In this study, a reassignment model is developed for helping airline planners in reassigning unit load devices (ULDs), which include containers and pallets, to flights after temporary airport closures. The objective of the model is to minimise the system cost, which includes total weighted delay time and the total penalty for leftover ULDs. To test the model's efficiency and applicability, several problem instances of different scales are randomly generated based upon data from an airline in Taiwan. The sensitivity of results is analysed. The results show that as weight capacity increases, more ULDs can be assigned and average ULD delays increase. The approved ULD's quantity per flight increases, while the number of un-assigned ULD and average ULD delay time may decrease. Also, as the ULD weight increases, fewer ULDs can be assigned, and average ULD delay time may increase. The results show the usefulness of the proposed model for actual operations.
Relation:
International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics 15(3-4), p.239-254
