IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/operea/v24y2024i3d10.1007_s12351-024-00861-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Charting the future of pilots: maximizing airline workforce efficiency through advanced analytics

Author

Listed:
  • Burak Cankaya

    (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University)

  • Bulent Erenay

    (Northern Kentucky University)

  • Eyyub Kibis

    (Montclair State University)

  • Aaron Glassman

    (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University)

  • Dursun Delen

    (Oklahoma State University
    Istinye University)

Abstract

Pilots and aircraft are among the most valuable assets of an airline. Buying aircraft and hiring pilots are crucial strategic decisions companies must oversee for sustainability. The cost of buying, selling, leasing, and long production times for aircraft challenge companies in making optimal long-term decisions. Union rules, pilot shortages, pilot surplus, and the cost of employing an excessive number of pilots are factors complicating the workforce planning for airline companies worldwide. Under these volatile and conflicting circumstances, many companies cannot strategically plan for the planning of pilots to aircraft to meet short-term tactical decisions against mid/long-term company strategies. In this study, our objective is to optimize long-term crew planning by minimizing the total crew cost considering captain promotions and new hires, without compromising the pilot experience. A mixed integer programming model is developed to solve the long-term airline crew planning problem. Realistic business scenarios are used to determine the optimal pilot hiring and promotion patterns for both high-and low-demand scenarios. The results show that the proposed optimization method significantly reduces crew costs without compromising the pilot experience in various demand and cost scenarios. The mathematical model, the realistic business scenarios, and the business insights for airlines are deemed novel contributions to the pertinent literature and industry practices.

Suggested Citation

  • Burak Cankaya & Bulent Erenay & Eyyub Kibis & Aaron Glassman & Dursun Delen, 2024. "Charting the future of pilots: maximizing airline workforce efficiency through advanced analytics," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 1-32, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:operea:v:24:y:2024:i:3:d:10.1007_s12351-024-00861-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s12351-024-00861-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12351-024-00861-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12351-024-00861-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kangis, Peter & O'Reilly, M. Dolores, 2003. "Strategies in a dynamic marketplace: A case study in the airline industry," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 105-111, February.
    2. Verbeek, Peter J., 1991. "Decision support systems -- An application in strategic manpower planning of airline pilots," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 368-381, December.
    3. Milind G. Sohoni & Ellis L. Johnson & T. Glenn Bailey, 2004. "Long-Range Reserve Crew Manpower Planning," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(6), pages 724-739, June.
    4. Dijkstra, Matthijs C. & Kroon, Leo G. & van Nunen, Jo A. E. E. & Salomon, Marc, 1991. "A DSS for capacity planning of aircraft maintenance personnel," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1-3), pages 69-78, October.
    5. Eyyüb Y. Kıbış & İ. Esra Büyüktahtakın & Robert G. Haight & Najmaddin Akhundov & Kathleen Knight & Charles E. Flower, 2021. "A Multistage Stochastic Programming Approach to the Optimal Surveillance and Control of the Emerald Ash Borer in Cities," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 33(2), pages 808-834, May.
    6. Doi, Tsubasa & Nishi, Tatsushi & Voß, Stefan, 2018. "Two-level decomposition-based matheuristic for airline crew rostering problems with fair working time," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 267(2), pages 428-438.
    7. Chengqi Wang & Jeremy Clegg & Mario Kafouros, 2009. "Country-of-Origin Effects of Foreign Direct Investment," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 179-198, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wen, Xin & Chung, Sai-Ho & Ji, Ping & Sheu, Jiuh-Biing, 2022. "Individual scheduling approach for multi-class airline cabin crew with manpower requirement heterogeneity," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    2. Buckley, Peter J. & Munjal, Surender & Enderwick, Peter & Forsans, Nicolas, 2016. "Cross-border acquisitions by Indian multinationals: Asset exploitation or asset augmentation?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 986-996.
    3. Kroon, Leo G. & Salomon, Marc & Van Wassenhove, Luk N., 1995. "Exact and approximation algorithms for the operational fixed interval scheduling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 190-205, April.
    4. Anna Mazurek-Kusiak & Joanna Hawlena & Agata Kobylka, 2019. "Model of Polish Market of Passenger Air Services in the Conditions of EU Standards," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 417-427.
    5. John Francis O’Connell & David Connolly, 2017. "The strategic evolution of Aer Lingus from a full-service airline to a low-cost carrier and finally positioning itself into a value hybrid airline," Tourism Economics, , vol. 23(6), pages 1296-1320, September.
    6. Hyo Eun Cho & Jon Jungbien Moon & Insik Jeong, 2022. "Equal ownership split in international joint ventures: performance implications in an emerging market," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(2), pages 205-230, April.
    7. Zeren, Bahadır & Özcan, Ender & Deveci, Muhammet, 2024. "An adaptive greedy heuristic for large scale airline crew pairing problems," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    8. Somnath Lahiri & Vikas Kumar, 2012. "Ranking International Business Institutions and Faculty Members Using Research Publication as the Measure," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 317-340, June.
    9. Liu, Ming & Wu, Jiani & Zhang, Shuhua & Liang, Jing, 2023. "Cyanobacterial blooms management: A modified optimization model for interdisciplinary research," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 484(C).
    10. Andrew R. Tilman & Robert G. Haight, 2023. "Public policy for management of forest pests within an ownership mosaic," Papers 2312.05403, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2024.
    11. Paola Cappanera & Filippo Visintin & Roberta Rossi, 2022. "The emergency department physician rostering problem: obtaining equitable solutions via network optimization," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 916-959, December.
    12. Reményi, Christoph & Staudacher, Stephan, 2014. "Systematic simulation based approach for the identification and implementation of a scheduling rule in the aircraft engine maintenance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(PA), pages 94-107.
    13. Liping Ge & Natalia Kliewer & Abtin Nourmohammadzadeh & Stefan Voß & Lin Xie, 2024. "Revisiting the richness of integrated vehicle and crew scheduling," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 775-801, October.
    14. Yim, Seho & Hong, Sung-Pil & Park, Myoung-Ju & Chung, Yerim, 2022. "Inverse interval scheduling via reduction on a single machine," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 303(2), pages 541-549.
    15. Chiambaretto, Paul & Combe, Emmanuel, 2023. "Business model hybridization but heterogeneous economic performance: Insights from low-cost and legacy carriers in Europe," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 83-97.
    16. Peng, Ling & Kloeden, Peter E., 2021. "Time-consistent portfolio optimization," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 288(1), pages 183-193.
    17. Gang Yu & Julian Pachon & Benjamin Thengvall & Darryal Chandler & Al Wilson, 2004. "Optimizing Pilot Planning and Training for Continental Airlines," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 34(4), pages 253-264, August.
    18. Zeighami, Vahid & Saddoune, Mohammed & Soumis, François, 2020. "Alternating Lagrangian decomposition for integrated airline crew scheduling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 287(1), pages 211-224.
    19. Akamavi, Raphaël K. & Mohamed, Elsayed & Pellmann, Katharina & Xu, Yue, 2015. "Key determinants of passenger loyalty in the low-cost airline business," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 528-545.
    20. Magdolna Sass & Jana Vlčková, 2019. "Just Look behind the Data! Czech and Hungarian Outward Foreign Direct Investment and Multinationals," Acta Oeconomica, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 69(supplemen), pages 73-105, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:operea:v:24:y:2024:i:3:d:10.1007_s12351-024-00861-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.