Multiobjective optimization of airline crew management with a genetic algorithm

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the real-world problem of crew management in the airline business. We focus on modeling the optimization of the crew rostering, taking into account the constraints from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) regulating the flight time limitations (FTL). Special emphasis is put on the preferences and fairness among the crew members. This results in a multiobjective constrained optimization problem, which we solve with a Genetic Algorithm (GA). The fitness function is composed of multiple objectives for which the user can adjust their relative weights, depending on their preferences. The main contribution of the paper is the novel multiobjective problem formulation and its proof-of-concept solution by a GA.