Quantum Computing in the Airline Industry

Operating an airline is unthinkable without mathematical optimization: which aircraft should perform which flight? Which captain should operate which flight? These and many other combinatorial optimization problems are best solved using operations research techniques. However, classical algorithms are pushed to their limits when complexity becomes too high or when multiple optimization problems must be integrated into a single framework.

We evaluate whether and how quantum optimization can benefit airline operations. Specifically, we study the use cases of aircraft (tail) assignment, crew disruption management, flight route planning, and airport gate assignment. For each of these use cases, we implement both classical and quantum algorithms and compare their performance using simulations and experiments on quantum hardware.