program for you to review the latest products. Come and share with us your ideas, thoughts, current trends, philosophies, and latest technological advances on any of the above or related topics.

For more information on the Symposium, visit the 57th Annual Symposium website.

New Council Elected

David Foster — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 20:22:25 GMT

The new 2018-2020 AGIFORS Council was recently elected. Their term officially begins at the end of Annual Symposium, which will be held in London from October 2-6.

Returning to the Council are:

Anne Jan Beeks, Air France/KLM
David Foster, Delta Air Lines
Eric Ruhlin, United Airlines
Laurie Garrows, Georgia Institute of Technology (Past President)
Semi Gabateni, Amadeus

Newly elected to the council are:

John-Paul Clarke, Georgia Institute of Technology
Jonas Rauch, Deutsche Lufthansa
Richard Cleaz, Air Canada

The positions on the council, including President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Symposium Chair, Symposium Technical Chair, Membership Secretary, Communications Officer, and Publication Officer, will be decided during the first Council meeting on October 6. In addition, at that time, the new president may appoint additional members to the council to provide necessary services in the best interest of the organization.

The 57th Annual Symposium is 2-6 October 2017 in London, England.

David Foster — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 20:35:18 GMT

The 57^th Annual Symposium hosted by British Airways will be 2-6 October 2017 at The Millennium Gloucester Hotel in London, England.

For further details, visit the 57th Annual Symposium Event Page.

If you have any questions, please contact:

Goran Stojkovic
Email: Goran.Stojkovic@jeppesen.com

Annual Symposium - Call for Papers!

David Foster — Mon, 19 Jun 2017 18:20:21 GMT

The AGIFORS Annual Symposium will be hosted this year by British Airways from the 2nd through the 6th of October 2017.

The AGIFORS Symposium is a unique forum to share the recent developments in airline operations research and analytics, as well as connect with colleagues in the industry. Among the various topics to be discussed are airline operations, airline strategy, cargo logistics, crew scheduling, e-commerce, information technology, OR management, revenue management, robust planning, and scheduling planning. Representatives from airlines, air transport associations, universities, industrial research labs, and consultants will discuss new ideas and present technical papers.

If you are interested in giving a technical presentation at the annual symposium, please contact Semi Gabteni at semi.gabteni@amadeus.com or complete the online submission form.

2017 Anna Valicek Award Competition Announcement

David Foster — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 19:23:29 GMT

Submissions are invited for the 2017 Anna Valicek graduate student paper award competition sponsored by the Airline Group of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (AGIFORS). The Anna Valicek award recognizes original and innovative research in the application of operations research to airline and/or airline related business problems. The award honors the late Anna Valicek who served for many years as a member of the AGIFORS council. Up to two finalists will be selected and will receive air transportation, accommodations, and registration fees to attend the Annual Symposium to be held in London, United Kingdom, to present their work. The winner will be awarded a silver medal and a U.S. $2,500 honorarium. The other finalist will be awarded a bronze medal and a U.S. $1,000 honorarium.

The following criteria will be used in judging the candidate papers:

fundamental contribution and originality of the ideas or methods
practical importance or applicability in solving important real problems
methodological content and appropriateness of methods used in analysis
clarity and excellence of the exposition

To be eligible, the applicant must:

have written the paper while pursuing a graduate degree, specifically either a master of science, master of business administration, or doctoral degree with a research thesis in the area of operations research, engineering systems, air transportation or management science
be the major contributor of the paper
have been a registered student on or after June 1, 2016

To be considered, the following should be submitted:

a paper written in English with a maximum of 15,000 words. The document format must be Microsoft Word or Acrobat PDF
an abstract with a maximum of 300 words
the resume of the applicant

In addition, the applicant is expected (to be likely able) to attend the coming annual symposium to present her/his work. Interacting with the AGIFORS symposium participants is considered an important part of the Anna Valicek competition, and high priority will be given in selecting finalists who are able to commit to attending the Annual Symposium.

Submissions for the 2017 Anna Valicek Award will close on June 9, 2017, 18:00 EDT. There will be no deadline extension.

Submissions should be sent to valicekaward@agifors.org.

Mirela Stojkovic

Vice President, AGIFORS

Chair, Anna Valicek Award Committee

valicekaward@agifors.org

Armando Silva

David Foster — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 14:39:13 GMT

It is with profound sadness that we announce that one of our Fellows, Armando Silva, passed away April 23rd.

