About

Starting Semester: Spring 2026
Assigned: Yes
Location: Fort Worth

American Airlines

Client Profile

American Airlines is the largest airline in the world when measured by carried passengers and employees. Along with its regional partners and affiliates, AA operates an extensive international and domestic network with nearly 6,000 flights per day to almost 350 destinations in 48 countries, carrying millions of passengers each year.

Project Description

The flight dispatcher workgroup plays a critical role in operating such a large and complex network by coordinating and monitoring flights from AA Integrated Operations Center (IOC). AA must plan and maintain an appropriate level of staffing to manage the twenty-four-hour flight operations effectively and safely. This requires solving a complex problem: optimizing the workforce plan to satisfy demands in various regions in accordance with FAA regulations and union agreements. This project aims to develop an optimized bid-line structure (pre-populated work schedule on which dispatchers will bid) ensuring that demand is fulfilled while minimizing use of costlier relief lines and overtime, while accounting for unavailability due to vacation, sick days, training etc. Solving this computationally challenging problem can yield substantial cost savings and better staffing efficiency. The expected outcome is a functional model to populate an optimized set of bid-lines to support the annual flight dispatcher workforce planning using optimization techniques implemented in Python or Java.

Skills

Python or Java, integer/mixed integer programming, optimization