AIR TRANSPORTATION AND ENERGY-A SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT APPROACH

Energy has become a focal point in almost all aspects of daily life. Its increasing cost is lowering this continent's standard of living and stagnating the economy and this problem is particularly evident in the transportation industry. In the past decade, enormous efforts have been made to increase the efficiency of transportation systems. Much has been achieved in this effort through managerial efforts and capital expenditures. However, most of the obvious and easily attainable procedures have been exhausted. Some improvements in efficiency remain, however, they are harder to achieve and have less impact. This paper describes how, it is important to examine what has already been achieved and explore areas where possible improvements may be implemented in order to maximize future effort. This would be particularly useful in the air transportation industry, because there is a large degree of policy control by the operators. Moreover, the airline industry has been severely damaged by soaring jet fuel prices coupled with a slumping demand for service. This paper identifies the major relationship between air transport demand and energy, an overview of possible managerial techniques for lessening the impact of energy costs, and finally, the effects these techniques will have on the demand for air travel.