Airline Schedule Development
Airline Schedule Development
Airline Schedule Development
2. Frequency Planning
Market share / frequency share
3. Timetable Development
Aircraft rotations and timetable constraints
LONG TERM
STRATEGIC
Fleet Planning
Route Planning
Time Horizon
Crew Scheduling
Revenue
Management
Airport Resource
Management
Sales and
Distribution
Operations Control
TACTICAL
SHORT TERM
Pricing
Types of Decision
Schedule Development
o Frequency Planning
o Timetable Development
o Fleet Assignment
o Aircraft Rotations
Flight
One or more flight legs operated consecutively by a single aircraft
(usually) and labeled with a single flight number (usually)
NW945 is a two-leg flight BOS-MSP-SEA operated with a B757
Route
Consecutive links in a network served by single flight numbers
NW operates 2 flights per day on one-stop route BOS-MSP-SEA
Schedule Design
Fleet Assignment
AAssign
flight specifies
aircraft types
origin,todestination,
flight legs
such thatand
contribution
departureistime
maximized
Aircraft Routing
Crew Scheduling
2. Frequency Planning
Frequency of departures on a route improves
convenience of air travel for passengers and
increases market share:
Peak departure times (early morning and late afternoon) are most
attractive to a larger proportion of travelers in many markets
More frequent departures further reduce schedule displacement or
wait time between flights, reducing travel inconvenience
Frequency is much more important in short-haul markets than for
long-haul routes where actual flight time dominates wait time
In competitive markets, airline frequency share is most important to
capturing time sensitive business travelers
Frequency of departures can be as important as path quality (nonstop vs. connection) in many cases
3. Timetable Development
Outline:
Problem Definition and Objective
Fleet Assignment Network Representation
Fleet Assignment Models and Algorithm
Definitions
Spill
Passengers that are denied booking due to capacity restrictions
Recapture
Passengers that are recaptured back to the airline after being spilled
from another flight leg
B
Demand = 100
Fare = $100
Fleet Type
Capacity
Revenue
Spill
Cost
Op. Cost
Assignment
Cost
Contribution
80
$8,000
$2,000
$5,000
$7,000
$3,000
ii
100
$10,000
$0
$6,000
$6,000
$4,000
iii
120
$10,000
$0
$7,000
$7,000
$3,000
iv
150
$10,000
$0
$8,000
$8,000
$2,000
Objective Function
For each fleet - flight combination: Cost
Operating cost + Spill cost
Constraints
Cover Constraints
Each flight must be assigned to exactly one fleet type
Balance Constraints
Number of aircraft of a fleet type arriving at a station must
equal the number of aircraft of that fleet type departing
B
( 80, $200 )
C
( 90, $250 )
( 50, $400 )
( Demand, Fare )
Fleet Type
Capacity
Spill Cost
80
ii
100
iii
120
iv
150
$0
Leg Interdependence
Network Effects
Solution
Solve fleet assignment problems for large
domestic carriers (10-14 fleets, 2000-3500 flights)
within 10-20 minutes of computation time on
workstation class computers
Hane, et al. The Fleet Assignment Problem,
Solving a Large Integer Program, Mathematical
Programming, Vol. 70, 2, pp. 211-232, 1995