ACC7003 – Case Research
Group work (30% of total grade)
Submission deadline: see due date and time on Canvas
Please observe the submission tips (proven after the case research) fastidiously.
Brian Air Govt Flying Companies – case research
Wayne Beckham seemed out of his workplace window to witness the magnificent sight of snow slowly protecting up the Botanic Gardens in Belfast. With a freshly brewed espresso by his facet on the chilly February morning, he took a clean sheet of paper and began to scribble on it some random notes in relation to his upcoming flights to varied cities. A pilot by occupation and with greater than 12 years of flying expertise, he thought of himself lucky to have joined Brian Air Govt Flying Companies (BAEFS) some 4 years in the past that allowed him to expertise the world of government flying service.
Previous to becoming a member of BAEFS, Beckham flew business planes for Fizzy Jet which was identified to supply economy-class price range providers to passengers. With the scourge of Covid and accompanying decline in passenger numbers, a lot of his former colleagues at Fizzy Jet had both been furloughed or had been on unpaid depart; nevertheless, issues had been little completely different at Beckham’s present office. As BAEFS provided area of interest government flying service to company executives and excessive net-worth people, Covid-19 and the ensuing social distancing guidelines had led to larger demand in enterprise for BAEFS. This had saved Brian, and 24 of his pilot colleagues, pretty busy all through the lockdown interval.
Beckham had been advised the sooner day that he was to embark on an attention-grabbing flying mission to varied cities after which return to Belfast inside the subsequent few days. He was scheduled to first fly to Brussels (Belgium) with the CEO and CFO of the Wimbledon Company, each of whom had flown with BAEFS beforehand and had come to know Beckham personally. The aim of the journey, as hearsay had it, was to select up two nice tennis gamers Rafa Fed and Andre Chang who had been stranded in Brussels in the course of the lockdown. After a brief keep of just some hours in Brussels, they might then journey collectively to Amsterdam to select up 4 extra famend athletes, whose names had been but to be disclosed, however had been understood to be good pals of each the CEO and CFO of the Wimbledon Company. The whole group of the famend athletes together with the 2 lesser-known executives of Wimbledon Company had been then anticipated to fly collectively to London Gatwick, England for a particular photo-op session on the London eye earlier than travelling collectively to Belfast for the opening ceremony of a particular sports activities centre with state-of the artwork facility within the coronary heart of Belfast.
About BAEFS
BAEFS had created a reputation for itself within the superstar world for providing discreet and deluxe flying expertise to the wealthy and well-known celebrities. Because the wealthy and well-known discovered themselves continuously being the main target of reports articles for touring in their very own personal jets, regardless of passionately telling the world to cut back their carbon footprint, increasingly more celebrities began to keep away from utilizing their private personal jets in favour of extra discreet personal flying providers in an effort to avoiding the prying eyes of paparazzis. The present administrators of BAEFS, all of whom labored within the leisure trade beforehand, noticed a enterprise alternative and established BAEFS eight years in the past in Belfast. At present, it operates 4 plane to routinely supply government flying providers to primarily European and American clients to areas all through the world.
Among the many 4 plane, BAEFS’s largest and costliest plane was the ATR 72-500 which had a variety of eight,00Zero nautical miles. Bought with long run mortgage in 2012, it was flown all through the world, together with the expansion areas of Brazil, China, India, and Russia. It burned gasoline at a charge of roughly 500 gallons per hour (one gallon of gasoline weighs 6.7 kilos). It may carry as much as 14 passengers, a flight attendant, and two pilots. The agency additionally owned and operated two Beechcraft 1900D plane (known as BC1900 hereafter), which it had bought in 2016 and 2018. Each the Beechcraft fashions had been smaller and will carry as much as eight passengers and two pilots in every. Regardless of being small, the BC1900 was thought of a quick airplane and infrequently flew from Belfast to so far as Australia, China, and New Zealand—a bigger vary than most small jets. Its 13,00Zero-pound-capacity tank and gasoline burn charge of 310 gallons per hour meant that it required a gasoline cease to achieve these extra distant locations.
