Method for rescheduling flights affected by a disruption and an airline operations control system and controller

A controller in communication with a database containing data related to a scheduled origination and a scheduled destination for each of a set of passengers scheduled on aircraft flights, and comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory configured to store instructions to be executed by the processor;
• and
• a plurality of modules including a flight disruption component, a modeling component, a network solver component and a reschedule component;
• the processor being configured to:
• access and retrieve the data via the flight disruption component;
• generate via the modeling component, a passenger connection network by mapping connections between the scheduled origination and the scheduled destination for a subset of the set of passengers wherein the connections include at least one connecting flight that is not direct between the scheduled origination and the scheduled destination, wherein the at least one connecting flight has a first projected departure time, (ii) create at least one copy of the at least one connecting flight having a second projected departure time later than the first projected departure time, (iii) add connections to the passenger connection network between the scheduled origination and the scheduled destination for the subset wherein the added connections include the at least one copy of the at least one connecting flight;
• apply via the network solver component, at least one criterion to the passenger connection network with the added connections and determine a strategy for rescheduling one or more connecting flights for the subset of the set of passengers;
• and
• reschedule via the reschedule component, the at least one connecting flight to at least one second projected departure time based on the at least one criterion.