Operational aircraft maintenance routing problem incorporating cruise speed control

Allowing variability in flight flying time in aircraft rerouting can achieve improved flight connection opportunities, and thus higher aircraft utilization and enhanced schedule flexibility. However, similar impacts on aircraft routing are underexplored. In this study, a new operational aircraft maintenance routing problem (OAMRP) model that incorporates cruise speed control to realize the flying time variability is formulated. A graph reduction procedure is developed to reduce the excessive model size. Then, the model is solved using a novel ant colony optimization algorithm that considers node attractions in the state transition rule. Computational experiments show that the proposed model, compared with the traditional model, can generate aircraft maintenance routes with higher aircraft utilization, and thereby save aircraft. Moreover, both schedule stability and flexibility are maintained in the proposed model.