Robustness Algorithms for the Airport Gate Assignment Problem

Assigning commercial flights to available airport gates can have a major impact on the efficiency of flight schedules as well as on the level of passenger satisfaction with the service. These assignments also depend on the service requirements of flights and the capacity of stand facilities. Unexpected changes also called perturbations, like those due to air traffic delays, severe weather conditions, or equipment failures, may disrupt the initial assignments and increase the difficulty of maintaining smooth operations, which will detrimentally affect customer satisfaction. The provision of solutions which reduce the potential detrimental effect of perturbations in the stands already assigned on the day of operation is desirable and some approaches are presented here, and compare between them to help identify their performance and trends.