A column generation-based algorithm for gate assignment problem with combinational gates

The gate assignment is a complicated real-world problem occurring in airports. The present paper studies the gate assignment problem with combinational gates. The problem is multi-objective by nature, concerning four objectives. Among those objectives, the number of passengers allocated to nearby gates is aimed to be maximized. The remaining objectives are targeted to be minimized, i.e., the total passenger walking distance, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the aircraft assigned to remote gates, and the total distance traveled by the shuttle bus. To solve this problem, we formulate an integer programming model. A column generation-based algorithm based on a set-partitioning model is proposed to solve the problem effectively. In addition, the Pareto Local Search algorithm is adopted to obtain non-dominated solutions. Computational experiments show that the effectiveness of our model is verified through tests with instances of different sizes. The column generation -based algorithm can obtain the optimal solution or the approximately optimal solution with a small gap in a reasonable time. The results of the Pareto Local Search algorithm show the interaction between multiple objectives.