An Optimization-Based Decision Support Framework for Robust Airline Crew Pairing Process

Abstract

Robust airline crew pairing process refers to the procedure of constructing anonymous crew pairings to cover the given flight schedule in near-optimal way that is less prone to disruptions or easier to recover once disrupted. This process has to deal with complicated specifications of inputs and satisfy a number of different and often conflicting constraints. Also user inputs are often needed in several points in the process to obtain high quality and timely solutions. This chapter presents a model-driven Decision Support Framework (DSF) which utilizes an optimization algorithm that generates robust crew schedules and a simulation model that evaluates the schedules in terms of their robustness quality. The presented DSF can primarily assist airline crew schedule planners, who have to spend a lot of time and effort creating crew schedules taking into account non-linear cost structure, various amounts of constraints that affect cost and flight safety. The proposed DSF can be used either as a standalone tool or as part of an integrated or enterprise-level DSS.