As the aviation industry has agreed on the goal of achieving net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050, various mitigation strategies are being deployed and developed. This paper focuses on reducing emissions at airports by towing aircraft instead of taxiing with their main engines; dispatch towing. This is done by developing a model to optimise the assignment of Electric Towing Vehicles (ETVs) at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS), in line with the airport’s emission-free target for 2030. The developed model is able to assign ETVs to flights and charging moments for the tactical planning phase, minimising fuel consumption, charging cost and number of chargers. The results of the model are illustrated for two peak days at AMS. Both a small and a large fleet of ETVs are assigned on both days for a northbound and southbound runway operation.
The total fuel cost savings for the small fleet are to 25% and 45% for the large fleet, which are similar on both days. On both days, outbound flights are most preferred direction to be towed due to the distribution of towing times. The savings per ETV are highest for a small fleet and decrease until all flights are towed. Furthermore, the load on the charging infrastructure at AMS for different fleet sizes shows what average
and peak power can be expected. It is shown that ETV utilisation and computation time can be improved significantly, by implementing costs on time and introducing utilisation and symmetry constraints. However, with the important limitation that these improvements are observed only for small planning horizons. Finally, a sensitivity analysis on charging power showed that increasing the charging rate has a positive impact on both fuel cost savings and the minimum number of chargers required. In conclusion, this study shows the potential impact of dispatch towing at AMS in terms of fuel savings, charging infrastructure and operational challenges.