Armando was a founding member of American Airlines Decision Technologies (AADT) in the late 1980‘s and rose up the ranks to eventually become the Managing Director of Operations Research at AA until his retirement in 2012. He was influential in the early days of applying OR to customer loyalty, pricing, sales, and revenue management. Armando made significant contributions to AGIFORS as long-time chair of the OR Manager’s Study Group and was a continuous and active participant in AGIFORS from the late 1990s until his retirement in 2012. He also supported many of his staff as speakers and contributors to AGIFORS over the years.

Armando influenced dozens of colleagues through his mentoring and will always be remembered for his sense of humor and ability to diffuse tension and make work “fun.” He will be sorely missed by his family, friends and the entire airline OR community.

London calling!

David Foster — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 16:11:32 GMT

This year's Annual Symposium will be held in London hosted by British Airways. The event will most likely be held in October. Exact dates along with details such as venue, official hotel, etc. will be announced in this space as soon as we are able.

Registration is open for the Crew Management Study Group Meeting

David Foster — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 14:02:20 GMT

Registration has now opened for the AGIFORS Crew Management Study Group meeting 2017.

This year South African Airways has kindly offered to be the local hosts. The conference has been scheduled for May 2nd – 5th 2017 and will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa. The venue of the conference will be the Peermont Metcourt Hotel.

The official conference website with additional information on delegate registration, hotel reservations, visa requirements, and the technical program can be found at: http://www.agifors.org/crew-management-meeting-2017.

Registration fees are:

USD 300 for Airline representatives and for students and faculty members of recognized academic institutions
USD 600 for full-time employee of an established aircraft manufacturer, air traffic control agency, airport authority, government agency, or non-profit organization that supports the airline industry. Employees must not work for a subsidiary, affiliate, associate, division or other entity that markets products or services to the airline industry
USD 900 for anyone employed by a company (or subsidiary, affiliate or division) that actively markets and sells information technology (IT) products or professional services (including any form of consulting, strategy, integration, implementation, or support) to the airline industry.

The main topic for this meeting will be everything surrounding crew management. This includes amongst other things Fatigue Risk Management, Robustness, Manpower planning, Leave assignment, Training, Pairing, Rostering, Tracking, Bidding, and many more topics.

A meeting like this is nothing without content. And the content should come from you. For that reason I would hereby request if you would consider submitting a technical presentation for the conference also. So please, share with us your ideas, thoughts, practical innovations, current trends, case studies, philosophies, and latest advances on the topics which are relevant to you.

The following are requirements for participation in the technical program:

A 30-45 minute presentation
Willingness to comply with requests for additional information and clarification on abstract and/or presentation material
Willingness to tailor a presentation for the AGIFORS Crew Management audience (of which a large percentage are airline crew managers and operations research practitioners) and to accept directions from the selection committee in doing this
No live demo’s (screenshots are fine insofar as they illustrate or help visualize concepts or demonstrate results)
Limited reference to products

The policy of AGIFORS for all their meetings are to have the registration fee for Airline staff and Academics as low as possible. The philosophy behind this is that academics are likely to enter new lines of thought into our field, and having a strong presence by airlines brings great value to both the vendors and the airlines.

It would therefore be great if Inform could this year be one of our sponsors. There are three sponsorship options available:

Gold Level Sponsorship (USD 4000) includes the following:

1. Vendor booth in premium location

2. Free accommodation in one Junior Suite for up to 4 nights

3. Recognition throughout the conference and on the conference web site

4. Banner/signage in the Proceedings Hall

5. Vendor presentation time of 15 minutes.

Silver Level Sponsorship (USD 2000) includes the following:

1. Vendor Booth

2. One room upgrade for up to 4 nights

3. Recognition on the conference web site

4. Banner/signage in the Proceedings Hall

5. Vendor presentation time of 15 minutes.

Bronze Level Sponsorship (USD 1000) includes the following:

1. Recognition on the conference web site

2. Banner/signage in the Proceedings Hall

3. Vendor presentation time of 15 minutes.

My co-hosts from SAA and I are truly looking forward to welcoming you in Johannesburg and we will do whatever is in our power to make your attendance a memorable one.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Marcel Sol at msol@qatarairways.com.qa

Airline Operations Call for Presentations!

David Foster — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 15:58:51 GMT

2017 AGIFORS AIRLINE OPERATIONS - TECHNICAL PROGRAM

May 22-25, Athens, Greece

Call for Presentations!

