A new approach for air cargo network planning

A central element of the air cargo planning process is the generation of optimal flight schedules. A flight schedule simultaneously defines the market potential of an airline and allocates its resources. The schedule design process is a difficult and time-consuming task that involves and affects virtually all business units. Because of its complexity, the process is traditionally decomposed into several steps that are executed in a sequential manner. In this paper, we present novel model formulations and solution procedures which have been developed in the course of a feasibility study for a decision support system (DSS) for a pragmatic approach to ‘freighter network planning’ at one of the top international cargo carriers. We formulate two integrated models that combine the three planning steps: flight selection, aircraft rotation planning, and cargo routing. The aim of the schedule optimization is to maximize the network-wide profit by determining the best combination from a list of mandatory and optional flights, assigning the selected flights to aircrafts and identifying optimal cargo flows. Both model formulations are embedded in a solution procedure that builds on the column generation technique with shortest path algorithms for solving the subproblems. The applicability of the models in a DSS is demonstrated on realistic problem instances that match the requirements specified in the feasibility study.