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Revenue can be increased by adopting to changes
in passenger demand via small changes in the fleet allocation.
It is also possible to increase production stability.
By using the aircraft effectively, it is possible to free up more aircraft
for standby duty. An aircraft standing on the ground for a couple of hours
is a waste of resources, while an aircraft on the ground for 6 hours or
more is available for standby duty. By promoting very long connections
and very short connections, the available standby time can be doubled.
Furthermore, by using input from the crew planning
process, aircraft rotations can be adopted for crew needs. This leads
to significant savings in crew costs and increased stability in the crew
rosters.
Yes, it is possible to let Carmen Tail Assignment
re-create part of the fleet allocation based on the airline’s own revenue
data. Thereby, the user can find optimal strategies for swapping aircraft
among the fleets to maximize profit while still maintaining feasible aircraft
rotations. If part of a fleet has to be grounded, it is also possible
to model how this can be recovered so that business is least affected.
Yes, thanks to the modelling language Rave it is
simple to introduce new constraints and tailor them depending on the situation.
Information about critical connections can be imported into Carmen Tail
Assignment from Carmen Crew Pairing. This information is used to guide
the optimizer to prioritize routings that allow crew to follow the aircraft
where an aircraft change would lead to broken pairings. It is also possible
to consider more complicated crew aspects. For example, an aircraft routing
should always include a connection long enough to change crew during an
8-hour period. By including some crew information in Carmen Tail Assignment,
it is possible to consider aspects of crew stability against revenue and
other aircraft routing aspects. This integration typically leads to savings
of 1-2% in total crew costs without any negative impact on aircraft routings.
It is easy to include any information about individual
aircraft. Rules regarding restricted destinations are easily described
with Rave. Only aircraft equipped to fly overseas will be allocated to
overseas flights. An aircraft without hush kits will not be sent to noise-restricted
airports. An aircraft requiring an external power supply will not be sent
to airports where such a service is not available. An aircraft with malfunctioning
in-flight entertainment systems will be prioritized for short-haul operations.
All these factors are already encountered when an aircraft rotation is
being planned. Thereby, they are monitored carefully, and will not appear
as surprises when the final operational plan is produced.
Maintenance status of the individual aircraft is
input into Carmen Tail Assignment and Rave is used to define all the maintenance
rules. In addition to mandatory maintenance rules, it is possible to define
soft rules stating, for instance, that maintenance should be done a certain
number of block hours before the absolute limit is reached. The system
uses this information to ensure that all rotations produced meet all the
maintenance requirements. Major maintenance activities are included in
the flight plan as pre-assigned activities. The user can let the optimizer
determine the optimal time and place to do maintenance for minor maintenance
work.
Yes, Carmen Tail Assignment allows the user to
balance the utilization of the fleet. Accumulated flight hours per aircraft
are accounted for during optimization. This information can also be used
to distribute the production among the aircraft.
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