NetWorks realistically simulates airline network performance. Using airline schedules and origin-destination (O&D) market information, the system determines the viable services in each of the markets. Utilizing ICF SH&E's Competitive Service Index (CSI), the system then models passenger behavior by evaluating the attractiveness of each of the services in a specific market. CSI is a proven technique that estimates the "entitlement" of each service for a passenger type by considering a variety of factors, including:
- Type of service (online, interline, alliance, etc.)
- The number of transfer connections
- The number of stops
- Elapsed time
- Time of day and day of week
- Aircraft type
- Fare
- Traffic freedom
Finally, NetWorks allocates passengers to the services considering network effects such as turn-away (spill) and revenue management.
NetWorks displays traffic, market share, revenue, and profit. It presents the results in a way that permits the user to "drill down" to a variety of different levels—network, market, flight, or station. All information produced by NetWorks may be exported to spreadsheets for further analysis. The results of a NetWorks session may be saved to share with a colleague or revisit at a later time.
All NetWorks parameters may be altered by the user and calibrated for a variety of situations. A user may influence the number of passengers, average fare, time-of-day and other preferences by passenger type (e.g., business, full fare economy, discount economy). NetWorks also allows the user to alter other parameters such as aircraft configurations and connection time limits.