Elements of the model positioning of aircraft on the apron

Abstract

The design of airports and the organization of their work requires the recognition of the basic components of the air transport process, consisting of an "aerial" part, including the landing phase and the landing operation itself, as well as take-off, the "ground" part, including the task of taxiing aircraft on apron, ground handling tasks, "terminal" part, including passenger handling tasks. These elements form a cause-and-effect sequence, or a series-parallel structure that determines the quality of services provided by the airport, their efficiency, reliability and price. The article presents the issues of decision support for the operation and maintenance of airport infrastructure and traffic management on the ramp and within the airport, i.e. the operation of allocating aircraft to the gates of "gates" using simulation tools. Aircraft taxiing operations on the tarmac integrate the flight phase (along with its components and its problems, such as arriving and departing sequencing) with the ground handling phase of aircraft and passengers at terminals. The model presented in the article is a single element of a holistic approach to the operation of an airport. The overall model consists of the development of decision models for the organization of aircraft traffic on the apron, algorithms for their solution and the possibility of practical application as a simulation tool for analyzing and assessing aircraft traffic processes in the take-off, taxiing and landing phase. To describe the model, a formal mapping of the structure of the necessary airport elements was proposed. A formal record of boundary conditions and criteria relevant to aircraft allocation processes is presented due to the minimization of travel time of passengers transferring between two aircraft assigned to two different gates. Test results can be used in practice, among others by airspace controllers and airport designers for: analyzing and assessing the possibilities of increasing airport capacity, analyzing and assessing the determination of taxiway lengths, maintaining high safety reserves, etc.