ERAU Industrial Math Project: OneSky Optimization

This is the exercise of matching available aircraft with trips that need to be flown for customers. There are many possible conditions, stipulations, and goals in fleet optimization depending on the business. For instance, Flexjet is a fractional ownership brand that has its own fleet of aircraft that is used to meet owner needs. However, Sentient is a charter broker brand that does not own any aircraft, and instead, works with various operators’ aircraft to meet customer needs.  In working with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, we hope to develop our own optimization algorithms and solvers to eliminate the need for the mathematical engine, CPLEX, which is currently being used.
One strategy that has been used for this type of problem is to create a set of ten to twenty optimization algorithms, develop heuristics that take care of constraints, utilize machine learning to train the algorithms based on historical data, and create criteria for identifying the best solution from the set of results.