Robust passenger oriented timetable and fleet assignment integration in airline planning

This paper looks at the airline-scheduling problem and develops an integrated approach that optimizes schedule design, fleet assignment and passenger use so as to reduce costs and create fewer incompatibilities between decisions. Robust itineraries are created to ameliorate misconnected passengers. The analytical work is supported with a case study involving the Spanish airline, Iberia. Our approach shows that the number of misconnected passengers can be reduced when robust planning is applied.

► Flight timetable and the aircraft fleet assignment are scheduled using an integrated model. ► The “price” of robustness depends on the airline's objectives. ► We show the number of misconnected passengers can be reduced using robust planning.