Hub-and-Spoke Network Optimization On Air Cargo Transportation Based On Game Analysis

With economic development and the increasing requirement for timeliness oflogistics, air logistics gets rapid development, meanwhile some disadvantages are alsoemerged, especially the lag of network mode which hinders air cargo transportationdevelopment. Airline network mode research is always the main contents in airlinenetwork research. Most existing methods study airline network from optimizationviewpoint, and ignore the influences of market competition. Studying network establishingdecisions of carriers in market competition, and doing interaction analysis among carriers,not only reflect the interaction essence in competition much better, but also have certaintheoretical guidance and practical significances to carriers’ airline network establishingpractice.The thesis studies hub-and-spoke network establishing on air cargo transportationusing optimization theory and methods, during analysis game theory is adopted to studycarriers’ decisions. Network optimization model is constructed. The model is improvedconsidering the influences from customers’ choosing behavior. Then discusses theinfluences of decision results, which comes from changes of carriers’ cost structure.At first, the thesis describes the status of air cargo transportation development, andsummarizes the research of airline network from contents and development directions.Proposes problems in air cargo transportation development. Then studies air cargotransportation network planning in market competition. Air cargo transportation networkoptimization model is established from strategy level, tactics level, operation level threedecision levels and interactions with competitors. Solution method is also given.Considering that customers’ choosing behavior will impact carriers’ decisions, the thesisimproves the model by adding congestion cost. A method of hub-and-spoke networkestablishing aiming at air cargo transportation is given. Afterwards, analyzes the models by a numerical example. Combined with the actual of air cargo transportation, getscarriers’ equilibrium choices about airline network structure in different cost structuresituations.At the end of the thesis, further research problems are proposed.