An enhanced rostering model for airline crews

This paper introduces an efficient adaptation of the branch-and-bound technique that solves real-world rostering problems for airline crews. The efficiency of the algorithm is based on the exploitation of rostering-specific properties (e.g. variable selection, branching strategy and cutting-planes). This approach shortens the solution process and outperforms standard techniques. Furthermore, we formally introduce a general concept of downgrading that makes it possible to solve certain rostering problems that might otherwise have no solution. This paper also computes a sample monthly schedule on the basis of a medium-sized European airline's real data.