Flight rescheduling, fleet rerouting and passenger reassignment for typhoon disruption events

ABSTRACT

This study aims to develop a model to help carriers effectively and efficiently deal with flight rescheduling and passenger transport problems after a typhoon disruption event. A network flow technique is employed to construct an optimization model with the objective of minimizing the total operating costs. The model is formulated as an integer multiple network flow problem with certain side constraints, and is characterized as NP-hard. To efficiently solve realistically large problems, a heuristic algorithm is developed. Moreover, a dynamic application framework is proposed to assist decision makers in running the model and adjusting the flight schedule with the passage of time. To evaluate the model and the heuristic algorithm, a case study based on the operations of a major Taiwan airline is performed. The test results demonstrate that the model and the algorithm could be useful references in actual operations.

KEYWORDS:

• Typhoon disruption
• flight rescheduling
• fleet rerouting
• network flow
• heuristic algorithm
• dynamic application framework

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the airline in Taiwan for kindly providing the test data and their valuable opinions. The authors also thank the anonymous reviewer for his/her helpful comments and suggestions on the presentation of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the grants [MOST-104-2221-E-008-031-MY3 and MOST-107-2221-E-008-018-MY3] from The Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan.