A mathematical model for an integrated airline fleet assignment and crew scheduling problem solved by vibration damping optimization

Abstract

Fleet assignment and crew scheduling are the most complex airline optimization problems. In this research, an optimized crew pairing set considered as an input, and a crew is chosen for assigning to each certain crew pairing. This paper presents a novel model to integrate fleet assignment and crew scheduling problems. In this model, closed routes for crews and fleet are considered simultaneously. Also, the model considers two consecutive flight legs and some characteristics such as time lag, Minimum permitted time lag and Maximum Economic time. Also, a vibration damping optimization (VDO) algorithm is introduced to find good solution for this problem in a reasonable time. Experimental design based on the Taguchi method is taken into account. To compare the proposed VDO algorithm performance, four designed test problems are solved by proposed VDO and compared with optimal solution and Particle Swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Then, 10 generated test problems in large scale are solved using VDO and PSO. The results show that in four designed test problems, VDO and PSO solutions have 1.62% and 2.95% gaps in average with optimal solution. Moreover, based on 10 generated test problems, in average VDO give 6.71% better solution in less time compare to PSO.

A Fuzzy Crew Rostering Model Based on Crew Preferences and Seniorities considering Training Courses: A Robust Optimization Approach

“…To illustrate, Figure 6 displays the first pilot's monthly roster. As the planning horizon is one 5, the performance of the GA to solve the proposed model is justified due to two reasons: (1) the maximum optimality gap between the genetic algorithm and exact solution is only 1.482%, and (2) in medium and large-sized problems, the CPU times in the GA are considerably less than GAMS.…”

“…Because the Lagrangian relaxation method results have a lower gap to an optimum solution, this method is better than the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. A new integrated model for fleet assignment and crew scheduling problems was proposed by Rashidi Komijan et al [ 1 ]. They considered closed routes for crews and fleets simultaneously.…”

“…For this matter, the triangular fuzzy distribution has chosen because of its simplicity and efficiency. After performing the calculations, the following equation replaces the indefinite objective function (1).…”

“…Using the mathematical models in airline operations is an interest field for researchers. Because of the complexity of optimization problems in the airlines, they are usually divided into several smaller problems: flight scheduling (FS), fleet assignment (FA), aircraft maintenance routing (AMR), and crew scheduling (CS) [ 1 , 2 ]. Flight scheduling is the starting point of airline operations [ 3 ].…”

A flexible mathematical model for crew pairing optimization to generate n-day pairings considering the risk of COVID-19: a real case study

“…The crew is a team consisting of cabin and cockpit crew. It is not necessary for cabin crew to have common flights while it is essential that cockpit crew have the same schedule (Rashidi Komijan et al , 2019). Crew scheduling is one of the most complicated steps of airline scheduling and is divided into crew pairing problem (CPP) and crew rostering problem (CRP).…”