Conceptualising a discrete-event simulation model of turnaround operations to evaluate airline schedule robustness

Turnaround operations at an airport are important factors affecting airline schedule reliability. This paper introduces a discrete-event simulation (DES) conceptual model that simulates daily turnaround operations at an airport terminal to evaluate the reliability of the schedules of a dominant airline i.e. the owner of the majority of turnarounds in the terminal. The simulation model is designed to provide a high-fidelity representation of the turnaround operations that captures the interactions between the schedule (including aircraft and crew assignments) and turnaround resources and activities. The model is designed to be used to more accurately estimate the schedule punctuality performance in the airport terminal and identify resource assignments prone to delays, which may be used to guide retiming. Additionally, search experiments may produce insight to support collaboration and negotiation between the airline and ground handling service providers (GHSP).