A decision support method for flight cancellations in adverse weather: An airport perspective

Due to the flight delay or aircraft shortage induced by the adverse weather conditions at the airport, flight cancellations are usually adopted by airlines to minimize the potential economic losses. The decision support method for flight cancellations are essential for airlines to make the proper choices, and have attracted research attention mostly from an airline perspective. However, taking the airport capacity and operational efficiency into account, the decision making of flight cancellations should be conducted in a more global way. This paper proposes a decision support framework for the inevitable flight cancellations from an airport perspective. A Departure Rate Decline (DRD) estimation model based on empirical analysis is presented to estimate the airport's capacity drops in various weather conditions. Then, the Departure Flight Cancellations Decision-making (DFCD) problem is formulated as an integer linear programming model with considerations of global airport efficiency and airline priorities. Moreover, the arrival flight cancellations are derived by the departure cancellations through an arrival and departure cancellations relevance model. Experimental studies using real data from Beijing Capital International Airport indicate the efficacy of the proposed method.