Air Transport Management and Operations Dissertation

Air Transport Management and Operations - Dissertation Example Airline industry profitability leans towards the elusive, and a need exists for rapid restructuring to retain the competitive advantage. Operational management of air transport operations now confronts new challenges because competition, increased fuel prices, security threats, recessionary and inflationary pressures, requirements for integrating well in the global transport system and employee union expectations present substantial pressures to deliver service excellence economically without compromising on safety or security. This dissertation presents a discussion about air transport management and operations in the new age. Declaration I certify that, except where cited in the text, this work is the result of research carried out by the author of this study. _____________________________________________ Name and Signature of Author January 2011 This write - up is for a dissertation on Air Transport Management and Operations. ... table accidents by phase of flight 21 Figure 6: Worldwide reportable accidents by occurrence category 21 Figure 7: Worldwide fatal accidents by occurrence category 22 Figure 8: Worldwide fatal accidents by operator region 22 Figure 9: Worldwide jet and turboprop fatal accident rate by type of service 23 Figure 10: Primary causal factor categories for accidents 24 Figure 11: Impact of relational coordination on airline performance 25 Figure 12: Percentage of employees represented by unions at major US airlines 26 Figure 13: Labour conflict at the major US airlines: number of strikes and arbitrations, mediations and releases since 1985 27 Figure 14: Average months required to reach contract agreement at major airlines 28 (This page intentionally left blank) Chapter 1 – Introduction In the present day and age, the most complex transportation systems and the most complex manufactured systems in the world support commercial aviation (Barnhart, 2007, Pp. 1 – 2). The worldâ₠¬â„¢s airlines and air cargo movers are the largest players in national and global air transportation systems, with the aerospace industry providing the planes and aerospace systems that make things happen (Wensveen, 2007, Chapters 1 and 4). Although the military aviation sector presents substantial statistics, general aviation is by far the largest segment of aviation based on the number of aircraft, the number of pilots and the number of airports and communities served (Wensveen, 2007, Pp. 111 – 112). According to Wensveen (2007, Pp. 112), in the year 2007 general aviation presented an industry worth US$ 40 billion, which generated more than US$100 billion in annually. This discussion focuses on the management aspects of air transport operations, with an emphasis on general management, human resource

Evolution of Western corn rootworm population Essay

Evolution of Western corn rootworm population - Essay Example The characteristic that has allowed some Western corn root worm populations to become resistant to corn - soybean- corn rotation is that they produce higher levels of special class proteinases (cathepsin-L) that respond to soybeans defenses (Yates, 2012). Darwin’s theory of natural selection states that evolutionary change occurs when individuals produce variations in each generation and differential ways of survival by combining these variable characters. Individuals with variable characteristics, which increase their chances of survival, will have more opportunities to reproduce and their offspring will benefit from these advantageous characteristics. Similar to this theory, the western corn rootworm has evolved to produce enzymes in their gut that has enabled them to become resistant to corn-soybean-corn rotation. The enzymes inhibitors enables them to survive for two to three days in the soybeans fields which is enough for some of rootworms to lay eggs, when corns are planted in the same fields the rootworm larvae feeds on the corn roots. The modern view of evolution as a change in allele frequencies defines evolution as not only the development of new species from older ones but also the small changes within species from generation to generation-over long periods. Similarly, the western corn rootworm has been able to produce special class proteinases over long period of time, these small changes have enabled them to survive on soybean