Scheduling baggage-handling facilities in congested airports

A model for scheduling baggage-handling facilities in congested airports is presented. The model assigns the baggage of departing flights to available piers in the baggage-handling facility. It adopts an activity selection algorithm that is generally used to assign limited infrastructure resources to a number of prescheduled competing activities. The model considers various operational requirements associated with the baggage-handling process. The model is applied to a daily schedule of a major US air-carrier at one of its major hubs. The results illustrate the need to consider trade-offs between satisfying the different operation requirements and achieving a near-optimal solution to the problem.