Bombardier Flexjet Significantly Improves Its Fractional Aircraft Ownership Operations

Richard Hicks (), Richard Madrid (), Chris Milligan (), Robert Pruneau (), Mike Kanaley (), Yvan Dumas (), Benoit Lacroix (), Jacques Desrosiers () and François Soumis ()
Additional contact information
Richard Hicks: Bombardier Aerospace, 3400 Waterview Parkway, Suite 400, Richardson, Texas 75080
Richard Madrid: Bombardier Aerospace, 3400 Waterview Parkway, Suite 400, Richardson, Texas 75080
Chris Milligan: Bombardier Aerospace, 3400 Waterview Parkway, Suite 400, Richardson, Texas 75080
Robert Pruneau: Bombardier Aerospace, 3400 Waterview Parkway, Suite 400, Richardson, Texas 75080
Mike Kanaley: Bombardier Aerospace, 3400 Waterview Parkway, Suite 400, Richardson, Texas 75080
Yvan Dumas: AD OPT Technologies Inc., 3535, chemin Queen-Mary, Suite 650, Montréal, Quebec, Canada H3V 1H8
Benoit Lacroix: AD OPT Technologies Inc., 3535, chemin Queen-Mary, Suite 650, Montréal, Quebec, Canada H3V 1H8
Jacques Desrosiers: HEC Montréal and GERAD, 3000, chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montréal, Quebec, Canada H3T 2A7
François Soumis: École Polytechnique de Montréal and GERAD, C.P. 6079, Succursale Centre-ville, Montréal, Quebec, Canada H3C 3A7

Interfaces, 2005, vol. 35, issue 1, 49-60

Abstract: The fractional aircraft market is the fastest growing segment of the business aircraft industry. A fractional aircraft operation is complex—essentially an unscheduled airline in a constantly changing environment. Bombardier Flexjet implemented a comprehensive three-module optimization system to simultaneously maximize its use of aircraft, crews, and facilities. AD OPT Technologies designed the modules, using the GENCOL optimizer developed at GERAD, which employs a column-generation approach to decompose large-scale mixed-integer nonlinear programming problems. Since inception, the project has generated savings in excess of $54 million with projected additional savings of $27 million annually, primarily by lowering crew levels (20 percent), aircraft inventory (40 percent), and supplemental charter aircraft usage (five percent) while increasing aircraft utilization (10 percent). The quality of customer service has remained consistently high, with significant reduction in supply.

Keywords: transportation: models; network; programming: nonlinear (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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