Simulation Notes Europe, Volume 22(2), August 2012

A Simulation-based Approach on Robust Airline Job Pairing

Simulation Notes Europe SNE 22(2), 2012, 77-82
DOI: 10.11128/sne.22.tn.10125

Abstract

Job paring, i.e. the composition of duty rosters from single activities, is an important part of the airline operations planning process. With labor costs being a major factor in an airline's cost structure, such personnel schedules have to ensure efficiency to be of practical relevance. At the same time they have to improve customer acceptance by offering best possible robustness, keeping inevitable local delays from spreading through the airline's flight network. In this paper we present a project currently in develop-ment which aims for generating robust personnel schedules for airline operations. The resulting tool set will allow us to effectively allocate flight personnel, using optimization and simulation techniques to generate and compare schedules with respect to their applicability and their demand for standby personnel, and to evaluate them prior to their implementation in the field.