Degradable airline scheduling : an approach to improve operational robustness and differentiate service quality

We present a methodology for deriving robust airline schedules that are not vulnerable to disruptions caused by bad weather. In this methodology, the existing schedule is partitioned into independent sub-schedules or layers - prioritized on the basis of revenue - that provide airlines with a clear delay/cancellation policy and may enable them to market and sell tickets for flight legs based oil passenger preference for reliability. We present three different ways to incorporate degradability into the scheduling process: (1) between flight scheduling and fleet assignment (degradable schedule partitioning model), (2) with fleet assignment (degradable fleet assignment model), and (3) with aircraft routing (degradable aircraft routing model). Each problem is modeled as an integer program. Search algorithms are applied to the degradable aircraft routing model, which has a large number of decision variables. Results indicate that we can successfully assign flight legs with high revenue itineraries in the higher priority layer without adding aircraft or changing the schedule, and differentiate the service quality for passengers in different priority layers. Passengers in the high priority layers have much less delay and fewer cancellations than passengers in low priority layers even during the bad weather. In terms of recovery cost, which includes revenue lost, operational cost saving and crew delay cost, degradable airline schedules can save up to $30,000 per day. Degradable airline schedules have cost saving effect, especially when an airport with a high capacity reduction in bad weather is affected by bad weather.