Flight scheduling based on node influence of complex network

Optimizing the inbound and outbound traffic is a method to reduce airport flight delay. However, propagation is a characteristic of delay. The delay of departure flight will affect the operation of its destination airport, especially in large hub airports. To consider the contribution of destination airport to the whole airport network while optimizing the airport schedule, has a positive effect on the network delay control. Using the complex network theory, the influential nodes in the airport network is identified. The constraint factor of inbound-and-outbound ratio is considered, and a schedule optimization model is established with the goals of flight delay and operational fairness. The model is validated by taking China's national airport network and Beijing Capital Airport operation as an example. The simulation results show that, the model balances the delay cost of each time period, and the delay of airports in the whole network reduced slightly, and the workload of whole airport network is balanced as well. It is proved that the influence node identification method based on robustness measure is effective.