System and method for controlling operation of an airline

• US 8,798,899 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2012
• Issued: 08/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Aviation Systems Limited (GE Aerospace)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Aragones, James Kenneth, Aragones, Amy Victoria, Harrington, Mark Thomas, Dunsdon, Jonathan Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Algahaim, Helal A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hilgendorf, Dale W
• Application Number:
  US13/411,991
• Publication Number:
  US 20130138333A1
• Time in Patent Office: 883 Days
• Field of Search: 701/120, 701/528, 701/29.7, 701/31.7
• US Class Current: 701/120
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0043 Traffic management of multiple aircrafts from the ground G08G5/003 takes precedence; data processing specially designed for resource management, e.g. scheduling or allocating time, human or machine resources G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

An airline operations control system for an airline having multiple aircraft and multiple routes formed by one or more flights where the airline operations control system includes a computer searchable database a query module configured to query the database and a display module and a method of controlling operation of the airline having the multiple aircraft and the multiple routes.

Claims

1. An airline operations control system for an airline having multiple aircraft and multiple routes formed by one or more flights, which are implemented by the aircraft flying the flights forming the routes, the system comprising:

a query module configured to determine at least one predicted failure of the at least one aircraft flying one of the routes;

a computer searchable database comprising;

aircraft inventory data including a unique identifier for each of the multiple aircraft;

aircraft status data, including maintenance for a predicted failure, for each of the multiple aircraft in the aircraft inventory data;

route data including each flight on a route, a destination for each flight, and the aircraft designated to fly each flight; and

maintenance resources including maintenance resources related to repairing the predicted failure of the at least one aircraft, for each of the destinations; and

a display module configured to display at least a subset of stable solutions to an aircraft operations personnel for use in determining a response to the predicted failure;

wherein the query module is configured to query the database for and output stable operating solutions that ensure completion of the multiple routes based on the predicted failure of the at least one aircraft flying one of the routes and wherein the query module is executed on a computer configured to access the database and determine the stable solutions by permutating over the database an airline operation algorithm that simulates the execution of each of the multiple routes to completion and varying for each permutation at least one of a group of inputs including repairing the predicted failure.

2. The airline operations control system of claim 1 wherein the database further comprises prognostic aircraft health data for the predicted failure.

3. The airline operations control system of claim 2 wherein the query module ranks the stable solutions based on at least one of airline personnel preference and cost.

4. The airline operations control system of claim 3 wherein the query module outputs a subset of the stable solutions based on the ranking.

5. The airline operations control system of claim 1 wherein the aircraft status data comprises at least one of:

fully healthy, grounded, time-limited dispatch, and limited dispatch.

6. A method of controlling operation of an airline having multiple aircraft and multiple routes, the method comprising:

determining a predicted failure in one of the aircraft designated for a flight;

providing on a computer system, a computer searchable database comprising;

aircraft inventory data including a unique identifier for each of the multiple aircraft;

aircraft status data, including a maintenance for a predicted failure, for each of the multiple aircraft in the aircraft inventory data;

route data including each flight on a route, a destination for each flight, and the aircraft designated to fly each flight; and

maintenance resources including maintenance resources related to repairing the predicted failure, for each of the destinations;

determining, using the computer system, stable solutions of operation of the airline by permutating over the database an airline operation algorithm that simulates execution of each of the multiple routes to completion and varying for each permutation at least one of repairing the predicted failure; and

displaying at least a subset of the stable solutions to an aircraft operations personnel for use in determining a response to the predicted failure.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the database further comprises prognostic aircraft health data for the predicted failure and determining stable solutions of operation incorporates the prognostic aircraft health data in the airline operation algorithm.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising requesting a ranking input from the aircraft operations personnel.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the ranking input comprises at least one of a preferred ranking and a best ranking.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising requesting a selection input from the aircraft operations personnel regarding which of the solutions was selected for implementation.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the displaying at least the subset of the stable solutions comprises selecting the subset based on ranking and selection.

12. The method of claim 6 wherein the aircraft status data comprises at least one of:

fully healthy, grounded, time-limited dispatch, and limited dispatch.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein when the aircraft status data comprises grounded, delaying the repair is removed as a variable input to the airline operation algorithm.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein when the aircraft status data comprises time-limited dispatch, delaying the repair is maintained as a variable input to the airline operation algorithm until the time limit is met.

15. The method of claim 6 wherein the maintenance resources further comprise traveling maintenance resources.

16. The method of claim 6 wherein the at least the subset of stable solutions displayed is selected based on at least one of the following constraints:

cost, no canceled flights, reliability, customer satisfaction, and that all passengers reach their destinations on the day planned.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the no canceled flight constraint and all passengers reaching their destination on the day planned constraint are limited to one of a holiday and the day before the holiday.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein customer satisfaction is determined based on at least one of fewest cancelled flights, fewest passengers not arriving at their final destination on the day planned, fewest passengers delayed more than 15 minutes, total flight delays, total passenger delays, and post-flight customer satisfaction surveys.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the cost is determined based on at least one of a predetermined value for cost per minute of delay, cost per cancellation, cost per minute that an aircraft is out of service, cost per swap.