Multiobjective Optimization of Airport Ferry Vehicle Scheduling during Peak Hours Based on NSGA-II

Abstract

Airport ferry vehicles are used to transport passengers between the far apron and terminals. During the peak hours of flight arrival or departure, the demand for ferry vehicles will increase, and improper scheduling will result in significant delays. In this study, we construct a 0–1 integer programming scheduling model for ferry vehicles with multiple objectives: minimize flight delays and vehicle travel distances and balance vehicle workloads when there is an insufficient number of ferry vehicles. To solve the multiobjective model, this study selects the second version of the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm-II as the main framework and designs a modified coding and decoding scheme to solve the constraint problem in the model. The proposed model and algorithm are verified using actual data from Kunming Changshui International Airport, China. Compared with the scheduling method of manual first come first serve, the total delay time of the proposed model is reduced by 24.52%, the transit distance by 6.63%, and the balance index by 24.05%, which helps the airport solve the problem of insufficient ferry vehicles during peak hours. Comparison results show that the proposed model has a shorter calculation time and better distribution of solution sets than three state-of-the-art multiobjective optimization algorithms: MOPSO, MOACO, and SPEA-II. This research can help airports reduce flight delays, vehicle purchases, and operation costs.