Airline optimization

Purpose and goal

The objectives and goals of this project were to find a new, modern way to optimize more elements of an airline´s operations, and at the same time, to be able to take into account a variety of related problems simultaneously. In the first instance, in order to be able to build schedules required the production of a functioning rules engine. Then a GUI was needed, to be able to view and modify solutions manually. These two parts have now been developed. The basis and the algorithm for the optimization part are also designed and will now be encoded and integrated in the basic system.

Results and expected effects

By implementing a flexible rule engine that can calculate , view and warn for different types of rules, the airlines can quickly see if the schedule is optimized or not This rule engine handles not only rules from the aviation authorities, but also for so called cost and quality rules Cost rules and quality control rules can be used both for manual planning and also for automatic generation of crew `activities´. With a flexible rule engine, optimization runs can run faster and more efficiently. This means that multiple optimization runs can be produced and analysed, to find the best solution.

Approach and implementation

Initially, we was in contact with some 50 airlines about the future of optimized / automated crew scheduling systems. Having met and discussed these issues, we have learned that more and more airlines are looking for an integrated system, and not as it used to be, where multiple systems were integrated for the same process. This has meant that we have had to change our strategy as follows: Step 1, we implement basic functionality without considering automation / optimization. Step 2, we introduce new rules, with some automation included which leads to the next step - advanced optimization.