Non-stop vs one stop flights

A case study involving a small airline serving three cities was made to determine an optimal scheduling policy. It was necessary to evaluate the profitability of alternate routings involving non-stop and one stop flights by determining the net contribution to profit of each alternative. In all cases a previously developed optimal booking procedure for allocation of available seats on the various legs of a flight was applied. The booking procedure utilizes a dynamic programming model applied to schedule dependent demand distributions for the flights and legs. The technique used is described in detail and sample numerical calculations are presented.