Hierarchical goal programming approaches to solve a discrete‐time formulation for the aircraft recovery problem of a Brazilian oil and gas company

Abstract We address the aircraft recovery problem faced by a Brazilian oil and gas company during its offshore operations. This problem involves hiring helicopters from an outsourced company to transport personnel from an airport to maritime units. The performed flights are subject to disruptions and might require rescheduling. To assist with decision‐making in such situations, we introduce a discrete‐time integer linear programming (ILP) model that considers company‐specific attributes, including a lexicographic objective function that prioritizes (i) the reduction of flight transfers to the next day; (ii) the reduction of helicopter utilization; and (iii) the reduction of flight delays of the day. We develop four different solution approaches using hierarchical goal programming based on the proposed model, aided by enhancements and valid inequalities. Computational experiments using both real‐world and simulated instances demonstrate that our approaches can provide effective solutions for most instances using a general‐purpose ILP solver within acceptable computation times.