"No more gate shortages" proposal.

As discussed here: http://www.airline-e...-hoggers/page-2

I propose, as a solution to the gate shortages experienced in many worlds;

Multiply the number of 'gates' at airports by 8-10 if we want realism, 4-7 if we want to maintain some gate shortages. Possibly make this a world based variable. It is worth considering that if there are more airlines in the world, real airports would have adjusted their gates to suit.

I am aware this can be changed by data collectors so should be fairly simple.

Change 'gates' to 'daily slots' This should be purely cosmetic so simple.

Change the number of slots on leasing a 'gate/daily slots' from 50 to 7. This is possibly more technical and depends on AE, but it should be fairly easy.

I am unaware of how AE is programmed, but this should be fairly easy.

There is no reason that I can see that as to why this cannot be fairly easily implemented in 3.1 in its current form. If there is a reason, I would be more than prepared to consider a different solution.

If the issue is technical, I am more than happy to consider a solution that is within the easily adjustable part of AE.

If the issue is related to this idea as a concept, I am more than happy to engage in further debate.

This is an inherently more realistic system than gates in most countries other than America, as in real life airlines will often share gates with their competitors where they would use less than 1 gate a day, and the gate itself is owned by the airport authority.

I have created this is a separate topic to discuss this as an individual potential solution, or other simple solutions to the gate crisis as this is importantly a change designed for 3.1in its current form, not AE 4.

A system redesign is a far better way to deal with gate shortages than 'shaming' gate hoggers who often are forced to meet low demand with 1x weeklies, or in fact forced to 'plan ahead' because of the broken system.

I like. Some rather interesting suggestions brought up there, I really hope this is implemented. 

All that would have to be done is do (gate number x 50 / 7) and then just round that number to the closest whole number. So a 2 gate airport would now end up with 14 slots. And London Heathrow would go from 231 gates to 1650 7 slot options. Which would end up being 482 daily flights lower than currently operated at LHR.

Something seems wrong. A 2 gate airport becoming a fourteen slot airport seems incorrect.' That is, unless you mean fourteen daily slots and fourteen times seven weekly slots.

Well then maybe a 2 gate airport would have 100 weekly slots...instead of dividing it up into daily slots, it would be weekly slots...

Well are we looking at single slots or a daily slot package?

If you just want more useable slots, how about making each gate give 25 slots, and doubling the number of gates (any maybe doubling gates for hub and terminal rules)? Or 10 slots per gate and 5x as many gates?

One issue I have is that if flying from a small country (e.g. Hong Kong, with only 1 large airport), then I have to lease a gate just for 1 or 2 return flights per week. This leaves 49 or 48 slots which I cannot use (as demand is met) but which no-one else can use either.

Going on your idea Mobeer. If we look at the (Gate x 50 /?) you end up with:

• 11600 - 1 slot
• 5800 - 2 slots
• 3866 - 3 slots
• 2900 - 4 slots
• 2320 - 5 slots
• 1933 - 6 slots
• 1650 - 7 slots

If we said that gates came in 25 slot pairs you'd then end up with 464 leasable "gates" at LHR. But 25 is still a very odd number as that ends up being around 3.4 weekly flights. It'd make more sense to do it in either small increments or in increasingly daily pairs. So as above with 1 daily flight into an airport you'd end up with LHR having 1650 leasable "gates". In the other daily increments you'd end up with:

• 828 - 2x daily
• 552 - 3x daily
• 414 - 4x daily
• 331 - 5x daily
• 276 - 6x daily
• 236 - 7x daily (After this point you end up with less gates than with the current system)

Well are we looking at single slots or a daily slot package?

My idea has been based on daily slot packages.

However we could go down to single slots, I guess...

As discussed here: http://www.airline-e...-hoggers/page-2

 

I propose, as a solution to the gate shortages experienced in many worlds;

 

 

Seems like thread has gone..

Sadly so.

In my opinion we need to unite behind a single, simple idea in order to provide the best chance of it being implemented in the current 3.1.

I agree with some of the proposed solutions. For example, buy "weekly slots" instead of "gates with slots". And to start, double the current amount.

So if an airport has 20 gates, currently those are 20 x 50 = 1000 slots.

I also agree with a poster abov that many gates are taken by people who fly 1 or two weekly flights. And also have to pay for teh full gate.

So take a current airport with 20 gates, those are 1000 slots. Make the slots available in batches of 10 (or even 5) and adjust the price accordingly. A 10 slot package would cost 20% of the current gate cost,a 5 slot package would cost 10% of the current pice.

A really really simple implementation would be:

1) Change the name of "Gate" to "Access Rights" (just change the name in SQL) and webpage text

2) Double the amount of current Access Rights, so a 10 gate airport would have now 20 access rights, then make the number x 5 (just change value in SQL).

3) Each access right would have 10 slots (change value in SQL).

4) Adjust pice for each access right to 20% of its original value (just chnage SQL and text on the webpage).

5) The result: a 10 gate airport with 50 slots per gate (total 500 slots originally) now has 1000 slots divided among 100 access rights (20 x 2 x 5).

6) People who need only 2-3 flights weekly would buy a 10-slot access right at 20% it's original cost. People who need 5 x daily frequency (35 weekly slots) would buy 4 access rights (40 slots) at 80% of the original price.

This approach is more realistic and resembles real life. In real life, small operations pay for infrequent gate use (e.g. 1-2 times per week) much lower price than an airline that uses that same gate 4 or 5 times a day. They all pay some fixed fee to the airport, plus gate per-use fee. So maybe charge a 10% original value fee as a fixed monthly fee, and then charge access rights. But maybe fixed fee + variable fee implementation would be more complicated, so just do the proposal above, it shoudl be really easi to implement. Just multiply and divide various values and make some cahnges in HTML code. That's it.

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