Slot allocation for a Multiple Airport System: Equity and Efficiency

Airport slot allocation aims to distribute airport slots to the airlines under given procedures and rules. The objectives of slot allocation are to minimize the total displacements of slot requests, and/or to maximize airline’s preferences. Research efforts have been devoted to slot allocation in a single airport over decades. Slot allocation for a Multiple-Airport System (MAS) has been less addressed. In a single airport slot allocation, airport capacity is the only resource that airlines compete for; while in an MAS, there are several resources that should be considered: airport capacity, terminal airspace and fixes capacity. This paper proposes an MAS slot allocation model that incorporates airline fairness. The objective of the model is to minimize the total slot displacements of the MAS, subject to airport capacity constraints, fixes capacity constraints, turnaround time constraints, and fairness constraints. An MAS comprehensive fairness indicator is developed. The trade-off between efficiency and fairness in an MAS slot allocation problem is explored. The model is tested using the data from the MAS of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Computational results show that our model can effectively allocate the airport and airspace capacity of the MAS while considering airline fairness.