Mathematical Modeling Approach for Flight Timetable Generation with Return Flights and Airport Slot Capacity

Abstract

This paper aims to generate a flight timetable between the hub and spokes, taking into account transit passenger waiting time at the hub and spokes in the pure-hub-and-spoke network. A non-linear mathematical model is developed to generate the flight timetable considering return flights, airport slot capacity, and passenger waiting time for the mega hub network. The results show that the decision to either rotate an arriving aircraft or dispatch a different aircraft has a crucial impact on passenger waiting times at both the destination and the hub. The aggregated demand at the hub, rather than individual origin-destination demand, plays a key role in determining the optimal schedule.