BAEFS acquired its latest plane, a Beechcraft 2100X (BC21X), in 2019. Although this plane’s gasoline burn charge and passenger capability is just like that of the prevailing two Beechcraft fashions, its flying vary is longer and can also be thought of extra snug for longer flights.
Flying with the celebrities
As traditional, BAEFS would begin its preliminary flight from Belfast Metropolis Airport (BHD) earlier than touchdown at Brussels airport (BRL) to select up the good tennis gamers who had been apparently staying someplace close to the town airport. The following flight then would finish at Amsterdam Airport (AMD) and the extra thriller athletes had been anticipated to board the airplane inside an hour or two of touchdown at AMD. The whole group would then journey collectively to London Gatwick (GTW) earlier than touring collectively to Belfast (BHD) the place Beckham’s flying shift was anticipated to return to an finish for the week.
One space of concern that pilots steadily needed to deal whereas flying any plane was the take-off and touchdown weight of the plane. Pilots at BAEFS had been chargeable for creating and submitting their very own flight plans to air visitors management and the Worldwide Aviation Administration (IAA). To calculate these essential measures, the pilots began with the traditional working weight (NOW) of the craft and added the burden of the passengers and gasoline. The NOW included weight of the construction of the plane, stocked meals and drinks, emergency tools, and the crew. The one part that differed from take-off to touchdown on a given flight was gasoline and the one weight parts that differed from flight to flight had been passengers and gasoline.
Fuelling dilemma
By the point Beckham completed his espresso, he had practically stuffed up the entire sheet of paper along with his fuelling plan and calculations for the thrilling flights he was about to undertake inside the following couple of days. Arising with a gasoline plan was a difficult job for pilots as a result of there was no simple method to calculate how a lot gasoline to tackle or “add” in the beginning of every leg. One Question Assignment was whether or not or to not “preload” which referred to a apply during which additional gasoline was uploaded initially to keep away from having to buy higher-priced gasoline at vacation spot airports. BAEFS operated its personal gasoline supply at Belfast’s BHD, which saved its gasoline prices low. Gas at BHD on the time price £three.50 a gallon. In distinction, gasoline bought at BRL price £9.35 a gallon. As a easy instance of preloading, Beckham may determine to add sufficient gasoline at BHD to hold him via each of the primary two flights, thus avoiding shopping for the costlier gasoline at BRL. In essence, BAEFS would carry or preload from BHD the gasoline wanted to fly from BRL to AMD.
BAEFS was topic to touchdown payment in any respect airports aside from BHD (because it paid different charges for your complete yr on the dwelling airport). Touchdown charges had been mounted charges charged to every touchdown jet by the vacation spot airport’s general-aviation terminal; the charges coated the prices of operation and basic bills of the terminal. The touchdown payment at BRL was £950 however the payment could possibly be waived if 600 or extra gallons of gasoline was bought; and related insurance policies had been utilized by the opposite vacation spot airports the place touchdown charges could be waived with buy of minimal stage of gasoline specified at every airport. Therefore, from cost-reduction perspective, one needed to weigh the good thing about preloading with the price of touchdown charges.
With no extra space remaining on the sheet of paper he had pulled out earlier, Beckham now took a correct pocket book from his drawer to write down down the related figures for the journey extra fastidiously. He had gathered sufficient info to make a desk (which is proven in Exhibit 1). He patted himself on the again for the work finished up to now, and in an try and take a break from the work, gazed out of the window in direction of Botanic backyard. It was snowing extra closely and he may see youngsters throwing snowballs at one another down on the backyard. He additionally felt like taking a brief break to exit within the snow however needed to complete yet one more essential job earlier than doing so.
Beckham additionally wanted to contemplate the structural limitations of the BC1900 (see Desk 2) along with the touchdown charges and price of gasoline. All plane had strict gasoline tank capability together with the departure weight and touchdown weight limits which had been strictly specified and developed by the producer and accredited by the IAA. To calculate departing weight or arrival weight, Beckham added NOW to the burden of the gasoline and the burden of the passengers (passenger weight calculations had been primarily based on a company-mandated determine of 300 kilos per particular person which incorporates baggage).
