A Stochastic Model of Airline Operations

Abstract

We present a stochastic model of the daily operations of an airline. Its primary purpose is to evaluate plans, such as crew schedules, as well as recovery policies in a random environment. We describe the structure of the stochastic model, sources of disruptions, recovery policies, and performance measures. Then, we describe SimAir—our simulation implementation of the stochastic model, and we give computational results. Finally, we give future directions for the study of airline recovery policies and planning under uncertainty.