An objective model for collaborative flight scheduling in a single mega-hub network

Single mega-hub (SMH) airports are among the highest passenger volume airports in the world. Eight operational features that distinguish an SMH airport are identified, including collaborative flight scheduling between the airline and airport. This paper develops an objective function to direct collaborative flight scheduling. Three cost objectives are modeled, each of which focusses on a specific variable cost to the airport: passenger waiting time, passenger volume in the terminal, and ground activity imbalance. The scheduling objective is modeled as a function of (i) waiting time for each passenger, (ii) passenger count in the airport terminal, and (iii) the ground activity peak deviation from the balanced rate. Model application is demonstrated on the schedule of an airline operating 184 daily departures from a SMH. Results show the model can be used to reduce the airport’s variable costs. Rescheduling departure times for 6.5% of flights generated a 2.8% cost reduction.