ABSTRACT
The case studies and examples presented in the previous chapters where integer linear programming models were adopted could be easily solved using optimization software. This was mainly due to a relatively small number of decision variables and/or constraints. The objective of the previous cases and examples was to introduce the development of mathematical models rather than solve the problems. We assumed that once the problem is formulated, we could use a software to obtain the optimal solution. Unfortunately, the problems that many airlines face involve millions or even billions of decision variables. These huge models cannot be solved using the standard software package. Consider the following example.
