ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief introduction to airline network design issues, the economic and regulatory forces driving airline network evolution, airline schedule planning procedures, airline operation issues, the greater environment in which airlines operate, and the complexity of managing an airline network. Section 1.1 briefly discusses different types of airline networks, and the driving economic forces that have changed airline scheduling and networking in the past two decades. Section 1.2 examines common airline schedule planning processes and some shortcomings in airline operational management that result from this scheduling paradigm. Also introduced in this section is the concept of the "complex network" that makes airline scheduling, resources allocation and operational management challenging.
