Coffee, Tea, or …?: A Markov Decision Process Model for Airline Meal Provisioning

Jason H. Goto (), Mark E. Lewis () and Martin L. Puterman ()
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Jason H. Goto: Centre for Operations Excellence, University of British Columbia, 209-2053 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z2
Mark E. Lewis: Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan, 1205 Beal Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2117
Martin L. Puterman: Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, 2053 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z2

Transportation Science, 2004, vol. 38, issue 1, 107-118

Abstract: This paper develops and analyzes a finite horizon Markov decision process model for the airline meal provisioning activity focusing explicitly on developing policies for determining and revising the number of meals to upload. Using one year of daily data from over 40 flights, the paper shows that the optimal policies can result in both improved customer service and significant dollar savings, especially in long haul flights. It also applies the model to derive an efficient frontier and investigate tradeoffs between having too few and too many meals on a flight.

Keywords: air transportation; airline operations; dynamic programming; perishable inventory control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ortrsc:v:38:y:2004:i:1:p:107-118

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