The field of science (math) that studies this (and applies it) is called "Operations Research"[0] and it's about optimization & planning. About 30yrs ago they s

The field of science (math) that studies this (and applies it) is called "Operations Research"[0] and it's about optimization & planning. About 30yrs ago they started applying it to airline scheduling, here's a few random papers I found: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/245236750_Airline_Scheduling_An_Overview https://www.researchgate.net/publication/245236750_Airline_S... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0305048374900875 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/030504... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_research https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_research