The aircraft choice based on the aircraft take-off runway length requirement

Abstract

The choice of fleet by a given airline must consider different elements associated with both the aircraft and the airports to be operated, making it necessary a method to assist the aircraft choice process. This study assesses the take-off runway distance requirement of different aircraft models and compares the requirement to the take-off runway distance available at a group of airports. Using the Herfindahl–Hirschman index (HHI), the methodology consider the analysis of take-off runway length available on 80 Brazilian airports and compared it to the take-off distance required for 108 combinations of aircraft model, engine model and flight range, considering the take-off performance of the aircraft models with maximum payload weight. In total, 536 routes of four Brazilian airlines has been adopted to simulate the most profitable operating scenario. The result presents the take-off performance of different aircraft models and allows a performance comparison between them. In addition, this research investigates which is the most common flight range in Brazil, and what influence it exerts in the aircraft take-off performance, and contributes to a better match between the aircraft used and the airport operated in fleet optimization.