The airport gate assignment problem: mathematical model and a tabu search algorithm

Considers an airport gate assignment problem that dynamically assigns airport gates to scheduled flights based on passengers´ daily origin and destination flow data. The objective of the problem is to minimize the overall connection times during which passengers walk to catch their connection flights. We formulate this problem as a mixed 0-1 quadratic integer programming problem and then reformulate it as a mixed 0-1 integer problem with a linear objective function and constraints. We design a simple tabu search meta-heuristic to solve the problem. The algorithm exploits the special properties of different types of neighborhood moves, and create highly effective candidate list strategies. We also address issues of tabu short-term memory, dynamic tabu tenure, aspiration rules, and various intensification and diversification strategies. Preliminary computational experiments are conducted, and the results are presented and analyzed.