The Wall Street Journal had an interesting write up today about the airlines padding schedules to allow for the congestion in the skies delaying flights. Flying out of Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) I see this all the time. Of course the main reason I recommend this article is my good friend and college roomate who works for Southwest Airlines is quoted in it. Nothing like bragging on my friends quoted in the WSJ!
Have you ever thought how difficult it is for airlines to create their daily flight schedules? I never thought about it until a very good friend and college roommate, Alex started working at Southwest Airlines. One of his jobs is working with a team to create Southwest’s daily system wide flight schedule.
It is amazing how complex it is to create flight schedules that meet customers needs and maximize efficiency. Mind you this is a very simplistic, high-level view description, but look at it this way, airlines need mathematicians and programming experts to solve such complex scenarios.
A colleague of my friend wrote this post on Southwest Airlines blog about how Alex created an optimized schedule for Southwest once thought to be “mathematically and technologically impossibleâ€. Oh, and did I mention he did it on his own time on his home PC? Thus it was monikered the “Garage-O-Mizer”.
“He had cracked the problem on his own and produced the solution himself, over Christmas break, on his home PC—metaphorically, in his garage. He had done what was actually thought to be mathematically and technologically impossible at the time. THE “GARAGE-O-MIZER†WAS BORN!”
Yes… I’m bragging about my friend and I’m happy to do it. Even though he cracked this problem a couple of years ago, it’s fun to see part of the story being told today in a public forum. Kudo’s Alex!
Richard Branson and Burt Rutan announced today the formation of their company that will build the first private multi-passenger spaceship. This was expected after the success of Rutan’s SpaceShipOne as the first private space vehicle that reached space.
It was great to see that the announcement was made at the EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh, WI. This is the world’s largest fly-in airshow and convention in the world. This year SpaceShipOne and its carrier jet are at the airshow and will fly in a demonstration this Friday.
I have visited this annual airshow for many years with my father. We both enjoy aviation and this is the best place in the world to see aircraft up close. I will not be able to go this year and it is the one year I wish I could to see the SpaceShipOne in person.
