A robust optimization approach to the optimization of airline employee scheduling

Successful manpower scheduling is vital for airport operations. Stochastic flight delays make airline employees scheduling challenging. The study aims to mitigate the impact of flight delays. With the simulated manpower demand distribution as inputs, the study used mixed integer programming and robust optimization to generate working schedules for the employees. The comparison between the robust scheduling model proposed in this study and the traditional model used by a major US airline suggested that the robust model saved more on the overall cost, and had less manpower demand violations