Event Details

Andrea Gasparin from University of Trieste will present at seminar to the Management Science Department

Abstract: Flight delays are a central issue in air traffic management, causing significant passenger disruption and imposing substantial costs on airlines, estimated at over €1 billion annually. With air traffic predicted to grow steadily in the coming years, the challenge of managing delays is expected to intensify. Over the past two decades, considerable research has been devoted to developing operational mechanisms to mitigate the impact of delays. While these mechanisms have proven their potential for substantial improvement, their practical implementation must account for a complex variety of operational constraints. This translates mathematically into hard combinatorial optimisation problems, which must be solved in near real-time and often require sophisticated heuristic approaches.

The seminar explores how advanced optimization techniques provide crucial solutions to these complex problems. We will focus on two specific, promising mechanisms for collaborative decision-making: the User-driven Prioritisation Process (UDPP) and the Inter-Airline Slot Trading Offer Provider (I-STOP). The session will delve into the optimisation challenges each mechanism presents, the algorithmic strategies employed to tackle them, and the benefits they offer for enhancing the costs mitigation for airlines and passengers.