Come and share with us your ideas, practical innovations, current trends, case studies, strategies, and latest advances on the topics that matter most to you.

You spoke again – We listened! Based on participant feedback and recent survey results, there is a particularly high level of interest in the following areas

· Leveraging Big Data, visualization, and machine learning in airline operations

· Disruption management and aircraft and schedule recovery

· Dependability/on-time performance/punctuality

· Operational simulations

· Balancing operational robustness and efficiency

· Coordination and feedback between schedule planning and operations

· Customer-centric operations

· Aircraft turn management

· Effective Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) for operations

· Organizational design and process flow for Operation Control Centers

· Operational decision making under uncertainty

· Airline Operations and Social Media/Mobile devices

As always, we will invite high-quality talks from all relevant areas of airline operations, including

· Disruption Management (simulation, solution approaches, visualization, challenges, case-studies, lessons learned)

· Airline Operations Control (effective integration, coordination, processes)

· Delay cost modeling and management

· Post-operations analysis and feedback

· Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) initiatives for airport and airspace

· Airport Operations – Ground Control (taxi management, deicing, etc.)

· Air Traffic Control/Management

· Operational Coordination during disruptions both at the station/network level and at the mainline/regional carrier level

If you are interested in presenting at the airline operations conference in Athens, please complete the on-line submission form and submit it directly via the web at the official conference website, http://www.agifors.org/AO2017

Presentation Archive

David Foster — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 20:18:31 GMT

The archive of presentations is now available for Members in the member area.

See who will be in Santiago for the Annual Symposium

David Foster — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 15:26:34 GMT

This year we have 75 people (and counting) from 40 organizations (airline, academic and industry) joining us. Details are on the 56th Symposium Attendees page.

SWIM Workshop – Use Cases for Leveraging SWIM in Airline Operations

David Foster — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 20:14:17 GMT

Join us at the SWIM Workshop on 10 October 2016 to participate in a one-of-a-kind open forum involving Airlines, ANSPs, data aggregators as well as research & academia – all coming together to collectively brainstorm on how to make the most out of SWIM as it gains momentum on a global scale.

Now that more real-time data is becoming available (for free) via SWIM, it is time to explore what value this data can provide to airlines. The live SWIM feeds are well-positioned to complement existing data used by airlines or provide faster/cheaper ways of getting that same data – in both cases providing airlines opportunities not just for improvement and efficiency but more importantly for innovation.

The workshop is structured in 3 parts:

(1) Part 1: Sets the stage by providing a summary of the state of the art in SWIM from the perspectives of ANSPs, Airlines and vendors.

(2) Part 2: Showcases SWIM implementation success stories presented by invited speakers from the industry

(3) Part 3: Focuses on the future opportunities of leveraging SWIM in a moderated discussion with participants and on brainstorming necessary steps to be taken by all stakeholders to get the most out of SWIM.

Who will benefit?

- Airlines

- ANSPs

- Data aggregators

- Application providers/system integrators

- Research & Academia

What topics will be covered?

- SWIM State of the Art

- Success stories of using SWIM

- Innovation driven by SWIM

- Use cases for using SWIM to do things differently or more efficiently

- Roadmap for making the most out of SWIM

56th Annual Symposium Technical Program Finalized

David Foster — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 15:12:01 GMT

We have a full schedule of papers from a wide range of airline OR and analytics topics. We have posted the full list along with abstracts at: Technical Program

Anna Valicek Award Finalists Announced!

David Foster — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 13:36:33 GMT

The two finalists that will be presenting their research at the 56th Annual Symposium are:

Marcella Sama, Roma Tre University: Metaheuristics for efficient aircraft scheduling and re-routing at busy terminal control areas

Michael Wittman, MIT: Customized Offers in Airline Revenue Management

Many thanks go to everyone who submitted a paper to the competition. You can still read all the submissions at Current Competition.

List of Papers at the 56th Symposium

David Foster — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 20:36:46 GMT

The list of accepted papers that will be presented at the 56th Symposium has been released and can be found at Technical Program.

Call For Papers - Deadline Extended!

David Foster — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 21:02:05 GMT

If you are interested in presenting at the annual symposium, The deadline for abstracts has been extended to August 29 2016.

See the 56th Annual Symposium page for details.

