This paper proposes a lookahead approximate dynamic programming methodology for aircraft maintenance check scheduling, considering the uncertainty of aircraft daily utilization and maintenance check elapsed time. It adopts a dynamic programming framework, using a hybrid lookahead scheduling policy. The hybrid lookahead scheduling policy makes the one-step optimal decision for heavy aircraft maintenance based on deterministic forecasts and then determines the light maintenance according to stochastic forecasts. The objective is to minimize the total wasted utilization interval between maintenance checks while reducing the need for additional maintenance slots. By achieving this goal, one is also reducing the number of maintenance checks and increasing aircraft availability while respecting airworthiness regulations. We validate the proposed methodology using the fleet maintenance data from a major European airline. The descriptive statistics of several test runs show that, when compared with the current practice, the proposed methodology potentially reduces the number of A-checks by 1.9%, the number of C-checks by 9.8%, and the number of additional slots by 78.3% over four years.

考虑到飞机日常利用率和维修检查经过时间的不确定性，本文提出了一种用于飞机维修检查调度的前瞻近似动态规划方法。它采用动态编程框架，使用混合前瞻调度策略。混合前瞻调度策略基于确定性预测做出重型飞机维修的一步优化决策，然后根据随机预测确定轻型维修。目标是最大限度地减少维护检查之间的总浪费使用间隔，同时减少对额外维护槽的需求。通过实现这一目标，人们还可以减少维护检查的次数并提高飞机的可用性，同时遵守适航规定。我们使用欧洲一家主要航空公司的机队维护数据验证了所提出的方法。多次测试运行的描述性统计表明，与当前实践相比，所提出的方法可能将 A-check 数量减少 1.9%，C-check 数量减少 9.8%，额外插槽数量减少 78.3 % 超过四年。