AGIFORS Conference Chairman

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The Airline Group of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (AGIFORS) is a professional society formed in 1960 dedicated to the advancement and application of Operational Research and other decision support technologies within the airline industry.

Today, the annual Airline Operations and Maintenance conference is the largest independent non-commercial airline operations conference in the world, bringing together airline operations, software vendors, and academic professionals. The 2025 conference in Doha had 150 delegates representing 31 airlines from 25 countries.

Mike Irrgang has been involved with AGIFORS since 1987. As a vice president of Air Jamaica, he hosted the conference in Ocho Rios, Jamaica in 2001. He has been the co-chairman and organizer of the conference since 2019. The membership consists of Operational Research professional employed by recognized civil airlines and related industries and correspondents keenly interested in the application of Operational Research to aviation problems.

The recent conferences and presentation abstracts are shown below. We can send any of the presentations to Airopsol clients, if you request them:

The link to the overview of the 2020 conference is HERE. The link to the presentation abstracts is HERE
The link to the overview of the 2021 conference is HERE. The link to the presentation abstracts is HERE
The link to the overview of the 2022 conference is HERE. The link to the presentation abstracts is HERE
The link to the overview of the 2023 conference is HERE. The link to the presentation abstracts is HERE
The link to the overview of the 2024 conference is HERE. The link to the presentation abstracts is HERE
The link to the overview of the 2025 conference is HERE. The link to the presentation abstracts is HERE
And finally, a link to the 2026 conference, planned in Barcelona, is HERE

Managing Irregular Operations: Costs, Recovery, and the Dump Plan

This chapter from The Handbook of Airline Economics (1995) examines the high costs of managing irregular airline operations, primarily due to weather disruptions. It outlines how airlines incur substantial financial losses from diversions, cancellations, and delays. The chapter introduces the concept of the “Dump Plan,” an operational strategy that involves pre-emptively landing flights at en-route alternates rather than holding them in the air, reducing recovery time and minimizing operational disruption. Key topics include resource allocation, operational efficiency, decision support systems, and the critical importance of balancing slack resources to improve recovery times. The chapter emphasizes that better planning and modern systems can cut irregular operation costs by up to 20%.

Fuel Conservation Strategies: Cost Reduction and Operational Efficiency in Airline Operations

This chapter from The Handbook of Airline Economics (1995) highlights the importance of fuel conservation in reducing airline operating costs, given that fuel is one of the largest expenses for airlines. It explores various strategies for reducing fuel consumption, focusing on aircraft weight reduction, minimizing unnecessary flying, and eliminating inefficient operational practices. The chapter also emphasizes the potential savings from modernizing fleets and optimizing flight planning, such as by reducing excess fuel and better managing alternate airports. Practical techniques like reduced-thrust takeoffs, optimizing descent profiles, and strategic fuel tankering for cost savings are discussed in detail. The chapter underscores the need for pilot education and operational flexibility to achieve significant fuel savings without compromising safety.

Maximizing Airline Operational Efficiency: Strategies, Structure, and Tactical Improvements

This chapter from The Handbook of Airline Operations (2000) offers a detailed exploration of airline operational efficiency, discussing critical aspects such as turnaround times, crew utilization, fleet management, and maintenance scheduling. It highlights how external factors, including route structure, labor union constraints, and geographic challenges, can influence an airline’s operational efficiency. The chapter also addresses common pitfalls in efficiency analyses and the importance of centralized operations control, particularly in large networks. Specific topics such as aircraft utilization, fuel consumption, fleet assignment, and the integration of operational data are explored, offering actionable insights for airlines aiming to enhance both their operational performance and financial sustainability.

Strategic Regionalization: Leveraging Growth in Third World Airlines

This chapter from The Handbook of Airline Strategy (2001) explores the concept of strategic regionalization, a key approach for Third World airlines like Lan Chile and Air Jamaica to thrive in competitive global markets. It discusses how these carriers have expanded their regional influence by focusing on ethnic markets, product differentiation, and building cooperative alliances, often filling gaps left by larger First World carriers. Through targeted market capture, strong regional hubs, and effective partnerships, these airlines have gained market share, even amidst economic challenges and the rise of global airline alliances. Key strategies include forming alliances, negotiating favorable traffic rights, and achieving economies of scale within their respective regions.

Cargo-Passenger Integration as Strategy: The Lan Chile Case

This chapter from The Handbook of Airline Operations (2000) examines Lan Chile’s transformation into a leading Latin American airline through the integration of cargo and passenger operations following its merger with Fast Air Carrier. It explores how the airline achieved operational synergies by leveraging directionality, seasonality, combi aircraft, and route flexibility. Detailed analysis covers load balancing, fleet economics, cargo yield optimization, and strategic network expansion. By treating cargo as a core business—not an afterthought—Lan Chile enhanced aircraft utilization, minimized risk in new markets, and built a model of sustainable, profitable airline growth.

