DEVELOPMENT OF A DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR THE OPTIMIZATION OF RESERVE CREW OPEN-TIME PAIRINGS

Abstract

Crew costs constitute the largest direct operating cost after fuel costs for airlines. Even a small percentage of savings in crew costs is significant in monetary value. After initial schedules are published, changes in flight schedules, crew and aircraft availability can result in segments of flights without crew members, which is known as open-time flying. Our study, done in collaboration with Jazz Aviation LP, deals with the re-optimization of the open-time flying for reserve cabin crew. A two-phase approach is proposed: the first phase generates all legal potential pairings and the second phase solves a set partitioning model to select the optimal combination of pairings. This pairing problem includes multiple duty types, multi-day rolling time horizon, complex non-linear crew pay structure, multiple bases, and crew deadheading. Our study addresses the research gap between the monthly and the day of operations problems and designs a decision support system to assist schedulers.