Towards the optimisation of the schedule reliability of aircraft rotations

A cost minimisation model is developed to optimise the scheduling of aircraft rotation by balancing the use of schedule time, which is designed to control flight punctuality, and delay costs. A case study is conducted using schedule and punctuality data from a European airline. Optimisation shows that the operational performance of an aircraft rotation schedule is improved in terms of: schedule regularity, mean delays and expected delays of aircraft rotation. Although the total schedule time of the study rotation is increased by 5%, a system cost saving of some $9.3 million/1000 aircraft rotations is gained after schedule optimisation. Three schedule reliability surrogates—mean delay time of aircraft rotation, expected delay time of aircraft rotation and schedule regularity—are employed to evaluate the reliability of aircraft rotation schedules. It is found that the reliability and robustness of schedule implementation is significantly improved after optimisation.