Demonstration of Fixed Flight-Path Angle Descent via Scheduled Commercial Flights

Abstract

Toward implementation of fuel-saving descent operations, this study demonstrated a fixed flight-path angle descent using regularly scheduled commercial flights arriving at Kansai International Airport. This paper summarizes the authors' industry/academia collaboration research including 1) operational bottlenecks and weather analysis, 2) proposals of pilot and air traffic controllers’ operational procedures, 3) validation experiments using an A320 flight simulator, and 4) flight demonstrations conducted across 24 days using A320neo and A320ceo aircraft. The flight demonstration results were evaluated comparing flight recorder data of the new descent procedure relative to current descent operations. A total of 92% of the flights were approved to fly new approach procedure under actual air traffic operations, with an approximate average of 150 lb fuel reduction per flight (230 lb maximum).