The tactical planning process of an airline is typically decomposed into several stages among which fleeting, aircraft routing, and crew pairing form the core. In such a decomposed and sequential approach the output of fleeting forms the input to aircraft routing and crew pairing. In turn, the output to aircraft routing is part of the input to crew pairing. Due to the decomposition, the resulti...

This paper is the second of two papers entitled “Airline Planning Benchmark Problems”, aimed at developing benchmark data that can be used to stimulate innovation in airline planning, in particular, in flight schedule design and fleet assignment. The former has, to date, been under-represented in the optimization literature, due in part to the difficulty of obtaining data that adequately reflec...

Software decision support tools that assist controllers with the management of air traffic are dependent upon the ability to accurately predict future aircraft positions. Trajectory predictions in en route airspace rely upon the availability of aircraft state, aircraft performance, pilot intent, and atmospheric data. The use of real-time airline information for improving ground-based trajectory...

In this paper we present a novel approach addressing airline delays and recovery. Airline schedule recovery involves making decisions during operations to minimize additional operating costs while getting back on schedule as quickly as possible. The mechanisms used include aircraft swaps, flight cancelations, crew swaps, reserve crews and passenger rebookings. In this context, we introduce anot...

This paper is the first of two papers entitled “Airline Planning Benchmark Problems”, aimed at developing benchmark data that can be used to stimulate innovation in airline planning, in particular, in flight schedule design and fleet assignment. While optimisation has made an enormous contribution to airline planning in general, the area suffers from a lack of standardised data and benchmark pr...

Airlines are continually faced with the challenge of efficient utilization of their cockpit crew resources. In addition to regular flying crews, some airlines have to maintain significant reserve staffing levels to meet contractual obligations and provide smooth daily operations. Reserve crews are required to cover trips remaining unassigned due to disruptions during daily operations. Airlines ...