Research On Optimal Design Of Hub-and-spoke Airline Network Under Uncertainty

The airline network is the foundation of airline company. Flight scheduling, operation control,revenue management and other works are based on the airline network. Hence, the efficient andeffective airline network has far-reaching effect on airline company. However in reality, someimportant model parameters, such as future demand and cost, are often uncertain. This article studiesthe related problems on the hub-and-spoke airline network design using stochastic optimizationmethod.Taking the economy of airline network into consideration, the restrict uncapacitated multiallocation p-hub median problem is proposed. A scenario decomposition method combined with theLagrangian relaxation method is used to solve the model. The scenario decomposition method candivide the primal problem into several independent subproblems. A case study using CAB data teststhe model and the algorithm. The results show that algorithm is effective especially when the numberof scenarios is huge. The value of stochastic shows the meaning of using stochastic optimization.For risk management, a robust optimization model for the p-hub median problem is developed totake the risk into consideration under demand and cost uncertainties. A solution algorithm based onthe combination of dual ascent procedure and Tree pruning algorithm, is implemented. The proposedmodeling and computing methods are tested in the case study with the China airline data.A Mean-CVaR stochastic programming model is developed for a p-hub median problem tobalance the overall system efficiency and robustness under demand and cost uncertainties. Asolution algorithm based on scenario decomposition, the progressive hedging method, is designed toovercome computational challenges brought by the large size of the problem. The proposedmodeling and computing methods are tested in two case studies using the classic CAB dataset andChina aviation data. The solutions of different models including the mean-CVaR model, thedeterministic model and the expectation model are reported in the case study part. The result suggeststhat mean-CVaR model is better than others.A Hybrid network utility model is designed to extend the classic hub-and-spoke model. From thereduction of "non-essential transit" point of view, the concept of passenger time value coefficient isproposed. Finally, an instance which contains15cities is given to demonstrate the relationshipbetween the passenger time value coefficient and the scale of spider web network.