Air Service Development Fundamentals

Aim

This course provides an overview of how to develop an effective Air Service Development plan to ensure that air service development efforts are focused on the airlines and routes that are of greatest importance, and that hold the most potential for success. Air Service Development is the most important Airport Business Development Initiative. Airports, and the communities they serve, benefit from improved connectivity  as it often result in new revenues, new business, and an overall positive economic impact. Air service development is therefore a vital activity which should be at the centre of the strategic planning process and on-going business development initiative for every airport. In light of the negative impact of Covid-19 on air services the past years, it is critical that airports are proactive in air service development by understanding their air travel market, maintaining existing routes, identifying potential new routes and market their airport to selected candidate airlines. Having an Air Service Development Strategy in place and updating it regularly will greatly increase the chances of obtaining new routes and keep your airport ‘top of mind’ when airlines consider changes to their network. The air service development strategy also forms the basis for coordinating stakeholder support and ensuring that efforts are focused on the opportunities with the greatest potential for success.

Learning objectives

Upon completing this course, participants will be able to prepare an effective Air Service Development Plan and Airline Business Cases by acquiring the following knowledge and air service planning tools:

• Preparing ASD objectives
• Examining your current air service market
• Identifying target airlines
• Understanding the airline planning process
• Most effective stakeholder consultation methods
• Air service strategy and action plan
• Preparing business cases for presentation to airlines

 Target audience

• Airport Director / Executive / Finance / Commercial / Marketing / Board Members
• Local and National stakeholders (government officials, tourism and hospitality organizations)
• Airport Management Consultants
• Airline Staff

 Course content

• What is Air Service Development?
• Preparing ASD objectives and strategy
• Reviewing travel times, passenger loads, aircraft range, competing airports, traffic leakage and market size
• Airline planning process
• Short listing potential airlines
• Establishing a Community Air Service Working Group
• Identifying potential new routes, improvements to existing and candidate airlines by route, airline, aircraft type, flight frequency and average fares
• Preparing the key components of route business cases: load factors, traffic stimulation, connectivity, flight timing, traffic cannibalization, network revenue contribution and incentives
• Understanding what airlines want from airports

Additional Information

This course provides a basic understanding of the air service development fundamentals. To obtain a more in-depth understanding, a comprehensive 3-day in-class course is available with group exercises and airline participation to gain their perspective on route planning.