Cheng-Lung Wu

Dr. Wu is currently an Associate Professor at UNSW Aviation, specialising in airline operations management, scheduling, airport terminal planning, airport retail development, passenger choice behaviour, and airline big data analytics. Many of his past projects have helped industry partners save millions of dollars in operating costs and enhance product sales and revenues. Dr. Wu leads a team of researchers with specialised skills to deliver value for industry partners through world-class aviation research at UNSW Sydney. Dr. Wu has worked in both the public and private sectors of transport and aviation. Wu's recent research projects include: customer spending data analytics onboard cruise ships (P&O Cruise, 2024); passenger retail purchase and best practices in the terminal space planning (Sydney Airport, 2024); aircraft fuel efficiency improvement with QAR data (Qantas Engineering, 2021); workforce planning & crew scheduling (Royal Flying Doctor Service, 2023); airport digitalisation blueprint (Taipei Songshan International Airport, 2020); airport operation simulations (PhD project, 2022); airline website click data modelling (Velocity Frequent Flyer Programmer Virgin Australia, 2019); machine learning project bidding models (Kent Removal, 2023); and passenger online ticket booking (Velocity Frequent Flyer, 2019). Wu's research outputs have been adopted by aviation insurance companies, consulting and investment firms, airlines, ground handling companies, and airports. A recent example includes Wu's 2014 output on airline alliance terminal co-location used by Chicago O'Hare Airport in 2016. Wu's 2015 publication on the airline delay data coding system was adapted by IATA in 2018 as a new delay data collection scheme for the airline industry. IATA is currently evaluating Wu's 2020 output on improving airport terminal design standards. Please reach out if you are interested in collaboration, research, and innovation. I joined UNSW Aviation in 2002 after my PhD from Loughborough University (UK). I have spent time both in the public and private sectors in transport and aviation. My research is innovative and highly relevant to the industry; recent projects in my lab include: Aircraft fuel uplift modelling: my team developed a data-driven and risk-based fuel uplift model for Qantas. We used aircraft QAR data and advanced risk-modelling models. Passengers' online booking behaviour: my team worked with the Velocity Frequent Flyer Programme of Virgin Australia on passenger booking data, website cookie data and frequent flyer data. We developed a few models to predict passenger booking likelihood and online booking behaviour. Passenger airport shopping behaviour: my team used an indoor navigation App to explore passenger movement at Taipei Airport. We tested how real-time retail marketing via smartphone push notifications could stimulate passenger shopping. Aircraft line maintenance scheduling and optimisation: my team worked with Qantas on the scheduling and optimisation of aircraft line maintenance. We also did an in-house test with Qantas on the performance of this optimisation algorithm. The results were quite significant. If you are interested, then please contact me. Customer-centric air cargo network planning: this project focuses on how air cargo networks can adapt to customer demand from the perspective of sustainability. AI-based aircraft maintenance scheduling: this project focuses on developing AI-based methods to solve aircraft maintenance scheduling problems. In the past few years, I have seen the commercial implementation of my earlier Aircraft Turnaround Monitoring System (ATMS) research. This prototype product, ATMS was issued a preliminary Australian patent in 2004, recognising the innovation of this framework/prototype in the airline industry. Recent commercial examples of the ATMS concept include SITA's former Workforce Mobility Solution. Also, see another example of the ATMS framework in action from Avtura's Real-Time Aircraft Turnaround Tool. Airline airport operations & management; aircraft ground operations, turn around operations & aircraft rotation control & scheduling. Punctuality control of airports, airlines. Airline planning, airline choice, airline delays, airline schedule optimization, airport retailing, airport terminal planning, airports, big data analytics. Air Transportation and Freight Services, Applied Statistics, Optimisation, Tourist Behaviour. Air Passenger Transport, Air Terminal Infrastructure and Management, Air transport, Tourism Infrastructure Development. My research focuses on airport operations, airline operations, schedule optimisation and passenger choice behaviour modelling. I also work with industry partners on big data analytics and simulation-based projects.