1 research outputs found
On static vs dynamic (switching of) operational policies in aircraft turnaround team allocation and management
Aircraft turnaround operations represent the fulcrum of airport operations. They include all services to be
provided to an aircraft between two consecutive flights. These services are executed by human operators,
often organised in teams, who employ some related equipment and vehicles (e.g. conveyor belts, trolleys and
tugs for baggage loading/unloading and transportation). In this paper, we focus on the real-time management
of turnaround operations, and assess the relative merits and limitations of so-called dispatching rules that
originate from the manufacturing literature. More precisely, we focus on the real-time allocation, on the
day of operation, of teams of ground handling operators to aircraft turnarounds. This is pursued from the
viewpoint of third-party service providers. We employ simulation, in conjunction with deep reinforcement
learning, and work on the case of a real airport and the entirety of its turnaround operations involving
multiple service providers