Research on Airline Network Design under Hub Airport Capacity Uncertainty

Abstract

The limitations of hub capacity are of vital importance in airline network design. The uncertainty of hub capacity may also change the whole network design pattern. Hub airport capacities are considered discrete variables. Different capacity scenarios result in different optimized airline network designs. According to the optimized design under the original capacity constraints, if hub airport capacities are changed, the flow distribution of hub airports would change. In a case study, three hub airports experienced delay rate increases of 8.57%, 12.06%, and 7.92%. Furthermore, the degree of congestion at hub airports can be frustrating. The authors can find one of them, in which the average potential delay rate of hub airports is the lowest among all of the scenarios. If this scenario is used as the capacity restriction condition of hub flow, too high potential delay rates of three hubs can be avoided, the worst of which are 6.59%, 7.09%, and 4.30%. Operation reliability of hub airports has been improved