For all questions, please contact Semi Gabteni at semi.gabteni@amadeus.com

Call for Presentations at the Symposium

David Foster — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 15:37:40 GMT

You are invited to submit a proposal to present at the 2016 AGIFORS Symposium. Come and share with us your ideas, thoughts, practical innovations, current trends, case studies, philosophies, and latest advances on the topics which are relevant to you.

If you are interested in presenting at the study group meeting in Santiago, please complete the on-line submission form and submit it directly via the web at Symposium Presentation Request

If you have any technical problems with submitting your abstract online, please email Semi Gabteni semi.gabteni@amadeus.com with your abstract and bio information as required on the online form.

Symposium Registration is now open!

David Foster — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 15:29:36 GMT

AGIFORS Symposium 2016 has been scheduled for 10-14 October 2016 in Santiago, Chile. The conference is being hosted by LATAM Airlines. This year's conference will take place at the majestic Ritz Carlton Hotel located in Santiago. The official conference website is available at 56th Annual Symposium

The standard registration fee is 500 USD per (airline, or academic) delegate, 800 USD per delegate for others. An academic delegate must be a full-time registered student, or faculty member at a recognized academic institution. An airline delegate must be employed by an IATA recognized carrier.

The daily delegate fee is 200 USD. This specially negotiated registration option is open to local delegates and for exceptional cases. A daily delegate is eligible to participating in all day time activities and social activities on a given day.

In addition there is a special social registration of 250 USD per accompanying guest (eligible to participating only in the sponsored social program). Major credit cards (American Express, MasterCard, VISA) will be accepted.

Registrations received after 5th Sep 2016 will be considered late, and subject to a 150 USD surcharge. Cancellations received after 5th Oct 2016 are subject to a 150 USD surcharge.

NO CASH OR PERSONAL CHEQUES WILL BE ACCEPTED ONSITE.

Please complete the on-line registration form.

In addition, each delegate will be responsible for making his/her own hotel reservations in addition to the conference registration.

Join us this October in Santiago, Chile

David Foster — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 21:14:23 GMT

The AGIFORS 56th Annual Symposium has been scheduled for 10-14 October 2016.

We have a packed technical program and strong sponsorship, which should make for a wonderful conference. In addition, the finalists for the Anna Valicek Paper will compete.

Conference Overview

This year's Symposium will offer the latest innovation in airline operations research. Various topics to be discussed include airline operations, airline strategy, cargo logistics, crew scheduling, e-commerce, information technology, OR management, revenue management, robust planning, and scheduling planning. Representatives from airlines, air transport associations, universities, industrial research labs, and consultants will discuss new ideas and present technical papers. The conference includes a vendor program for you to review the latest products. Come and share with us your ideas, thoughts, current trends, philosophies, and latest technological advances on any of the above or related topics.

Who Should Attend this Conference

The AGIFORS Symposium provides an ideal forum for airline senior management, airline personnel, vendors, and members of academia to review and debate the most pressing issues facing the global airline industry today, offer potential solutions, and provide opportunity for high level networking.

Airline executives in airline operations, cargo and logistics, crew management, revenue management and distribution, strategic and schedule planning
Business Solution Managers
Key Information Technology System Users
Project Managers, Directors, Team Leaders
Operations research practitioners and managers
Software vendors in the airline information technology field

For more information or if you have any questions, please contact:

Goran Stojkovic

Email: Goran.Stojkovic@jeppesen.com

2016 Anna Valicek Award Competition Announcement

David Foster — Thu, 19 May 2016 00:48:20 GMT

Submissions are now invited for the 2016 Anna Valicek graduate student paper award competition. The Anna Valicek award recognizes original and innovative research in the application of operations research to airline and/or airline related business problems.

Up to two finalists will be selected and will receive air transportation, accommodations, and registration fees to attend the Annual Symposium to be held in Santiago, Chile, to present their work. The winner will be awarded a silver medal and a U.S. $2,500 honorarium. The other finalist will be awarded a bronze medal and a U.S. $1000 honorarium.

Submissions for the 2016 Anna Valicek Award will close on July 1, 2016, 18:00 EDT. There will be no deadline extension.

Details about requirements, judging criteria and how to submit an entry can be found at Current Competition

Welcome to the new AGIFORS Website

David Foster — Mon, 28 Dec 2015 21:26:12 GMT

Welcome to the new AGIFORS website. Besides a new look-and-feel, we hope that you find it easier to navigate and find the information you are seeking. In addition, the website is now fully platform friendly and can be viewed on tablets and smartphones. We are also implementing Study Group forums where you can interact with your fellow study group members.

