Airline flight schedule planning under competition

Abstract

This paper presents a modeling framework for airline flight schedule planning under competition. The framework generates an operational flight timetable that maximizes the airline's revenue, while ensuring efficient utilization of the airline's resources (e.g. aircraft and crew). It explicitly considers passenger demand shift due to the network-level competition with other airlines. It also considers minimizing the needless ground time of the resources. The problem is formulated in the form of a bi-level mathematical program where the upper level represents the airline scheduling decisions, while the lower level captures passenger responses in terms of itinerary choices. A solution methodology is developed which integrates a meta- heuristic search algorithm, a network competition analysis model, and a resource (e.g. aircraft and crew) tracking model. The performance of the framework is evaluated through several experiments to develop the schedule for a major U.S. airline. The results demonstrate the success of the framework to develop a competitive schedule with efficient resources.