Research on optimization of hub airline network based on simulated annealing algorithm

Constructing and optimizing hub airline networks is crucial to building civil aviation hubs. In this study, 15 cities are selected to construct a green optimization model with the minimum transportation cost and the minimum carbon emission as the objective function for the hub airline network. A simulated annealing algorithm is used to analyse the model so that the hub airline network can be optimized under the uncertainty of both transportation cost and demand. Results are as follows: (1) The transportation discount between hub cities significantly impacts transportation costs and carbon emissions. When the quantity of hub cities is three or four, as the discount factor decreases, the transportation cost of the airline network gradually decreases, while the carbon emission gradually increases and then stabilizes; (2) The change in the quantity of hub cities has a significant impact on the transportation cost and carbon emission. Compared to the airline network with three hub cities, the transportation cost of the airline network with four hub cities increases significantly, and the carbon emission decreases significantly; (3) Based on the green optimization model for the hub airline network, when the quantity of hub cities is 4 and the discount factor is 0.7, the hub airline network is the optimal solution that can achieve a balance between economic and environment.