We consider the problem of minimizing the number of airplanes needed to fly a fixed daily repeating schedule of flights. We use deficit functions (DF) to decompose an aviation schedule of aircraft flights into aircraft chains (routes) called a chain decomposition. Each chain visits periodically...

We consider the problem of minimizing the number of airplanes needed to fly a fixed daily repeating schedule of flights. We use deficit functions (DF) to decompose an aviation schedule of aircraft flights into aircraft chains (routes) called a chain decomposition. Each chain visits periodically...