You have to be careful what you mean by approximate. In this context, it means a schedule that requires more than the optimal number of pilots. Another way o

You have to be careful what you mean by approximate. In this context, it means a schedule that requires more than the optimal number of pilots. Another way of meaning approximate is canceling routes till you can find a schedule that fits the pilots you have. That’s actually a harder problem, and is not CS means by an approximation algorithm. Obviously that’s what SW has to do, but part of the reason why things are so disastrous is that this problem is quite difficult (in terms of algorithmic difficulty)