The Motulus Tail Assignment solution allocates specific aircraft to flights: this allocation process can have a significant impact on both an airline’s operating costs and also customer service. The tail assignment optimization solution considers fuel cost, flying and landing fees as well as other potential costs (crew and maintenance) for each aircraft in order to drive the best allocation across the schedule. At the same time the solution will drive for an operationally robust schedule (e.g. through buffers on turnaround times) in order to create a plan that can deliver the highest on time performance possible.
A recent use case for a carrier of between 50 and 60 aircraft flying a combination of short and medium haul sectors delivered an average saving of 4.1%. This saving was a combination of landing, overflying and fuel costs. The saving was delivered by allocating the most efficient aircraft (in terms of fuel and MTOW) to specific routes. A series of constraints ensured all aircraft were allocated sufficient time to visit maintenance bases.
Recent blogs on tail assignment:
Part 1: Unlocking the Efficiency of airline scheduling with Tail Assignment Optimization
Part 2: Navigating Complexity: The Cost Model and Constraints behind Tail Assignment Optimization
Part 3: Behind the Scenes: A Deep Dive into Tail Assignment Optimization
Part 4: The Proof is in the Data
Photo by Shahzin Shajid on Unsplash
