Hybrid simulated annealing and reduced variable neighbourhood search for an aircraft scheduling and parking problem

Abstract

Aircraft stands and runways at airports are critical airport resources for aircraft scheduling and parking. Making use of limited apron and runway resources to improve airport efficiency is becoming increasingly important. In this paper, we study a realistic Aircraft Scheduling and Parking Problem (ASPP) with the goal of simultaneously determining the takeoff and landing time of each aircraft with consideration for wake vortex effect constraints and parking positions in the limited parking apron at a target airport. The objective of the ASPP is to minimise the total service time for aircraft. We developed a mixed-integer linear programme formulation for the ASPP. A novel improved bottom-left/right strategy is applied to construct solutions and a Hybrid Simulated Annealing and Reduced Variable Neighborhood Search (HSARVNS) is proposed to identify near-optimal solutions. Numerical experiments on randomly generated ASPP instances and on a large set of benchmarks for a reduced version of the ASPP (i.e. the classical Two-Dimensional Strip-Packing Problem (2D-SPP)) demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approach. For the ASPP, HSARVNS can find optimal solutions for small instances in a fraction of a second and can find high-quality solutions for instances with up to 250 aircraft within a reasonable timeframe. For the 2D-SPP, the HSARVNS can find optimal solutions for 32 of 38 tested benchmarks within 90 s on average.