Cost Weights

Configure the objective function cost weights used by the solver.

Overview

Cost weights control how the solver's objective function balances different types of recovery actions. All values are relative integers — the solver minimises total weighted cost across all actions.

Higher values penalise the corresponding action more heavily, making the solver prefer alternatives.

CostWeights

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`delay_min`	integer= 1	Optional	Cost per minute of delay. Applied to each flight's delay, multiplied by the time block size.
`swap`	integer= 50	Optional	Cost per aircraft swap. Represents the operational complexity of changing aircraft assignments.
`deadhead`	integer= 100	Optional	Cost per deadhead repositioning. Applied when empty aircraft need to be moved between airports.
`cancel_flight`	integer= 10000	Optional	Base cost of cancelling a flight (before passenger re-accommodation costs).
`reaccom_base`	integer= 50	Optional	Base re-accommodation cost per displaced passenger.
`reaccom_hour`	integer= 20	Optional	Additional hourly cost per displaced passenger while waiting for re-accommodation.
`reaccom_hotel`	integer= 250	Optional	Hotel accommodation cost per passenger (applied when wait exceeds the hotel threshold).
`crew_duty_violation`	integer= 5000	Optional	Penalty for each crew duty period violation. Set high to strongly discourage regulatory breaches.

Examples

Favour delays over swaps

If your operation prefers to delay flights rather than swap aircraft (e.g. to minimise ground crew re-coordination):

json

{
  "costs": {
    "delay_min": 1,
    "swap": 200
  }
}

Heavily penalise cancellations

For airlines where cancellations are extremely costly due to rebooking guarantees:

json

{
  "costs": {
    "cancel_flight": 50000,
    "reaccom_base": 100,
    "reaccom_hotel": 500
  }
}

Balance matters

The ratio between cost weights matters more than absolute values. If cancel_flight is too low relative to delay accumulation, the solver may prefer cancellations when delays would be better.