However, the Members section is not yet fully developed and your login will not work. You will be receiving an email early in 2016 with your new login instructions.

Please keeping coming back as we roll out new features and content.

2015 Year in Review

David Foster — Tue, 15 Dec 2015 12:15:44 GMT

Last year represented the first of a three-year term for AGIFORS Council members. The Council included several first-time members (Eric Ruhlin from United, Goran Stojkovic from Jeppesen, and Mirela Stojkovic from Delta). The AGIFORS Council and Study Group Chairs achieved several milestones last year. The RM Study Group held the first ever AGIFORS meeting in China. We rolled out a more consistent brand image for AGIFORS including banners, logos, and medals for Best Presentation Awards for each of the study groups. For the first time in 20 years, Tim Jacobs did not organize the Annual Symposium (he just paid for everything as treasurer). It took a team to replace Tim in the planning of our Annual Symposium, including Semi Gabteni from Amadeus as our Technical Chair, Goran Stojkovic as our Symposium Chair, Anne-Jan Beeks from KLM as our Sponsorship Coordinator, and David Foster from INFORM as our webmaster. Our Anna Valicek competition, chaired by Mirela Stojkovic, continues to be the premier student paper award in aviation.

Two AGIFORS Fellows Elected

David Foster — Tue, 15 Dec 2015 12:11:20 GMT

During the second year of the Council members’ terms, the AGIFORS Council has the privilege of selecting up to two AGIFORS Fellows. The Fellows Award is the most prestigious award an AGIFORS member can receive, and is reserved for individuals who have demonstrated outstanding and exceptional accomplishments and experience in the application of operations research to air transportation and who made significant contributions to the AGIFORS community over an extended period of time through participation and leadership. This year, AGIFORS is breaking with tradition and announcing its Fellows in advance of the 2016 Annual Symposium so that all members can join us in congratulating our two Fellows: Greg Lough and Armando Silva.

Greg Lough served tirelessly as an officer through four successive councils. In addition to the symposium meetings, he was consistently active in the RM study group. Greg started his career at Continental Airlines and retired in 2014 as Managing Director of Revenue Decision Support at United Airlines following the merger of the two carriers. Greg spent much of his tenure simplifying complicated OR innovations to make them work within the limitations of the airline industry’s aging inventory & distribution infrastructure. He transformed the way the airline forecasted demand and led the implementation of O&D availability and marriage controls. Greg has been a long-term active AGIFORS member, and served for over a decade in many key positions on the AGIFORS Council, most notably as Treasurer from 2003 to 2014 where he led the implementation of robust processes for the management of the group’s finances.

Armando Silva was a founding member of AADT and rose up the ranks to eventually become the Managing Director of Operations Research at AA. He was influential in the early days of applying OR to customer loyalty, pricing, sales, and revenue management. Armando was a continuous and active participant in AGIFORS from the late 1990s until his retirement in 2012. He reinitiated the OR Manager’s Study group after many years of dormancy. Over the years, Armando supported many of this staff and encourage them to make presentations. Many of these presentations won awards, including those by Tim Niznik, Tim Jacobs, Matt Koral, Elizabeth Hunt, and Tuell Green. Armando was also more than willing to help recruit keynote speakers for AGIFORS meetings and host meetings, including the AGIFORS Symposium in Hawaii.

Upcoming Meetings

David Foster — Tue, 15 Dec 2015 12:07:26 GMT

Planning for our five meetings next year is well underway. Marcel Sol from Qatar will be organizing the Crew meeting, likely to be held in Doha next spring, Michael Clarke from Sabre and Tim Niznik from American will be organizing the Ops conference in Seattle next spring, and Sunny Ja and Tassio Carvalho from America have signed the contract to host the Revenue Management meeting in Seeheim, just outside Frankfurt, on May 19-20, 2016 with welcome reception on May 18. The locations for the Strategic Scheduling and Planning (SSP) group (organized by Sergey Shebolov of Sabre) and the Annual Symposium will be announced shortly (for those that need a location for budgeting purposes, we are targeting Europe for the Symposium and Europe/Asia for SSP). As part of the 2016 Annual Symposium, Stefan Karisch of Jeppesen will launch the new OR Strategy and Management Working Group as successor of the former OR Managers Working Group.