Airline fleet assignment concepts, models, and algorithms

The fleet assignment problem (FAP) deals with assigning aircraft types, each having a different capacity, to the scheduled flights, based on equipment capabilities and availabilities, operational costs, and potential revenues. An airline’s fleeting decision highly impacts its revenues, and thus, constitutes an essential component of its overall scheduling process. However, due to the large number of flights scheduled each day, and the dependency of the FAP on other airline processes, solving the FAP has always been a challenging task for the airlines. In this paper, we present a tutorial on the basic and enhanced models and approaches that have been developed for the FAP, including: (1) integrating the FAP with other airline decision processes such as schedule design, aircraft maintenance routing, and crew scheduling; (2) proposing solution techniques that include additional considerations into the traditional fleeting models, such as considering itinerary-based demand forecasts and the recapture effect, as well as investigating the effectiveness of alternative approaches such as randomized search procedures; and (3) studying dynamic fleeting mechanisms that update the initial fleeting solution as departures approach and more information on demand patterns is gathered, thus providing a more effective way to match the airline’s supply with demand. We also discuss future research directions in the fleet assignment arena.