Search and cloud computing giant Google presented some findings of their Operations Research Team, working with Lufthansa Group, to lower CO2 emissions by optimizing the tail assignment for the group subsidiary SWISS International Air Lines.
As part of this collaboration, Google developed and launched a mathematical tail assignment solver to optimize the fleet schedule for SWISS International Air Lines which they estimate will result in significant reductions in carbon emissions.
The research group managed to develop a solver reducing annual CO2 emissions by 6500 tons or by saving roughly 3.5 million Swiss Francs in fuel costs due to optimized aircraft to leg assignment.
Find a more detailled technical description within the report on the Google AI Blog or check out their online offering in operational research topics – open source.