HiCAT: A market share, simple connection-based timetable generation model for an airline

This paper describes a system developed by Alitalia's operational research group for the production of the airline's timetable. Among the many criteria that can be used to evaluate a schedule for an airline, this model takes into account those considered to be the most important, which are the maximization of the expected revenue and the fleet economy (i.e., the best management of the available aircraft). A statistical model that forecasts passengers' behaviour based on the values of certain decisional variables, a model for the choice of the best flights with operational type constraints, an assignment model of the flights to the machines and a rotation optimization model are used. HiCAT is a first attempt at constructing a feasible and satisfactory timetable for an airline, and of course there is much room for improvement.