Method for rescheduling flights affected by a disruption and an airline operations control system and controller

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10949775-B2
Application number	US-201916263336-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 31, 2019
Priority date	May 15, 2015
Publication date	Mar 16, 2021
Grant date	Mar 16, 2021

Abstract

An airline operations system, controller and method reschedules flights affected by a disruption that precludes a planned schedule for the flights. The method includes obtaining data related to a scheduled origination and a scheduled destination for each of a set of passengers scheduled on the flights, generating a passenger connection network of connections between the scheduled origination and the scheduled destination for a subset of the set of passengers, applying at least one criterion to the passenger connection network and rescheduling at least one connecting flight based on the criteria. The system and controller solves a network flow problem to reschedule a subset of connecting flights to have a delayed projected departure time. Resulting output can include the set of delayed flights along with modified projected departure times, a set of flight cancellations and a set of passengers with missed connections.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A controller in communication with a database containing data related to a scheduled origination and a scheduled destination for each of a set of passengers scheduled on aircraft flights, and comprising:
a processor;
a memory configured to store instructions to be executed by the processor; and
a plurality of modules including a flight disruption component, a modeling component, a network solver component and a reschedule component;
the processor being configured to:
access and retrieve the data via the flight disruption component;
generate via the modeling component, a passenger connection network by mapping connections between the scheduled origination and the scheduled destination for a subset of the set of passengers wherein the connections include at least one connecting flight that is not direct between the scheduled origination and the scheduled destination, wherein the at least one connecting flight has a first projected departure time, (ii) create at least one copy of the at least one connecting flight having a second projected departure time later than the first projected departure time, (iii) add connections to the passenger connection network between the scheduled origination and the scheduled destination for the subset wherein the added connections include the at least one copy of the at least one connecting flight;

apply via the network solver component, at least one criterion to the passenger connection network with the added connections and determine a strategy for rescheduling one or more connecting flights for the subset of the set of passengers; and
reschedule via the reschedule component, the at least one connecting flight to at least one second projected departure time based on the at least one criterion.

2. The controller of claim 1 wherein the software is further configured to determine a set of flights that are delayed, along with a modified projected departure time; determine a set of flight cancellations; and identify one or more subsets of passengers with misconnections.

3. The controller of claim 1 wherein the software is further configured to apply at least one criterion that associates a cost to each connection that results in a longer connection time than a scheduled connection time for a subset of the set of passengers.

4. The controller of claim 1 wherein the software is further configured to solve a multicommodity network flow problem to apply the at least one criterion to the passenger connection network.

5. The controller of claim 4 wherein the software is further configured to solve the multicommodity network flow problem with mixed integer linear programming.

6. The controller of claim 1 wherein generating the passenger connection network includes defining a simulation model including (i) a plurality of flight legs representative of the at least one connecting flights, (ii) a plurality of nodes for associating each scheduled origin and schedule destination, and (iii) a plurality of arcs, each arc connecting two or more of the nodes.

7. The controller of claim 6 wherein creating at least one copy of the at least one connecting flight includes creating at least one copy of the plurality of flight legs representative of the at least one connecting flights.

8. The controller of claim 6 , wherein the controller includes software further configured to provide a network solver module for analyzing the simulation model by way of the adding connections and the applying the at least one criterion, and to determine passenger rescheduling option in responsive to the analysis.

9. The controller of claim 8 wherein the determined passenger rescheduling options includes at least one from the group including flying, delaying a flight, canceling a flight, and routing passengers in accordance therewith.

10. The controller of claim 8 wherein the controller includes software configured to update a flight schedule for a subset of aircraft flights in accordance with the rescheduling, based on passenger connection network analysis.

11. The controller of claim 10 , further comprising flying the subset of aircraft flights in accordance with the updated flight schedule.

12. The controller of claim 6 wherein the nodes are formed of one or more source nodes, inbound flight nodes, departure flight nodes, cancellation nodes, disruption nodes, and sink nodes.

13. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the applying at least one criterion includes at least one from the group including airline fuel costs, overall airline fuel costs, average per flight departure delay duration, preflight revenue, overall flight revenue, a total number of flight cancellations, and total flight disruptions for at least a subset of the passengers.

Assignees

• Taleris Global Llp
• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Petersen Jon David
• Arguello Michael
• Dunsdon Jonathan Mark
• Anderson Marc Joseph

Classifications

• G06Q10/047

  Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem · CPC title

• G06Q10/025 Primary

  Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation · CPC title

• G06Q10/06312

  Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling · CPC title

• G06Q50/14

  Travel agencies · CPC title

• G06Q10/02 Primary

  Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events · CPC title