Optimizing Inbound Baggage Handling at Airports

Abstract

In this paper we consider the planning and scheduling of inbound baggage that is picked up by passengers at the baggage claim hall. Although this is a standard process at airports, to our knowledge there has been no mathematical model proposed in the literature optimizing the inbound baggage handling process. As the inbound baggage handling problem turns out to be NP-hard, we propose a hybrid heuristic combining a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure with a guided fast local search and path-relinking. We demonstrate how we implemented the algorithm at Munich’s Franz Josef Strauss Airport where it is in use to operate the inbound baggage handling process. In a case study, we compare the results of the mathematical model with the solutions of the hybrid heuristic and the solutions provided by the airport. The proposed algorithm reduces baggage peaks at the baggage carousels by 38% and waiting times for passengers by 11%. All computational results are based on an extensive simulation incorporating real world data. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2016.0702 .