Multi-objective Modeling Based on Competition Airlines Cooperation by Game Theory and Sustainable Development Approach

In each time period, the demand of passengers for each route are finite and airlines compete for earning more profits. The complex competition among airlines causes problems, such as complicating flight planning and increasing empty seats for some routes. These problems increase air pollution and fuel consumption. To solve these problems, this research studies the cooperation of the airlines with game theory and sustainable development approaches. To investigate the issue, the following three steps are suggested: introducing the components of the multi-attribute game theory to the multi-objective model, modeling multi-objective formulation with a sustainable development approach, and solving the model by a multi-objective method. Payoff functions are to maximize the profit of airlines, minimize the total difference among the numbers of flier passengers and their demand on all routes and all flight times and, and minimize empty seats. All the above-mentioned objectives present economic, social, and environmental aspects of sustainable development. The results of the airline cooperation model are compared with the information about non-cooperation collected from airlines in the current form. The cooperation of airlines can improve the objective functions and the sustainable development approach. This research can be used to help airlines in identifying the role of cooperation in air transportation.