1. Develop a flight operations map that still serves each of the nine cities but that maximizes the company's profit per passenger. (Hint: Find the maximal-spanning tree.)

2. Comment on how the 18 jets should be assigned.

suggestion has been made to provide fewer direct flights, which would mean that a city served by Northeastern might only hart direct flights to one other city. The company plans to hire a keting analytics consultant to determine how demand would impacted by longer flights with more connections, and to in cast the demand along each of the routes based on a mi flight operations map. Before hiring the consultant, the company would like to first determine the most profitable (on a profile passenger basis) way to continue serving all of the cities Case Study Northeastern Airlines Northeastern Airlines is a regional airline serving nine cities in the New England states as well as cities in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. While nonstop flights are available for some of the routes, connecting flights are often necessary. The network shows the cities served and profit in U.S. dollars per passenger along each of these routes. The routes from Boston-to-Providence and from Providence-to-Boston make only $9 per passenger profit after all expenses. To service these cities, Northeastern operates a fleet of sixteen 122-passenger Embraer E-195 jets. These jets, which were first introduced by Embraer in late 2004, have helped Northeastern Airlines Discussion Questions remain profitable for a number of years. However, in recent 1. Develop a flight operations map that still serves each of years, the profit margins have been falling, and Northeastern is the nine cities, but maximizes the company's profit per facing the prospect of downsizing their operations. passenger (Hint: Find the maximal-spanning tree) Management at Northeastern Airlines has considered sev- eral options to reduce cost and increase profitability. Due to 2. Comment on how the 16 jets should be assigned. Federal Aviation Administration regulations, the company must Thanks to Professor Faizul Huq, College of Business, Ohio University continue to serve each of the nine cities. How they serve these for providing this case cities, however, is up to the management at Northeastern. One Northeastern Airlines Service Area Burlington, VT Orono, ME Syracuse, NY 12 10 14 21 13 Nashua, NH 12 22 18 15 16 12 Boston, MA 17 Providence, RI Hartford, CT 14 Newark, NJ State College, PA