The New Generation of Airline Revenue Management: A Network-Centric Approach

This chapter explores the evolution of revenue management in the airline industry from a siloed, segment-based model to a holistic, network-oriented strategy. It emphasizes the integration of origin-and-destination (O&D) inventory control, sales planning, pricing (published and unpublished), group management, scheduling, and operations planning into a unified revenue system. By aligning these departments and processes, airlines can make data-driven, real-time decisions that maximize network-wide profitability rather than isolated gains. The text outlines tactical tools, system infrastructure, and organizational changes necessary for implementing effective network revenue management.

The "Dump Plan": A Strategic Approach to Weather Diversions at American Airlines

Originally developed in 1991 by Michael Irrgang, the “Dump Plan” proposes a proactive method for handling weather-related diversions at major hubs like DFW and ORD. Instead of holding aircraft in the air or diverting them haphazardly, the plan recommends preemptively landing inbound flights at designated alternates to maintain operational sequence, minimize disruption, and reduce fuel usage. The strategy offers enhanced predictability, improved crew legality, and significant cost savings—potentially reducing diverted flight fuel costs by up to $150,000 per event. Though never fully implemented, the plan remains a powerful and forward-thinking solution for irregular operations management.

Quantifying the Cost of Diversions: A Data-Driven Study by American Airlines and Flight Dynamics

This comprehensive 1992 study, conducted jointly by American Airlines and Flight Dynamics, evaluates the operational and financial impact of weather-related flight diversions. It quantifies both hard and soft costs—ranging from crew overtime and fuel to passenger ill will—across actual case studies at DFW and LGA. Using conservative models, the report estimates over $170 million in annual diversion-related costs. The findings support a three-pronged solution: reduced diversions via Heads-Up Display (HUD) technology, operational improvements like the “Dump Plan,” and enhanced dispatch decision-support systems to streamline recovery. Together, these measures aim to mitigate disruption and preserve system integrity.

ValSim: Boeing’s Delay Simulation Research for Airline Operational Efficiency

Presented at AGIFORS in May 2005, this Boeing research introduces the “Value Simulator” (ValSim), a system designed to visualize, simulate, and quantify the operational impact of airline delays. Through “as-is” and “what-if” simulations, the tool helps airlines assess the cascading effects of disruptions, optimize flight scheduling, and reduce delay-induced costs. A key insight reveals that maintenance delays—though less frequent—account for a disproportionately high share of total delay minutes. The simulator’s integrated model enables strategic decision-making by estimating delay costs, cancellations, ripple effects, and the effectiveness of schedule adjustments, all tied to real-world airline data.

ValSim and the Accelerating Cost of Disruption: A New Approach to Airline Delay Economics

Presented at AGIFORS 2007, this Boeing-led study introduces a breakthrough methodology for airline delay costing using the ValSim simulation platform. Moving beyond average per-minute estimates, the report demonstrates how delay costs increase exponentially with time due to cascading impacts on passengers, crews, aircraft availability, and brand perception. It introduces a tiered cost model—factoring in direct operational costs, passenger ill-will, lost utilization, and network sensitivity—to provide a more realistic view of financial exposure. The methodology enables airlines to quantify disruption more accurately, revealing that delays over 2 hours can cost up to $134 per minute, compared to just $8 for short delays.

Applying 1980s Artificial Intelligence to Airline Operations: Early Innovations and Challenges

This 1987 report explores the application of artificial intelligence techniques from the 1980s to real-world airline challenges such as scheduling, maintenance diagnostics, dispatching, and passenger services. It details the use of expert systems, rule-based logic, and early machine learning approaches to streamline decision-making and improve operational efficiency. The study highlights both the promise and limitations of AI during that era, offering valuable historical insight into how early computing innovations laid the groundwork for today’s intelligent airline systems.

The State of Airline Fuel Conservation: Strategies, Savings & Systems

Presented by Boeing at AGIFORS 2011, this report offers an in-depth analysis of fuel conservation in the airline industry, highlighting that fuel can represent up to 30% of airline operating costs. It explores how fuel savings differ from carbon or financial savings, and reviews the roles of aircraft design, maintenance, pilot behavior, dispatch planning, and operational monitoring. Key recommendations include reducing unnecessary onboard weight, optimizing flight procedures, maintaining accurate passenger and aircraft weights, and tracking variances between planned and actual fuel use. The study stresses the importance of data-driven decision-making and proposes destination-specific arrival fuel standards as a major future efficiency gain.

