Question

Explain how airlines use 'Route Optimization' in order to save the cost.

Answer 1

Most airlines use the integer programming model in order to find out the optimum flight route that helps it to minimize the flight operating expenses of the aircraft traits includes the cost of fuel, airway expenses, salaries of the crew members, and maintenance and depreciation of the aircraft. In this model, for selecting the best and optimum path, both the airway selection and flight level selection are taken. In the first stage, a suitable airway is selected by the airline before the departure of the flight as per the calculation depending on some preset factors so that the fuel consumption can be minimized. As various airways depart in a number of oceanic flights it is considered that once the aircraft enters a certain gate fix, it cannot change the airway selection. On the other side, it is possible to alter the flight levels while the cruise. In order to have better fuel efficiency, the pilots can alter the flight levels depending on the weather conditions information facilitated by the third party or the airline itself.

Mathematically, we will use an objective function with minimization of the fuel consumption. Apart from this, a number of constraints are also used to deal with the situation. In most of the researches, it has been found that the airlines can implement the real-time weather information to have greater fuel efficiency.