Disruption management for commercial airlines: methods and results for the ROADEF 2009 Challenge

A disruption management problem for commercial airlines has been presented by Amadeus for the ROADEF 2009 Challenge, an international competition organised by the French Operational Research and Decision Support Society (ROADEF). This paper presents this industrial large scale optimisation problem and underlines its difficulties compared to previously tackled problems in the area. We review the most prominent methods proposed by the candidates and provide the official results and participant ranking. Last, as lessons learned from this experience, we draw guidelines for further research. [Received 11 November 2009; Revised 4 June 2010; Accepted 29 November 2010]