A heuristic model for frequency planning and aircraft routing in small size airlines

The flight schedule of an airline is the primary factor in finding the most effective and efficient deployment of the airline’s resources. The flight schedule process aims at finding a set of routes with associated aircraft type, frequency of service and times of departures and arrivals in order to satisfy a specific objective such as profit maximization. In this paper, the authors develop a two-phase heuristic model for airline frequency planning and aircraft routing for small size airlines. The first phase develops a frequency plan using an economic equilibrium model between passenger demand for flying a particular route and aircraft operating characteristics. The second phase uses a time-of-day model to develop an assignment algorithm for aircraft routing.