Slot Allocation for a Multi-Airport System and its Impact on the Equity Among the Airports and Airlines

Abstract

Slot allocation has attracted much attention in the past decades which aims to optimally distribute an airport’s slots to the airlines under given rules. However, far too little attention has been paid to the management of slots in a Multi-Airport System (MAS) that consists of more than one Level 3 airport. Yet, critical airspace could be another scarce resource that limits the capacity of the whole MAS. In this paper, a slot allocation model for a MAS (SAMMAS) is first proposed which considers all the constraints in a slot allocation model for a single airport as well as the constraints from the operation of terminal airspace. To measure the fairness among airports and airlines, two methods are introduced: the Demand-Based Gini Airport Fairness approach (DGAF) and Non-demand-based Gini Airport Fairness approach (NGAF). Our focus is then given to the effect of slot allocation outcomes on inter-airline fairness. The experimental results from slot allocation in the MAS in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area show that the DGAF approach can generate a more equitable schedule for both airports and airlines.

Keywords: airport demand management, multi-airport system, slot allocation, fairness index, Gini coefficient