Model to Reduce Airline Schedule Disturbances

A wide variety of factors result in disturbances in carrying out planned airline schedules. Technical failures in the aircraft, meteorological conditions, crew delay, crews not showing up for flights, breakdowns in aircraft ground servicing equipment, and bottlenecks at airports lead to cancelation and/or delay of some flights. This paper develops a model to reduce airline schedule disturbances. The heuristic model that is developed [using the first in, first out (FIFO) principle and a sequential approach based on dynamic programming] can greatly facilitate the work of the dispatcher when making decisions regarding traffic management. The developed models and corresponding software package were tested on a large number of hypothetical numerical examples. The software package provides the dispatcher with an active role in choosing the final solution. Relying on his or her experience and intuition, the dispatcher can change the type of aircraft on a specific flight, departure times of individual flights, or cancel flights. These altered input data are put into the model and very quickly produce a new airline schedule, new crew rotations, and new aircraft rotations.