Multi‐commodity flow network model of the flight gate assignment problem

The flight gate assignment problem is encountered by gate managers at an airport on a periodic basis. This assignment should be made so as to balance carrier efficiency and passenger comfort, while providing buffers for unexpected events that cause assignment disruptions. In this paper, a binary integer multi‐commodity gate flow network model is presented with the objective of minimizing the fuel burn cost of aircraft taxi by type and expected passenger discomfort for ‘tight’ connections as a function of inter‐gate distance and connection time. This approach is shown to be computationally efficient within a decomposition approach for large problem instances. A numerical application of this approach is given for the gating of Continental Airlines at George W. Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston (IAH).