Air cargo yield management system for utilizing booking profiles and unconstrained demand
First Claim
1. At least one program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying at least one program of instructions executable by the machine to perform an air cargo yield management method for optimising a yield parameter resulting from assigning an offered capacity offered by a future instance of a cargo flight to each one of a plurality of different categories of requests competing for the capacity, the method comprising:
- defining the offered capacity by a weight capacity variable and a volume capacity variable, the weight variable and the volume variable independent relative to each other;
storing a set of historical profiles for each one of a plurality of previous instances of the cargo flight, the set including a historical profile of an historical value of the weight variable and the volume variable reserved by each category,assigning a probability to each previous instance of the cargo flight,estimating a potential profile of a potential value of the weight variable and the volume variable from each historical profile according to a corresponding current value of the capacity variable reserved by the category for the future instance of the cargo flight and according to a corresponding unconstrained demand of the weight variable and the volume variable for the category in the previous instance of the cargo flight,defining a historical scenario for each previous instance of the cargo flight, the historical scenario including a final potential capacity variable from each corresponding potential profile, the final potential variable comprising a final potential weight capacity variable and a final potential volume capacity variable;
determining an authorisation to allocate the offered capacity for the weight variable and the volume variable of each category in the future instance of the cargo flight by applying a stochastic model to the historical scenarios according to the corresponding probabilities; and
providing a determination to a display of a computing unit of an acceptance or a rejection of a request for the cargo flight based on the authorization;
wherein each historical profile and each potential profile include a plurality of corresponding snapshots of the reserved capacity variable and of the potential capacity variable, respectively, the estimating the potential profile comprising;
estimating an opening coefficient for each period comprised between two consecutive snapshots, the opening coefficient being indicative of a percentage of time during which the category was open in the period,calculating an emphasis value for each period as a weighted mean of a gradient in the period of the reserved capacity variable for the category in a subset of the corresponding historical profiles,estimating a potential gradient for each period as a linear interpolation between the gradient, for a first value of the opening coefficient indicative of a complete opening of the category, and the highest between the gradient and the emphasis value, for a second value of the opening coefficient indicative of a complete closure of the category, andconstructing the potential profile from a time corresponding to the current time by integrating the potential gradients starting from the corresponding current capacity variable.
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Abstract
A yield management method and system, particularly for maximizing a revenue that can be obtained from a given capacity that is offered by a cargo flight; the capacity is defined by two different variables consisting of the weight and the volume of the freights that may be transported by the flight. A set of historical profiles of the capacity (weight and volume) reserved by each category is stored for different previous instances of the flight. Corresponding potential profiles are estimated independently for the weight and the volume. The estimation is carried out taking into consideration the corresponding capacity currently reserved by the category for a future instance of the flight; moreover, this result is emphasized according to a corresponding unconstrained demand for the category. A series of historical scenarios of the demand at the departure of each previous instance of the flight are then obtained from the potential profiles. A stochastic model is applied to the historical scenarios according to the corresponding probabilities for calculating the optimised weight and volume authorizations for each category.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. At least one program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying at least one program of instructions executable by the machine to perform an air cargo yield management method for optimising a yield parameter resulting from assigning an offered capacity offered by a future instance of a cargo flight to each one of a plurality of different categories of requests competing for the capacity, the method comprising:
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defining the offered capacity by a weight capacity variable and a volume capacity variable, the weight variable and the volume variable independent relative to each other; storing a set of historical profiles for each one of a plurality of previous instances of the cargo flight, the set including a historical profile of an historical value of the weight variable and the volume variable reserved by each category, assigning a probability to each previous instance of the cargo flight, estimating a potential profile of a potential value of the weight variable and the volume variable from each historical profile according to a corresponding current value of the capacity variable reserved by the category for the future instance of the cargo flight and according to a corresponding unconstrained demand of the weight variable and the volume variable for the category in the previous instance of the cargo flight, defining a historical scenario for each previous instance of the cargo flight, the historical scenario including a final potential capacity variable from each corresponding potential profile, the final potential variable comprising a final potential weight capacity variable and a final potential volume capacity variable; determining an authorisation to allocate the offered capacity for the weight variable and the volume variable of each category in the future instance of the cargo flight by applying a stochastic model to the historical scenarios according to the corresponding probabilities; and providing a determination to a display of a computing unit of an acceptance or a rejection of a request for the cargo flight based on the authorization; wherein each historical profile and each potential profile include a plurality of corresponding snapshots of the reserved capacity variable and of the potential capacity variable, respectively, the estimating the potential profile comprising; estimating an opening coefficient for each period comprised between two consecutive snapshots, the opening coefficient being indicative of a percentage of time during which the category was open in the period, calculating an emphasis value for each period as a weighted mean of a gradient in the period of the reserved capacity variable for the category in a subset of the corresponding historical profiles, estimating a potential gradient for each period as a linear interpolation between the gradient, for a first value of the opening coefficient indicative of a complete opening of the category, and the highest between the gradient and the emphasis value, for a second value of the opening coefficient indicative of a complete closure of the category, and constructing the potential profile from a time corresponding to the current time by integrating the potential gradients starting from the corresponding current capacity variable. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification