| dc.description.abstract | With the growing popularity of travel, the demand for airline catering has increased along with the annual rise in air traffic. This demand exists for both Full Service Airlines (FSA) and Low-Cost Carriers (LCC), although for the latter, meals are an add-on option. Once there is a need for in-flight meals, it becomes essential to utilize trolleys for distributing these meals. Therefore, trolleys play a crucial role in transporting and distributing food, beverages, and other items. Currently, the practical approach to scheduling trolleys involves filling all trolley capacity on board and transporting them to the destination. Once at the destination, all trolleys are unloaded. However, if there is an excess number of trolleys at the destination airport, the surplus must be reloaded onto the plane and transported back to the original airport. This unplanned scheduling method, done for contingency purposes, appears highly inefficient, increasing ground handling time and fuel costs. Therefore, this study explores the optimization of trolley scheduling to improve the current practical methods.
This study employs time-space network flow techniques and mathematical programming methods, considering constraints such as the substitutability of two types of trolleys. A model for optimal trolley scheduling is constructed with the objective of minimizing trolley-kilometers. The C++ programming language is used in conjunction with CPLEX mathematical programming to solve the model. To evaluate the model′s practicality, relevant data from a domestic airline is used as a case study. Sensitivity analysis and scenario analysis with different parameters are conducted. The results indicate that the model developed in this study can operate effectively in practice and can serve as a reference for airlines in their decision-making processes. | en_US |