Optimización del Espacio Aéreo

Grado de Ingeniería Aeroespacial en Aeronavegación

Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicaciones
 Modelo de Enrutamiento de
Aeronaves

Luis Cadarso
Grado de Ingeniería Aeroespacial en Aeronavegación
Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicaciones
 Aircraft maintenance routing problem
String formulation

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 Aircraft Maintenance Routing

Schedule
Design

Fleet
Assignment

Maintenance
Routing

Crew
Scheduling

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 Aircraft Maintenance Routing
Time-Line Network Time
Washington, D.C.

Baltimore

New York

Boston

Given schedule design and fleet assignment

decisions, the flight network decomposes into sub-
networks, one for each aircraft type
Objective for each aircraft of a particular fleet:
Assign individual aircraft to flight legs to form a routing,
or rotation, visiting maintenance stations at regular
intervals, and maximizing through revenues and
minimizing maintenance costs
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 Problem Definition
Given:

Flight Schedule for a single fleet

Each flight covered exactly once by fleet

Number of Aircraft by Equipment Type

Can’t assign more aircraft than are available

FAA Maintenance Requirements

Turn Times at each Station
Through revenues for pairs or sequences of flights
Maintenance costs per aircraft

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 FAA Maintenance Requirements

“A Checks

Maintenance required every 60 hours of flying

Airlines maintain aircraft every 40-45 hours of flying

with the maximum time between checks restricted to
three to four calendar days

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 Problem Objective

Find:

Revenue maximizing assignment of aircraft of a single

fleet to scheduled flights such that each flight is
covered exactly once, maintenance requirements are
satisfied, conservation of flow (balance) of aircraft is
achieved, and the number of aircraft used does not
exceed the number available

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FAM Representation of Maintenance Constraints

Maintenance arcs for fleet k included in time line

network at each maintenance station for k

Each arc
Begins at an aircraft arrival + turn time
Spans minimum maintenance time

Constraints added to FAM for each aircraft type

k, requiring a minimum number of aircraft of
type k on the set of “maintenance arcs
Ensures that sufficient maintenance opportunities exist
One aircraft might be serviced daily and others not at
all
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Hub-and-Spoke vs. Point-to-Point Networks
Domestic U.S. carriers with hub-and-spoke
networks find that approximate maintenance
constraints result in maintenance feasible
routings
Sufficient number of opportunities at hubs to swap
aircraft assignments so that aircraft get to
maintenance stations as needed

Approximate maintenance constraints often

do not result in maintenance feasible routings
for point-to-point networks
Flying time between visits to maintenance stations
often too long

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 Network Representation

Connection network provides richer modeling

possibilities than time-line network

Through revenues can be captured easily

Disallowed or forced connections can be

modeled easily

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 Connection Network

M1

A B C
D
A1 J

A2 K

F
H
A3

E G
M2

Flight Arc
Timeline
Connection Arc

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Aircraft Maintenance Routing String Model: Variable Definition

A string is a sequence of flights beginning and ending

at a maintenance station with maintenance following
the last flight in the sequence

Departure time of the string is the departure time of the

first flight in the sequence

Arrival time of the string is the arrival time of the last

flight in the sequence + maintenance time

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 String Model: Constraints
Maintenance constraints
Satisfied by variable definition

Cover constraints
Each flight must be assigned to exactly one string

Balance constraints
Needed only at maintenance stations

Fleet size constraints

The number of strings and connection arcs
crossing the count time cannot exceed the number
of aircraft in the fleet

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 Notation
S: set of feasible strings

F: set of flights

G: set of ground variables

N: set of nodes (maintenance stations).

𝐼 (𝑂 ): set of strings ending (starting) at node 𝜐.

xs: binary decision variable for each feasible string s

𝑦 (𝑦 ,𝑦 ): number of aircraft on the ground before (𝑦 )

(after, (𝑦 )) node 𝜐 at the maintenance station.

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 Notation (continued)
ais: indicator variable, equals 1 if flight i is in string s, and
equals 0 otherwise

rs: 1 if string s crosses the count time, a single point time at

which to count aircraft

pg: 1 if ground arc g crosses the count time

N : number of planes available
cs: maintenance cost associated with string s
ts: through revenue associated with string s

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Aircraft Maintenance Routing: String Model

Minimizar
𝑚𝑖𝑛 Coste
𝑐

Sujeto a:
Cobertura
𝑎 de∈ vuelo
1, ∀𝑖 𝐹
∈

Conservación de0,flujo
∀ ∈𝑁
∈ ∈

Conteo de
𝑝 aeronaves
𝑁
∈ ∈
∈ 0,1 , ∀ ∈ 𝑆
Integralidad
0, ∀𝑔y∈no-negatividad
𝐺

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Aircraft Maintenance Routing: String Model
𝑐
Minimizar

Sujeto a:
𝑎 1, ∀𝑖 ∈ 𝐹
∈

0, ∀ ∈ 𝑁
∈ ∈

𝑟 𝑝 𝑁
∈ ∈
∈ 0,1 , ∀𝑠 ∈ 𝑆
0, ∀𝑔 ∈ 𝐺

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 Maintenance Routing String Formulations: Strengths and Challenges

Strength

Nonlinearities and complex constraints can be handled

relatively easily

Challenge

Model size
Number of variables is huge
Number of constraints is manageable

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