Scheduling charter aircraft

We present a system that is used for scheduling charter aircraft. At the core of the system is an elastic set partitioning model that is embedded in a decision support system. The model assigns a set of flights that have to be performed to the available fleets of aircraft at minimal cost while satisfying all operational requirements. Flights that cannot be accommodated by the available fleets are sold off to other operators. The minimised costs include the cost of flying the aircraft, the cost of selling off flights, and penalties on violations of soft constraints. The system has been in daily operation for almost a year, and it provides high quality schedules and saves numerous hours to the schedulers.