Aircraft Scheduling Control Unit for Flight Retiming and Cost Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current flight scheduling systems are inflexible and unable to determine if overall costs can be reduced due to the co-dependency of numerous flights within a schedule, making it challenging to optimize flight times for cost savings.
Innovation Solution
A system and method utilizing a scheduling control unit, which determines and selects retiming options for aircraft tail assignments to revise flight schedules, considering connecting flights and cost reduction, with the ability to discard options that negatively affect subsequent flights and assign different aircraft as needed, incorporating AI or machine learning for efficient analysis and optimization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If flights are fixed in time within a schedule, then schedule stability is maintained, but cost optimization opportunities are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts flight times by generating multiple retiming options for each tail assignment, allowing the schedule to adapt between fixed original times and optimized retimed options. This enables cost optimization while maintaining schedule stability through selective implementation of retiming options that meet connection requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the time parameter of flight schedules by determining retiming options with different departure and arrival times compared to the original schedule. This allows exploration of alternative timing configurations to reduce costs while evaluating impacts on connecting flights and overall schedule feasibility.
2Adaptability or versatility
If retiming options are generated for cost reduction, then operational flexibility increases, but schedule complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the schedule into individual tail assignments and generates retiming options for each segment independently. This breaks down the complex overall scheduling problem into manageable pieces, allowing flexibility in each segment while controlling overall complexity through systematic evaluation of connection impacts.
Solution Approach 2:
The system evaluates each retiming option by analyzing its impact on connecting flights and overall schedule feasibility. This feedback mechanism filters out options that create unacceptable disruptions, managing complexity by systematically evaluating consequences rather than manually analyzing all possibilities.
3Reliability
If connecting flights are considered in retiming, then passenger connection quality improves, but computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis of connecting flight impacts before finalizing retiming options. By evaluating connection quality requirements in advance and incorporating them into the retiming option generation process, the system ensures connection quality without requiring exhaustive computational analysis during implementation.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and a method include a scheduling control unit configured to determine one or more retiming options for one or more tail assignments of one or more aircraft scheduled for flights according to an original schedule. The one or more retiming options include one or more retiming times that differ from one or more original times of the one or more tail assignments within the original schedule. The scheduling control unit can select the one or more retiming options, and revise the original schedule based on the one or more retiming options as selected.