A conceptual model to optimize operating cost of passenger ships in Macau

Abstract

To facilitate more convenient travel as the economy of Macau expands, the government of Macau has allowed shipping companies to add passenger ships and shipping lines. This paper demonstrates how shipping companies can reduce costs by optimizing passenger ships and crew size. It analyzes operating conditions for each shipping depot, including transit time, ships, and volume of passengers. A series of integer programming models is proposed. After a practical demonstration using Excel to solve the LP model, we show that the reduction in the number of passenger ships and crew size could reach 22.6% and 29.4%, respectively.