There have been two extra points, associated to the extent of gasoline upon touchdown, to be thought of. The primary situation to contemplate was that the corporate coverage required that plane all the time land with a minimum of 2,800 kilos of gasoline. This “reserve gasoline” was there to make sure jets had sufficient gasoline to make it to another airport ought to there be dangerous climate on the vacation spot airport. Any gasoline plan Beckham developed must be one during which the burden of gasoline at arrival was a minimum of 2,800 kilos. The second consideration was that the corporate required all plane to convey the gasoline stage as much as eight,00Zero kilos instantly upon arrival again at BHD. The rationale for this was that the plane would all the time be in a “ready-to-leave” place to go at a really
quick discover if required to take action. This meant that Beckham’s gasoline plan ought to start with the BC1900 containing a minimum of eight,00Zero kilos of gasoline earlier than departing BHD. For the bigger plane (ATR 72-500 plane), the coverage was to all the time land with a minimum of four,500 kilos of gasoline and produce its gasoline stage as much as eight,700 kilos upon arrival at BHD.
As Beckham finalized his BHD to BRL to AMD to GTW to BHD journey, he paused to look out of the window as soon as once more to verify if it was nonetheless snowing. He nonetheless has some extra calculations to complete earlier than he can exit and benefit from the snow.
TABLE 1
BRIAN AIR EXECUTIVE FLYING SERVICES
Flight Particulars
Leg
Depart
Arrive
Miles
Period (hr.:min.)
Gas burn (kilos)
Gas value (£/gallon)
Touchdown payment
Minimal gallons to waive touchdown payment
1
BHD
BRL
890
02:00
four,800
£three.50
2
BRL
AMD
176
00:40
2,00Zero
£9.35
£950.00
600
three
AMD
GTW
1,202
02:55
5,300
£7.47
£450.00
300
four
GTW
BHD
628
01:35
three,100
£6.01
£400.00
350
TABLE 2
BRIAN AIR EXECUTIVE FLYING SERVICES
Plane Limitations
(in kilos)
Plane
BC1900
ATR-72
Most Departure Weight
36,400
90,900
Most Touchdown Weight
31,800
75,300
NOW*
22,200
48,800
Gas Tank Capability
13,00Zero
41,300
*NOW = regular working weight of the plane, together with crew and excluding the burden of gasoline and passengers.
Required:
1. Formulate a gasoline plan for Beckham’s upcoming journey. Current and talk about the optimization perform and the constraints from a enterprise perspective. 7 Marks
2. Use linear programming and Solver in Excel to calculate the optimum stage of gasoline to be purchased at varied areas to reduce price. Current all of the calculations in good type.
18 Marks
three. Talk about the assumptions used within the linear programming strategy above. 5 Marks
Complete 30 Marks
[Important information]
Marks might be awarded on:
(i) a gaggle foundation, primarily based upon how the Group tackle the duties; and
(ii) a person foundation, primarily based on proof of collaboration as proven in ‘GroupLogReport’ sheet of the reply booklet offered. Unexplained absences/non-participation will entice deductions.
Submission tips
You will have been assigned to separate teams (MA_CaseStudy 1, 2 and many others.) in Canvas. Reply booklet in .xlsx format has been supplied with this case research and one digital copy (in .xlsx format) of the reply booklet per group should be uploaded to Canvas by the submission deadline. The reply booklet incorporates 5 sheets as proven under in Determine 1:
Determine 1: Format of the reply booklet exhibiting the completely different sheets
Make sure that the group members’ attendance or absences are logged correctly within the ‘GroupLogReport’ sheet within the given format. Solutions to Q1, Q2, and Q3 needs to be offered in sheets Q1, Q2, and Q3 respectively. Moreover, the screenshot of the Solver dialogue field (used to seek out the optimum answer) needs to be offered in “SolverScreenshot” sheet.
Plagiarism is handled very critically; click on right here for extra info on plagiarism.
Any questions that will come up subsequently might be addressed within the FAQ web page
