To overcome the disadvantages of radar vectors and to improve efficiency and safety of terminal airspace operations, EUROCONTROL has proposed the so-called Point Merge System (PMS) technique for merging inbound traffic flows. As the PMS provides better predictability, it can potentially offer significant fuel and environmental benefits as well as a considerable reduction of inbound delays.
The main goal of this project is to explore the potential benefits/drawbacks (environmental impact, capacity, delay, fuel efficiency and safety) of implementing PMS-based arrival management at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AAS).
In this research, a PMS route network is designed for two runway configurations at AAS. Using Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) , an optimal PMS scheduling model has been designed. A case study is performed using current flight data to demonstrate the performance of the scheduling model and to find the potential advantages of implementing PMS-based arrival management at AAS.