Patent ID: 7006903

Claim:
A method to be used in a computer system for routing and scheduling maintenance for aircraft, comprising: generating an aircraft routing proposal based on information describing a possible flight of an aircraft; generating a maintenance scheduling proposal that corresponds to the aircraft based on information describing a possible maintenance schedule of the aircraft, wherein the information describing a possible maintenance schedule of the aircraft at least includes maintenance station capacity information; determining a proposed pre-flight assignment and proposed maintenance scheduling assignment based on the aircraft routing proposal and maintenance scheduling proposal; determining whether the proposed pre-flight assignment and proposed maintenance scheduling assignment meet a decision criterion describing requirements for aircraft routing and maintenance scheduling; optimizing, based on a determination that the decision criterion is not met, the proposed pre-flight assignment and proposed maintenance scheduling assignment so that the decision criterion is met; and generating a pre-flight assignment plan and maintenance scheduling plan using the proposed pre-flight assignment and proposed maintenance scheduling assignment that met the decision criterion wherein the generating, determining and optimizing steps are performed by a processor.