This research was focused on increasing the efficiency of aircraft ground handling at the airport. The main goal of the research was to improve the individual processes that are part of the aircraft ground handling in order to speed up this operation, as well as improve the turnaround time between individual flights to enhance the overall throughput of airport stands. The objective of the research was to measure the times of standard airport processes that are part of the aircraft handling, measure the turnaround time between individual flights at the selected airport and increase the efficiency of each process that was measured. After the measurements had been taken, changes were introduced, and the times were measured again. The changes were mainly focused on the following aspects: the position of ground handling equipment before the arrival of the aircraft, the deployment of staff, and the routes taken by ground handling equipment. The measurements were taken during the summer on a fixed stand, with a standard number of employees and with the same type of aircraft. In total, 78 measurements were taken in which 2340 partial times were measured during the entire course of aircraft ground handling before departure to the next destination. After the changes were implemented, the same measurements were taken again to see if the changes that had been implemented could speed up the overall process of the aircraft ground handling. Subsequently, all data were evaluated using statistical methods. All measurements were done at the Košice airport.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on air transport in various parts of the world. The impact of the pandemic has been and still is significant within the Member States of the European Union. The introduction focused on identifying and monitoring the pandemic spread in the individual Member States. The research focused on two periods that were compared with each other based on key indicators, i.e., reproduction rate, hospitalized patients, or ICU patients. Identification and monitoring of the above-mentioned periods were performed by an observational study of collected data mentioned below. Subsequently, an algorithm was proposed, which was to determine an index number of a given country based on key indicators mentioned earlier. The index number is an assessment of the pandemic situation in a given country. The index number calculation in the monitored periods divided the countries into two groups: countries with the index number higher than one and countries with the index number lower than one. The latter can continue using air transport by pandemic situation assessment conducted by the algorithm. The air transport utilization rate depends on the second part of the algorithm, where the allowed number of routes is calculated for individual airlines. The use of an algorithm for calculating the index number of individual countries and at the same time monitoring the development of key indicators every 14 days is a suitable method for ensuring the sustainable use of air transport to minimize financial losses.

This article is devoted to the analysis and comparison of two meteorological instruments, ceilometers. The aim of the paper is to recommend a more suitable design and principle design used in the construction of two different types of ceilometers commonly used in Europe, based on the recommendations of a group of experts with more than ten years of experience in aviation weather measurement and observation. With increasing air traffic density, in some areas located below the flight paths, Cirrus clouds may form under appropriate meteorological conditions, which do not dissipate immediately but expand into layers. This artificial cloud formation changes the optical transmittance of the atmosphere, and this may affect climate change in the region. Although the ceilometer is primarily designed to detect the height of the cloud base using laser technology, after some adjustments, the raw laser output can be interpreted as the optical transmittance of the atmosphere. The data thus measured can be used to quantify climate change in the areas concerned. As part of preparing the project for the EU Horizon 2020 challenge, the team of experts decided to systematically address this issue. Identifying a suitable monitoring facility for the presence of man-made cloud due to air traffic is a crucial step in the experimental verification of climate change in a given region and the subsequent modeling of possible climate scenarios for the affected areas.