Baggage dissociation for sustainable air travel: Design study of ground baggage distribution networks

Dissociation of passenger travel from baggage delivery has been proposed as one of the radical innovations in future air travel. This concept is still relatively new and largely unexplored, so there are many issues that need to be resolved. For instance, a complete end-to-end baggage dissociation wi...

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Main Authors: Sarah Al-Hilfi, Hao Yu, Pavel Loskot
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2023-03-01
Series:Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198223000441
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author Sarah Al-Hilfi
Hao Yu
Pavel Loskot
author_facet Sarah Al-Hilfi
Hao Yu
Pavel Loskot
author_sort Sarah Al-Hilfi
collection DOAJ
description Dissociation of passenger travel from baggage delivery has been proposed as one of the radical innovations in future air travel. This concept is still relatively new and largely unexplored, so there are many issues that need to be resolved. For instance, a complete end-to-end baggage dissociation will require the ground distribution networks to deliver passenger luggage to and from the departing and arriving airports. This paper proposes to design such networks as the existing parcel delivery networks. In particular, baggage sorting centers (BSCs) can serve as local hubs for creasing a scalable, multi-level topology of the delivery network in order to manage baggage flows in a given geographical area around the selected airports. Assuming the population density as a proxy for estimating the baggage delivery service demands, the optimum locations of BSCs are determined by formulating and solving the standard p-median and the maximal covering location problems. The numerical results were obtained for Greater London, and also for the whole UK assuming all its major civilian airports. The Greater London area could be served by 36 BSCs to achieve a full service coverage. The 90% service coverage of the whole UK can be achieved by about the same number of BSCs, provided that the coverage distance is increased. In practice, the actual number of required BSCs crucially depends on the operational and capital costs, and the maximum processing capacity of each BSC. These findings have direct implications on the long-term planning and innovations in future air transport.
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spelling doaj.art-ac8a62a7b647415985c21359d7b889d72023-03-25T05:15:19ZengElsevierTransportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives2590-19822023-03-0118100797Baggage dissociation for sustainable air travel: Design study of ground baggage distribution networksSarah Al-Hilfi0Hao Yu1Pavel Loskot2University of Basrah, Basra, IraqUiT, The Arctic University of Norway, Narvik, NorwayZJU-UIUC Institute, Haining, China; Corresponding author at: ZJU-UIUC Institute, 718 East Haizhou Road, Haining, Zhejiang 314400, China.Dissociation of passenger travel from baggage delivery has been proposed as one of the radical innovations in future air travel. This concept is still relatively new and largely unexplored, so there are many issues that need to be resolved. For instance, a complete end-to-end baggage dissociation will require the ground distribution networks to deliver passenger luggage to and from the departing and arriving airports. This paper proposes to design such networks as the existing parcel delivery networks. In particular, baggage sorting centers (BSCs) can serve as local hubs for creasing a scalable, multi-level topology of the delivery network in order to manage baggage flows in a given geographical area around the selected airports. Assuming the population density as a proxy for estimating the baggage delivery service demands, the optimum locations of BSCs are determined by formulating and solving the standard p-median and the maximal covering location problems. The numerical results were obtained for Greater London, and also for the whole UK assuming all its major civilian airports. The Greater London area could be served by 36 BSCs to achieve a full service coverage. The 90% service coverage of the whole UK can be achieved by about the same number of BSCs, provided that the coverage distance is increased. In practice, the actual number of required BSCs crucially depends on the operational and capital costs, and the maximum processing capacity of each BSC. These findings have direct implications on the long-term planning and innovations in future air transport.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198223000441Air transportBaggage serviceDistribution networkTravel experience
spellingShingle Sarah Al-Hilfi
Hao Yu
Pavel Loskot
Baggage dissociation for sustainable air travel: Design study of ground baggage distribution networks
Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Air transport
Baggage service
Distribution network
Travel experience
title Baggage dissociation for sustainable air travel: Design study of ground baggage distribution networks
title_full Baggage dissociation for sustainable air travel: Design study of ground baggage distribution networks
title_fullStr Baggage dissociation for sustainable air travel: Design study of ground baggage distribution networks
title_full_unstemmed Baggage dissociation for sustainable air travel: Design study of ground baggage distribution networks
title_short Baggage dissociation for sustainable air travel: Design study of ground baggage distribution networks
title_sort baggage dissociation for sustainable air travel design study of ground baggage distribution networks
topic Air transport
Baggage service
Distribution network
Travel experience
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198223000441
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