How a Light Jet Operator Finds $40k a Month on Top of Its Own Optimized Schedule.

    A single-type European fleet flying 10,000 flights a year, competing on the lowest cost base in its market. The planning team optimizes the schedule first. OPTIRISE then finds what is left.

    ~$40k
    saved every month, beyond the manually optimized schedule
    2 runs
    automated every day

    The challenge

    Lowest cost in the market, no room for waste

    This operator flies a homogeneous fleet of 15 to 20 light jets, all the same type, at very high utilization: around 10,000 flights a year, centered on Western Europe. Its strategy is to have the lowest cost base and the lowest prices in its market, so every avoidable cost matters.

    A busy, fast-moving schedule

    On busy days, each aircraft flies up to five legs, and many flight requests arrive at the last minute.

    A demanding airport environment

    Many of the destinations this operator serves limit what the schedule can do:

    • Limited handling and parking capacity in southern Europe in summer, especially at island destinations
    • Frequent flights to ski destinations, some with limited deicing capability
    • Smaller airfields with limited opening hours and prior permission required (PPR)
    • Runway performance on most flights: less fuel uplift on short runways means less range
    • Crew qualification required at many airports, and not every crew member is current

    A team that already optimizes

    The planning team is experienced and already builds and optimizes the schedule itself. The question was whether a system could find anything the team had not.

    The solution

    Their best schedule, then OPTIRISE on top

    OPTIRISE is used as a second pass on the team’s own work, not as a replacement for it.

    Manual build first

    The ops team, led by the Duty Manager, builds and optimizes the schedule as it always has.

    Two automated runs a day

    OPTIRISE then runs automatically twice a day, in the morning and in the afternoon, looking for improvements on top of the team’s schedule while respecting every airport, runway and crew constraint.

    Suggestions the team reviews

    As in every OPTIRISE deployment, the changes are presented as suggestions for the team to review and apply.

    Benefits and impact

    Savings beyond an optimized schedule

    Around $40k a month is saved, above and beyond the schedule the planning team had already optimized by hand.

    Why this result matters

    The comparison here is not software against no planning. It is software against a competent team actively trying to do the same job. For an operator competing on cost, savings found on top of that go straight to the margin.

    Availability for high-yield, short-notice requests

    Across 10,000 flights a year, every eliminated positioning leg frees an aircraft and preserves crew duty. That availability allows the commercial desk to accept profitable, last-minute charter requests that would otherwise have been turned down for lack of aircraft.

    Constraints respected

    Every suggestion respects the operation’s airport, runway performance and crew qualification constraints, so the savings never come at the cost of a schedule that cannot be flown.

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    Other client profiles: Fractional fleet, North America · Global long-range charter