Modeling the resilience of an airline cargo transport network affected by a large scale disruptive event

Abstract

This paper presents modeling the resilience of an airline cargo transport network affected by a given (large scale) disruptive event. The airports represent the nodes and the air routes and flights between them the links of the network. Modeling implies synthesizing a methodology consisting of two sets of the analytical models: (a) a generic (existing) analytical model for assessing the resilience of particular airports, routes/links, and the entire network; and (b) the new analytical models of the selected indicators of the network's performance used as the FOMs (Figures-Of-Merit) for assessing the corresponding resilience. These indicators of performance include: (i) the airline flights; (ii) the airline transport work; (iii) the airline profits; (iv) the value of time of transported air cargo shipments; and (v) the inventory cost of air cargo shipments at the network nodes/airports. Such proposed methodology enabling assessment of the resilience of affected network over time, i.e., prior, during, and after the impact of a given disruptive event, has been applied to the real airline cargo network (FedEx Express, U.S.) affected by the large scale disruptive event (extreme snowstorm - the so-called nor'easter) characterized by its duration, intensity, and spatial scale. The results have indicated that the network's resilience has been affected differently regarding the particular indicators of performance as FOMs. It has been the least affected regarding ‘value of time’ and the most regarding ‘inventory cost’ of the air cargo shipments.