frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Computational Complexity of Air Travel Planning [pdf] (2003)

http://www.demarcken.org/carl/papers/ITA-software-travel-complexity/ITA-software-travel-complexity.pdf
76•rochoa•1y ago

Comments

buildsjets•1y ago
This is well over 20 years old and is based on pre 9/11 flight data. I would suspect that a lot has changed since then. So proceed with no caution at all.
gwern•1y ago
Since these sorts of things usually only get more and more complex over time, I would guess that it's all still true, but much more so.
throw0101b•1y ago
(2003)
throw0101b•1y ago
The PDF was produced by ITA, which famously used Common Lisp:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITA_Software

From 2001, a message from the same author as the linked paper:

> (Here's an email Carl de Marcken of ITA Software sent to a friend, describing their experiences using Lisp in one of the software industry's most demanding applications.)

* https://www.paulgraham.com/carl.html

Qem•1y ago
Are there any public, open, comprehensive datasets on flights?
dieselerator•1y ago
> Are there any public, open, comprehensive datasets on flights?

Airlines and commercial aviation operators schedule their own flights. That is a dynamic schedulle. So, perhaps there is no "comprehensive data set".

However, FlightAware makes publicly available scheduled and completed flight data over many routes in the USA. You can search by route and get a list of flights.

Flight information includes filed departure time, route of flight, and speed. For completed flights actual time, altitude, and route is shown. For example, a search on the route Dallas/Fort Worth to Austin lists 45 flights.

I hope that helps.

foundart•1y ago
A very interesting dive into, as the title says, the computational complexity of air travel planning. Graph algorithms with lots of complexity added due to the wide variety of fare conditions that airlines have dreamt up over the years.

The article may be from 2003 but I would call it an evergreen. While I imagine some of the details have changed since then, I suspect that the complexity has only grown since then.

foundart•1y ago
It makes me wonder: Would an airline that drastically simplified its fares be more likely to appear in flight search results?

Simplifying the fares would make it less computationally expensive and, in theory, could take fewer steps to answer a flight planning query.

Imagine a flight search planner that, say, fanned out N airline-specific workers when handling a planning query and then displayed to the user whatever results it got back within some time limit. If FooAir had simple fares, the FooAir searcher would likely run faster than searchers for other airlines. Thus it would be more likely to return results for more queries, assuming the deadline is fairly tight because of usability metrics. (People don't tend to stick around waiting for slow results.)

sjburt•1y ago
At least a few years ago (~2014), the fare search was actually nearly instant, but all major airfare search sites added a delay because customers had the impression they were getting a better deal when they had to wait. It seems like the delay has been dialed back lately.
teleforce•1y ago
This is a very popular article that get submitted every now and then (nearly every year) [1].

I think this kind of problem would be a very nice for logic, optimization and constraint programming that probably can be solved with modern tools like Google OR-Tool or Monash University MiniZinc [1],[2],[3].

[1] Past:

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Computational%20Complexity%20o...

[2] Logic, Optimization, and Constraint Programming: A Fruitful Collaboration - John Hooker - CMU (2023) [video]:

https://www.youtube.com/live/TknN8fCQvRk

[3] Google OR-Tools:

https://developers.google.com/optimization

[4] MiniZinc:

https://www.minizinc.org/

Kimi-K3 Releases on HuggingFace 7/27

https://huggingface.co/moonshotai/Kimi-K3
739•nateb2022•8h ago•337 comments

AI companies are shredding rare books

https://xcancel.com/HedgieMarkets/status/2081534588485296565
437•anon373839•2h ago•236 comments

How is the Bun Rewrite in Rust going?

https://lockwood.dev/ai/2026/07/27/how-is-the-bun-rewrite-in-rust-going.html
269•tomlockwood•3h ago•179 comments

Removing React.js from the codebase and adapting Htmx for UI interactivity (2023)

https://misago-project.org/t/removing-reactjs-from-the-codebase-and-adapting-htmx-for-ui-interact...
91•Ralfp•5h ago•51 comments

Should you wash your solar panels?

