A partially integrated airline crew scheduling approach with time-dependent crew capacities and multiple home bases

Crew scheduling for airlines requires an optimally scheduled coverage of flights with regard to given timetables. We consider the crew scheduling and assignment process for airlines, where crew members are stationed unevenly among home bases. In addition, their availability changes dynamically during the planning period due to pre-scheduled activities, such as office and simulator duties, vacancy, or requested off-duty days. We propose a partially integrated approach based on two tightly coupled components: the first constructs chains of crew pairings spaced by weekly rests, where crew capacities at different domiciles and time-dependent availabilities are considered. The second component rearranges parts of these pairing chains into individual crew schedules with, e.g., even distribution of flight time. Computational results with real-life data from a European airline are presented.