Study on Optimization of Hub-And-Spoke Transportation Network

To design an optimal hub-and-spoke network for express carrier, implementation of a compositive optimization technique was carried out. Four procedures in quantitative analysis were introduced, firstly economics of scale for the studied target was evaluated, secondly the quantity of hubs was empirically specified based on comparative analysis on United States, thirdly an optimization model originally proposed by Campbell was utilized to find out hub candidates, finally radiation area of each hub was discussed. Two procedures in qualitative analysis were presented, one is partition of radiation areas, and the other is determination of hub for each area. A non-strict hub-and-spoke network was also proposed which allowed special airports to adopt irregular transport ways. The deployment of cargo aircrafts was conducted within the given conditions. Cost efficiency and transport time were evaluated regarding the non-strict hub-and-spoke network and a potential airline hub was suggested as a candidate for the future development. Conclusions were summarized at the end of this paper.