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The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Operational decision · 2005

Flexjet's optimizer cut crew 20% and aircraft 40% while flying more hours

Bombardier Flexjet optimized aircraft, crews and facilities together, saving $54M+ with $27M more a year projected.

Bombardier Flexjet · AD OPT Technologies

the move

Fractional jet ownership lets customers buy a share of an aircraft rather than the whole plane. Running it is like running an unscheduled airline where demand shifts constantly, an operational nightmare of positioning aircraft, crews and facilities.

Bombardier Flexjet implemented a three-module optimization system built with AD OPT Technologies, using the GENCOL optimizer's column-generation approach to solve large-scale mixed-integer nonlinear problems. The modules simultaneously maximize use of aircraft, crews and facilities instead of optimizing each in isolation.

Since inception the project generated savings above $54 million, with about $27 million more per year projected: crew levels fell 20%, aircraft inventory 40%, supplemental charter use 5%, while aircraft utilization rose 10% and customer service stayed high.

why it works

  • Crew and aircraft are jointly constrained, so a single model sees trade-offs separate optimizers miss.
  • Column generation handles the huge, constantly changing set of possible schedules.
  • Cutting aircraft inventory 40% shows the capital tied up in an unoptimized fleet.
the payoffOptimize planes, crews and facilities as one systemclever

what transfers

When resources move together, planes need crews and crews need bases, optimizing each separately leaves money on the table; one model of the joint system found savings of $54M and counting.

what came after

Flexjet's optimization system kept running, and the paper in Interfaces documented more than $54 million in savings with about $27 million more projected annually from lower crew levels, smaller aircraft inventory, less charter use and higher utilization.

references

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