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A Robust Fleet-Assignment Model with Hub Isolation and Short Cycles

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, P.O. Box 19017, Arlington, Texas 76019
School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0205
School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0205
jrosenbe{at}uta.edu
ellis.johnson{at}isye.gatech.edu
george.nemhauser{at}isye.gatech.edu

Airline decision makers cancel flights in operations because of disruptions. When canceling a flight, they usually cancel a cycle, a sequence of flights that begins and ends at the same airport. Consequently, a fleet assignment and aircraft rotation with many short cycles is frequently less sensitive to a flight cancellation than one with only a few short cycles. In this paper, we determine a lower bound for the number of short cycles using the hub connectivity of a fleet assignment, and we present fleet-assignment models (FAMs) that embed many short cycles and reduce hub connectivity within a solution. We show that solutions to such models perform better in operations than those of traditional FAMs that minimize planned operating cost and passenger spill.

Key Words: air transportation; fleet assignment; robust planning; hub insolation; integer programming
History: Received: January 2002; revised: September 2002; accepted: February 2003.

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