https://incoherency.co.uk/blog/stories/should-you-wash-your-solar-panels.html
87•surprisetalk•2h ago•70 comments

The Computer That Helped Win World War II

https://spectrum.ieee.org/colossus-computer-ieee-milestone
14•baruchel•4d ago•2 comments

Libsm64: Mario 64 as a library for use in external game engines

https://github.com/libsm64/libsm64
80•klaussilveira•5h ago•11 comments

PGSimCity - How PostgreSQL Works

https://nikolays.github.io/PGSimCity/
779•jonbaer•14h ago•71 comments

Building a Fast Lock-Free Queue in Modern C++ from Scratch

https://blog.jaysmito.dev/blog/04-fast-lockfree-queues/
49•ibobev•5d ago•15 comments

Magnolias Are So Old That They're Pollinated by Beetles, Not Bees

https://mymodernmet.com/magnolia-ancient-flowers-beetles/
168•speckx•4d ago•67 comments

VLC for Unity now supported on Linux

https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc-unity
78•martz•6h ago•19 comments

First Robotic Satellite Servicer Launched

https://www.nrl.navy.mil/Media/News/Article/4551871/robotic-servicing-of-geosynchronous-satellite...
21•GlenTheMachine•3d ago•7 comments

Show HN: Physically accurate black hole you can put in your room

https://blackhole.plav.in
409•aplavin•4d ago•150 comments

Towards a Theory of Bugs: The Ruliology of the Unexpected

https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2026/07/towards-a-theory-of-bugs-the-ruliology-of-the-unexpec...
30•nsoonhui•3d ago•3 comments

The Birth of the American 12-string Guitar

https://www.harpguitars.net/history/grunewald/12-string.htm
43•bilegeek•4h ago•24 comments

Modern email can be built from borrowed parts

https://en.andros.dev/blog/d7ed8b07/modern-email-can-be-built-from-borrowed-parts/
74•andros•6h ago•31 comments

Shay Locomotives

https://www.shaylocomotives.com/
38•Rygian•5h ago•7 comments

We Tested Nonstick Cookware: Coatings Don't Need to Look Worn to Shed Particles

https://www.rtings.com/air-fryer/learn/research/ptfe-cookware-shedding
43•cdemer•1h ago•26 comments

Scriptc by Vercel: TypeScript-to-Native compiler, no JavaScript engine in binary

https://github.com/vercel-labs/scriptc
232•maxloh•16h ago•127 comments

The Proof Machine (2016)

https://incredible.pm/
15•BenoitP•2h ago•1 comments

AI companies spend record sums on Washington lobbying

https://www.ft.com/content/d8a5f95e-3b6d-463a-a848-c9ef8e2394db
14•1vuio0pswjnm7•1h ago•4 comments

Decker, a platform that builds on the legacy of Hypercard and classic macOS

https://beyondloom.com/decker/
347•tosh•20h ago•80 comments

Elevated errors on Claude Opus 5

https://status.claude.com/incidents/mfdtrknpxghq
60•croemer•3h ago•49 comments

US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search

https://www.techspot.com/news/113236-us-prosecutors-charge-atlanta-man-after-grapheneos-phone.html
1051•eecc•16h ago•807 comments

Google Chrome Arrives on ARM64 Linux, Widevine DRM Included

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/07/chrome-arm64-linux-available
40•twapi•3h ago•16 comments

We have proof automation now

https://www.imperialviolet.org/2026/07/26/zstd-lean.html
208•zdw•18h ago•89 comments

Introduction to Data-Oriented Design [pdf]

https://www.gamedevs.org/uploads/introduction-to-data-oriented-design.pdf
220•tosh•20h ago•57 comments

8086 Emulator Inside Scratch

https://turbowarp.org/1248315967?size=640x400
25•rickcarlino•4d ago•1 comments

I wanted a clock that never needed setting. Things escalated

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/07/i-wanted-a-clock-that-never-needed-setting-things-escalated/
150•lee_ars•4d ago•130 comments

Chinese chipmaker shares surge 470%

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9q9w3x9qn2o
157•pingou•5h ago•141 comments