Crew scheduling

Crew scheduling is the process of assigning crews to operate transportation systems, such as rail lines or aircraft.

Most systems use software to manage the crew scheduling process, since the problem is computationally difficult and there are numerous constraints^[1] which must all be satisfied to a degree.

These constraints are typically a combination of:

government regulations concerning duty time and required rest, designed to promote aviation safety and limit crew fatigue,

crew bid requests, vacations,

labor agreements

aircraft maintenance schedules

other constraints related to training

pairing experienced crew members with more junior crew members

returning crew to their base at the end of their trip (called deadheading)

Additional unplanned disruptions in schedules due to weather and air traffic control delays can disrupt schedules, so crew scheduling software remains an area for ongoing research.^[2]

Related topics (systems)

• Preferential bidding system
• Fatigue (safety)

Related topics (algorithms and software)

• Linear programming
• Column generation
• Tabu search

• Fatigue Avoidance Scheduling Tool

List of crew scheduling software vendors

• AIMS, Airline Information Management System
• Advanced Optimization Systems, AOS
• FlightLine
• Jeppesen Carmensystems
• Kronos AD-OPT
• Lufthansa Systems
• Navitaire
• Navtech
• Sabre Airline Solutions
• Universal Weather and Aviation, Inc.

References

1. http://www.carmensystems.com/research_development/articles/crtr0303.pdf "Solving the World's Largest Crew Scheduling Problem"
2. http://www.engr.pitt.edu/~schaefer/Papers/UncertainCrewSched.pdf "Airline Crew Scheduling under Uncertainty"