Assigning aircraft to an airline’s flight schedule is a complex optimization process. There are many constraints in this process—including time windows that must be met at different airports, airplane maintenance schedules, and much more.

At Vueling, a low-cost Spanish carrier, this is currently a slow and manual process, and is subject to scheduling errors and other issues. Recently, Lighthouse DIG, a technology services firm, explored the use of D-Wave technology to automate this process. The result of this work was validation that D-Wave’s hybrid quantum computing is already capable of addressing real-world optimization problems in the aviation sector. At this webinar, Parfait Atchadé, Chief Quantum Innovation Officer (CQIO) at Lighthouse DIG and a Research Affiliate at the MIT Media Lab, will discuss this project and the results.