¹ Brunel University, London, UK

Correspondence: AH Ahmed, Corporate Planning, Qatar Airways, PO Box 22550, Doha, Qatar. E-mail: Anwar.Ahmed@brunel.ac.uk

Received December 2005; Accepted September 2006; Published online 17 January 2007.

Abstract

Optimization application has revolutionized the airline industry in all phases of the planning process. One of the current issues facing the airline industry is planning under uncertainty, especially in the context of schedule disruptions. We discuss the robust models and solution algorithms that have been proposed and developed to handle the uncertain parameters. We show that stochastic programming (SP) provides an ideal paradigm for capturing the uncertainties and making robust decisions. We develop and investigate a prototype fleet assignment model formulated as a two-stage SP with recourse.