Airline based priority flight sequencing

of aircraft arriving at an airport

Master thesis (2020)

Authors

R.M. Vervaat Aerospace Engineering

Contributors

M.A. Mitici Air Transport & Operations - Aerospace Engineering (supervisor 1)
Ferdinand Dijkstra Air Traffic Control The Netherlands (supervisor 2)
M. Zoutendijk Air Transport & Operations - Aerospace Engineering (coach)
Faculty
Aerospace Engineering
Copyright: © 2020 Robin Vervaat
Integer programming Arrival Sequencing and Scheduling Cruise Speed Variation Airline Delay Cost Optimisation
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Published Date

14-09-2020

Language

English

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Faculty

Aerospace Engineering

Abstract

This paper addresses the airline centred Arrival Sequencing and Scheduling problem aimed at the smart distribution of arrival delays, considering the explicit preferences from users. We consider the scenario in which actions are executed solely in the en-route phase with the available leeway present in the
current ATM system. The arrival process at the destination centre alongside equity rules such as ”First-Come, First-Served” remain untouched. A Mixed-Integer Linear Programming approach is presented in order to evaluate the fleet-wide impact of speed changes by individual aircraft in order to come to a global
(airline specific) optimum. The approach presented is evaluated using operational data in the form of a case study of a large European hub-style carrier. Case study results indicate the ability to decrease delay related cost by over 15% through the more efficient distribution of delay times between aircraft. Overall aircraft timeliness in the case study for both the controlled airline as well as competing airlines shows a slight improvement of several seconds of average delay per aircraft. In addition, a number of variations to the base model are presented, investigating a possible trade-off between model priorities.