Optimization of multi-fleet aircraft routing considering passenger transiting under airline disruption

•We provide an efficient and computationally manageable way of integrating the aircraft recovery and passenger recovery problems in the form of a reduced time-band network that prevents the repetition of a large number of redundant flight arcs.•We first give Np-hard Proof of aircraft recovery problem.•A necessary condition is given for the existence of feasible solutions to the network model for a given set of practical recovery options.

This paper proposes a new methodology for addressing the joint problems of aircraft and passenger recovery after a schedule disruption. An integrated integer programming model is presented which is based on an approximate reduced time-band network and a passenger transiting relationship. The objective is to minimize the total cost associated with reassigning aircraft and passengers to flights. A feasibility analysis for the problem is conducted to obtain the necessary conditions under which aircraft and passenger recovery is possible. Solutions are obtained to the network model with CPLEX and then, if necessary, adjusted to more accurately reflect actual costs. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated by analyzing several scenarios that were developed using data from a big airline in China.

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