Network Planning Tool

Hi

I've been recently working on a Network Planning tool to help setup a long-haul network on my airlines. I guess you know, it can be tricky to find the right mix between a low Maintenance % and still fly destinations with a rotation time bigger than 22-23 hours.

You can download it from my AS Route Map site under the news section.

It is not perfect, and it does not match the AS values 100% (there are some minor differences in flight times, distances, etc.) but it did help me to find a right mix between combining various destinations to maximize the utilization of the aircraft.

What you basically have to do is the following:

1. Define some of your base data in the Hub-sheet. Select a Hub Airport (IATA-Code) and the minimum connection time. Also define the types of aircraft you are planning to use and their related data. This sheet also provides some general settings as well as the intended connection-times specific to the continent.
2. Go to the Network-sheet to define the various destinations that you intend to fly to. You can select values in the blue cells and you will get some hint with the color coding and the calculated values on how the flights will perform in AS
3. Once the network is defined (or part of it) switch to the Weekly Planner-sheet to assign the flights to an aircraft. There are six blocks (equivalent to an aircraft). This sheet is quite a bit limited, as it only allows for one flight per day (usually not an issue with long-haul flights). If you enter a flight pair it will show up the time required for the flight using four different colors. Mix and match various destinations to plan the whole week to have the least downtime.
4. The Airports-sheet is simply a list of the airports from AS with its related data.
5. The Cabin-sheet can be used to calculate the weight of a cabin configuration and estimate the maximum range of an aircraft when not the full seat capacity is used. It does not calculate the exact range, but it can help to find it.

The sheets are protected and you can only enter values in the blue cells. I have left some notes with explanations, and the sheet already holds the values from my network as an example. Simply delete these values and replace them as required.

I am looking forward to your comments and hopefully to any suggestions or tips on how to improve the sheet.

Have fun with it.

That is so nice, thank you so much!

Glad you like it :)

Is it possible to use this for shorthaul routes e.g. Flights across Europe?

It basically can be used for shorthaul flights across Europe, though the weekly planner won't be much of help, as you can only display one flight in the graph to the right.

I also don't know how the MX-Percentage is calculated, so it won't be able to assist on maximizing the flights. You will need to do that in AS directly.

In the Network sheet you can define all your destinations and calculate the rotation times. If you sort the flights then you can combine longer ones with shorter ones to improve connection times. At least the list with airports should be complete, if not let me know which one is missing and I can amend them.

If you have any specific idea on how to improve let me know, and I can see how to implement it.

I couldnt get it to find my airline

Hi Clambier

What exactly do you mean with "I couldn't get it to find my airline"?

Where do you want to find your airline?

I get the error shown below when trying to import my route map. any help?

Reading flightplan

ASPtear error '800a01f4'

Server returned error information for request

/includes/functions.asp, line 265

WOW! thanks for pointing this.. I didn't know such tool exist.. Great insight to do network planning haha.. Thank you!

I get the error shown below when trying to import my route map. any help?

Reading flightplan

ASPtear error '800a01f4'

Server returned error information for request

/includes/functions.asp, line 265

What's your airline and on which server?

Did you enter the airline ID (the number, not the name)?