An Epsilon constraint-based column generation for airport gate emergency reassignment

The effectiveness of flight operations and the quality of airport services are directly impacted by airport gate assignment options. In real-world operations, unexpected events such as airfield accidents may lead to the temporary closure of local gates and an infeasible assignment plan. It is urgent to implement gate emergency reassignment under resource constraints. This paper proposes an Epsilon constraint-based column generation optimization algorithm for this problem. In particular, we develop a bi-objective optimization model based on set partitioning with the goal of minimizing assignment plan deviation and increasing solution efficiency. Then, an Epsilon constraint-based column generation optimization algorithm is designed to efficiently obtain high-quality solutions. Numerical experiments are conducted based on real-world operational data from an international airport. The results demonstrate that the proposed method performs well on main metrics such as the bridge boarding rate and flights adjustment efficiency. In particular, the cross-region adjustment proportion of our solution is 52.34%, which is significantly lower than the comparison methods, and effectively improves the airport operational efficiency in emergency scenarios.