A 0-1 Mixed-Integer Program Approach towards Solving the Stochastic Aircraft Sequencing Problem with Constant Deceleration Rate

In this research, we study the aircraft sequencing and scheduling problem on a single runway when subject to decelerating velocity patterns along their flight paths as well as stochastic target times of arrival. This problem is formulated as a 0-1 mixed-integer program (MIP), where the objective is to improve the efficiency of the air traffic management system by minimizing the absolute deviation of flights from their target time of operations. Based on synthetically generated instances, we probe several underlying characteristics of the problem, and our results indicate that the effect of variability in target times varies based on flight categories. Given the computational complexity in solving large-scale instances, we design a heuristic based on a restricted constrained position shifting (CPS) strategy, and our simulation results for these heuristics indicate a significant improvement in solve time while retaining a near-optimal solution.