A Study of Tradeoffs in Scheduling Terminal-Area Operations

The terminal area surrounding an airport is an important component of the air transportation system, and efficient terminal-area schedules are essential for accommodating the projected increase in air traffic demand. Aircraft arrival schedules are subject to a variety of operational constraints...

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Main Authors: Balakrishnan, Hamsa, Lee, Hanbong
Format: Technical Report
Language:en_US
Published: Proceedings of the IEEE 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/51953
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author Balakrishnan, Hamsa
Lee, Hanbong
author_facet Balakrishnan, Hamsa
Lee, Hanbong
author_sort Balakrishnan, Hamsa
collection MIT
description The terminal area surrounding an airport is an important component of the air transportation system, and efficient terminal-area schedules are essential for accommodating the projected increase in air traffic demand. Aircraft arrival schedules are subject to a variety of operational constraints, such as minimum separation for safety, required arrival time-windows, limited deviation from a first-come firstserved sequence, and precedence constraints. There is also a range of objectives associated with multiple stakeholders that could be optimized in these schedules; the associated tradeoffs are evaluated in this paper. A dynamic programming algorithm for determining the minimum cost arrival schedule, given aircraft-dependent delay costs, is presented. The proposed approach makes it possible to determine various tradeoffs in terminal-area operations. A comparison of maximum throughput and minimum average delay schedules shows that the benefit from maximizing throughput could be at the expense of an increase in average delay, and that minimizing delay is the more advantageous of the two objectives in most cases. A comprehensive analysis of the tradeoffs between throughput and fuel costs and throughput and operating costs is conducted, accounting for both the cost of delay (as reported by the airlines) and the cost of speeding up when possible (from models of aircraft performance).
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spelling mit-1721.1/519532019-04-10T12:17:14Z A Study of Tradeoffs in Scheduling Terminal-Area Operations Balakrishnan, Hamsa Lee, Hanbong tradeoff evaluation terminal-area scheduling and optimization; air transportation systems Air traffic management The terminal area surrounding an airport is an important component of the air transportation system, and efficient terminal-area schedules are essential for accommodating the projected increase in air traffic demand. Aircraft arrival schedules are subject to a variety of operational constraints, such as minimum separation for safety, required arrival time-windows, limited deviation from a first-come firstserved sequence, and precedence constraints. There is also a range of objectives associated with multiple stakeholders that could be optimized in these schedules; the associated tradeoffs are evaluated in this paper. A dynamic programming algorithm for determining the minimum cost arrival schedule, given aircraft-dependent delay costs, is presented. The proposed approach makes it possible to determine various tradeoffs in terminal-area operations. A comparison of maximum throughput and minimum average delay schedules shows that the benefit from maximizing throughput could be at the expense of an increase in average delay, and that minimizing delay is the more advantageous of the two objectives in most cases. A comprehensive analysis of the tradeoffs between throughput and fuel costs and throughput and operating costs is conducted, accounting for both the cost of delay (as reported by the airlines) and the cost of speeding up when possible (from models of aircraft performance). 2010-03-02T21:52:15Z 2010-03-02T21:52:15Z 2008-12 Technical Report http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/51953 Vol. 96, No. 12 en_US application/pdf Proceedings of the IEEE
spellingShingle tradeoff evaluation
terminal-area scheduling and optimization;
air transportation systems
Air traffic management
Balakrishnan, Hamsa
Lee, Hanbong
A Study of Tradeoffs in Scheduling Terminal-Area Operations
title A Study of Tradeoffs in Scheduling Terminal-Area Operations
title_full A Study of Tradeoffs in Scheduling Terminal-Area Operations
title_fullStr A Study of Tradeoffs in Scheduling Terminal-Area Operations
title_full_unstemmed A Study of Tradeoffs in Scheduling Terminal-Area Operations
title_short A Study of Tradeoffs in Scheduling Terminal-Area Operations
title_sort study of tradeoffs in scheduling terminal area operations
topic tradeoff evaluation
terminal-area scheduling and optimization;
air transportation systems
Air traffic management
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/51953
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