Probabilistic Approach for Selection of Maintenance Facilities for On-Demand Operations

Abstract

The notion of an on-demand air transportation service, or air taxi, is of much current interest. For an air taxi service to succeed, it must set the ticket price high enough to cover operating expenses and low enough to attract a significant number of passengers. Keeping operation costs low will be a crucial contributor to the potential success of an air taxi service. Addressing unscheduled events that require aircraft maintenance can be expensive; determining the proper number and location of facilities to provide maintenance for air taxi aircraft at a minimum cost is important. This paper describes an approach that computes the expected number of unscheduled events requiring aircraft maintenance at each airport in an air taxi’s service network. Using this distribution of expected events, an integerprogramming problem formulation and subsequent solution can identify the number and location of maintenance facilities that meet the expected unscheduled maintenance needs of the air taxi at a minimum cost.