A New Approach to Fuel Analysis and Reporting: Precision, Trust, and Optimization

Presented at AGIFORS 2014, this Boeing study introduces an advanced methodology for analyzing airline fuel performance beyond traditional KPIs. With fuel costs comprising up to 35% of operating expenses, the paper stresses the need for more granular, aircraft-specific analytics. It highlights the hidden inefficiencies in flight planning—such as inflated buffers, inaccurate arrival fuel targets, and pilot-added reserves—and presents a data-driven system for optimizing every phase of flight. By benchmarking against ideal performance and reducing planned vs. actual weight variances, the proposed framework can save millions annually. It also emphasizes cultural change and crew trust through feedback and performance transparency.

A New Approach to Fuel Analysis and Reporting: Precision, Trust, and Optimization

AeroMéxico’s Fuel Efficiency Transformation: A Boeing Case Study

This 2015 case study details AeroMéxico’s successful collaboration with Boeing fuel consultant Michael Irrgang to reduce excess arrival fuel and improve operational efficiency. Following a detailed assessment, the project identified over $16 million in potential savings, with arrival fuel as the largest opportunity. By redefining alternate airport strategies, building pilot-dispatch trust, and implementing a data-driven arrival fuel policy, AeroMéxico cut average arrival fuel by 1,000 kg per flight and reduced fuel consumption by 1.5%, saving $7 million annually. The initiative exemplifies how cultural change, targeted analytics, and strong partnerships can yield significant financial and environmental gains.

Aircraft Weight Error: Operational and Financial Impacts of Planned vs. Real Values

Presented at AGIFORS 2015, this Boeing analysis by Michael Irrgang reveals the hidden costs and consequences of inaccurate aircraft weight planning—particularly Zero Fuel Weight (ZFW). The study highlights that even small discrepancies, such as underestimating passenger or baggage weights, can lead to inefficient altitude profiles, extra fuel burn, and growing pilot mistrust in flight plans. With excess arrival fuel linked to over $200 million in potential industry savings, the paper emphasizes the need for accurate load data, better fuel planning, and routine weight audits to reduce fuel variances and restore operational confidence.

Common Misconceptions in Airline Fuel Planning: Efficiency Gaps and Solutions

This 2025 presentation by Mike Irrgang challenges common misconceptions in airline fuel planning, highlighting how outdated rules and errors in weight estimation contribute to inefficient fuel use. The presentation discusses historical flight planning systems, the role of weight miscalculations, and how outdated contingency fuel practices from the 1940s still affect modern operations. It presents a case study on the missing MH370 flight to emphasize the consequences of inaccurate fuel and weight estimates. The presentation advocates for better data analysis, including test flights, and adjustments to current flight planning methods to improve fuel efficiency by 2-3%.

Optimizing Ramp Arrival Fuel (RAF): A Strategic Approach to Fuel Efficiency

This 1992 presentation outlines American Airlines’ development and implementation of a Ramp Arrival Fuel (RAF) plan designed to reduce unnecessary fuel consumption during arrival procedures. The goal was to minimize the excess fuel carried by aircraft by calculating more precise, destination-specific RAF based on weather patterns, delay histories, and emergency requirements. The plan aimed to reduce fuel wastage, increase payload capacity, and achieve operational savings. Key strategies include using closer alternates and adjusting hold times based on real-time weather conditions. This approach successfully reduced RAF by up to 22 minutes, resulting in significant fuel cost savings and a more efficient operational model.

Optimizing Fuel and Payload: Lan Chile’s Combi Operations Strategy

This 1999 presentation by Michael E. Irrgang at AGIFORS details Lan Chile’s innovative approach to optimizing fuel, cargo, and passenger payloads on long-haul flights. Using the B-767-300ER as an example, Lan Chile’s combi operations—where both passengers and cargo share the same flight—enabled the airline to increase payload significantly. The presentation highlights how proper weight management, fuel monitoring, and effective coordination can maximize revenue and reduce inefficiencies. Lan Chile’s strategy resulted in cutting block fuel by 2,000 pounds, improving aircraft utilization, and eliminating payload gaps, ultimately achieving over 4 tonnes in fuel and payload optimization gains.

Data Requirements for Effective Fuel Conservation: A Holistic Approach to Airline Efficiency

Presented in 2005, this presentation by Michael E. Irrgang explores how airlines can significantly reduce fuel costs—now a major portion of their budgets—through better data management and operational control. Key factors influencing fuel consumption include excess weight, inefficient flight procedures, poor fuel purchasing practices, and excessive fuel carried during arrival. The presentation highlights the importance of accurate data collection across multiple systems (DCS, flight planning, ACARS, maintenance, and weather data) to pinpoint inefficiencies, track trends, and optimize fuel consumption. By analyzing actual versus planned data, airlines can target areas for fuel savings, such as reducing arrival fuel burn, optimizing aircraft performance, and using fuel more efficiently during ground operations and flight procedures.

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