OPTIMIZATION OF AIRCRAFT LINE MAINTENANCE SCHEDULES

Aircraft line maintenance is necessary work for the aviation industry. Aircraft maintenance operators need to plan a comprehensive maintenance plan to ensure the safety of aircraft and the normal operation of flights. Currently, aircraft line maintenance schedules are manually planned based on decision makers’ experience. However, with the gradual shortage of aircraft maintenance technicians, as well as the expansion of the aircraft fleet, the traditional manual scheduling method is becoming unsustainable. Therefore, this study constructs a daily maintenance scheduling model for aircraft line maintenance with the consideration of relevant practical maintenance constraints and aircraft schedules. The model aims at minimizing the total cost and is solved using the mathematical programming software CPLEX. Finally, we perform a case study using data from a maintenance subsidiary of a domestic airline to preliminarily evaluate the model. A number of sensitivity / scenario analyses were also conducted. The test results are good,indicating that the model could be used as a reference for future aircraft maintenance operators to plan their aircraft line maintenance schedules.