Application of Computer Load Optimization Model in an Aircraft Load Planning Process

Introduction

Ground handling of aircraft is one of the key elements of ensuring the safety and regularity of air transportation. Ground handling covers all types of services that provide aircraft on the ground (aerodrome/platform). The flight ground handling process is an important part of milestone events for airport collaborative decision-making. (Li et al., 2022). One of the main challenges in air cargo transportation is how to assign cargo in an aircraft without exceeding safety constraints and including profit aspects. Changes in the aircraft ground handling process should focus on the positions of ground handling equipment before the arrival of the aircraft, the deployment of staff, routes of ground handling equipment, and others. (Szabo et al., 2021)

Therefore, challenging work planning must be done on every flight. Loading an aircraft is an extremely complex process in the face of many variable aspects that determine the planning of each flight separately.

Thus, the need to increase the efficiency of air transportation and at the same time maintain flight safety by fulfilling the requirements for the alignment and balancing of aircraft determines the need of developing a planning model for optimizing the loading of cargo ramp aircraft in a multi-leg route.

A virtual computer load planning model enables personnel who are responsible for flight planning to make faster decisions and predict the additional load on other sections of the route.

The successful application of the model in the operating activities of the airline contributes to improving the efficiency and safety of ground handling services. This contributes to the intensification of the use of the aircraft fleet by increasing the speed of commercial cargo handling.

In the future, the computer model can serve as the basis for a rule-based expert system to prevent the reloading of containers on intermediate sections of the route.