A hub covering network design problem for cargo applications in Turkey

Hub location problems involve locating hub facilities and allocating demand nodes to hubs in order to provide service between origin-destination pairs. In this study, we focus on cargo applications of the hub location problem. Through observations from the Turkish cargo sector, we propose a new mathematical model for the hub location problem that relaxes the complete hub network assumption. Our model minimizes the cost of establishing hubs and hub links, while designing a network that services each origin-destination pair within a time bound. We formulate a single-allocation hub covering model that permits visiting at most three hubs on a route. The model is then applied to the realistic instances of the Turkish network and to the Civil Aeronautics Board data set. Journal of the Operational Research Society (2009) 60, 1349-1359. doi:10.1057/jors.2008.92 Published online 8 October 2008