A two level optimization approach for long-term planning in a large air transportation network

Abstract

Inverse Problems, Design and Optimization Symposium Miami, Florida, U.S.A., April 16-18,2007 ABSTRACTIn this communication is considered the problem of long term forecasting of the traffic growth in a large air transportation network. This problem is crucial when planning the necessary investments in airports, fleets and air traffic control equipments. The proposed approach makes use of two different optimization models: One model is devoted to demand forecasting, the other one defines the air transport supply according with a profit maximization behavior for the airlines sector. A proposed solution scheme is composed of an iterative process between the current solutions of the demand and the supply optimization problems. Convergence conditions are discussed for this iterative process between these two problems which can be seen as inverse of each other. The proposed optimization approach is briefly illustrated in the case of the long term forecasting of air traffic in the west African region. INTRODUCTIONIn this communication is considered the problem of long term forecasting of the traffic growth in a large air transportation network. This problem is crucial when planning the necessary investments in airports, fleets and air traffic control resources. One of the main difficulty of this task is related with the estimation of future demand over the network which

Behavior of Air Passenger Demand in a Liberalized Market

“…Since the behavior of these variables changes in relation to time (Handou et al, 2009), the year of operation is included in the model, proposing the relationships shown in Figure 3.…”