A stochastic approach for planning airport ground support resources

Daniel Guimarans, Silvia Padrón

Abstract: Airport ground operations are one of the main causes of late departures. Hence, reliable work plans for ground support resources can help mitigate these delays while limiting the under-/over-utilization of equipment. In this paper, we propose a stochastic approach for modeling the routing problems encountered during scheduling of each activity. We embed Monte Carlo simulation within an optimization approach to assess solutions during the search and guide the algorithm toward more robust schedules that account for resource cost. Actual flight arrival data, random service, and travel times are used in the simulation process. Results prove that our method clearly increases the robustness of the obtained schedules and the number of aircraft being handled within the planned time. To further identify potential causes of delay, we propose a reliability analysis based on the study of survival functions for each turnaround activity, combined with the dispersion of the resources' arrival to the parking stand.