An optimal schedule recovery model for transportation carriers under uncertain typhoon disruption periods

Due to the unsettled weather conditions caused by typhoons, it is not possible to forecast the time when a typhoon will arrive or depart accurately. The uncertainty regarding the duration of typhoon disruptions makes it challenging for transportation carriers to efficiently adjust their schedules. In this study, to deal with the problem of airline fleet rerouting, flight rescheduling, and passenger reassignment for uncertain disruption periods caused by a typhoon, we utilize network flow techniques with the concept of probability to construct a stochastic model for minimizing the total operating costs. A heuristic algorithm based on the divide-and-conquer technique is adopted to efficiently solve such NP-hard problems that occur in practice. Finally, a case study regarding the international flight network of a Taiwan airline is conducted. The test results indicate that the proposed model, along with the heuristic algorithm, could be referable to airlines and other transportation carriers in practice.