Airport Runway Capacity Research Articles

Runway Capacity Studies for Major Indian Airports

The two principal measures of performance of Air Traffic management (ATM) systems are Capacity and Delay. Significant growth in Indian air traffic is causing congestions and hence delays in the en-route airspace and at airports. The main reason for the delay at airports is insufficient capacity in terms of facilities such as runways, taxiways or gates to accommodate peak period demands. The delays at airports would cause inconvenience to the passengers, airliners and the airport authorities. The airport runway capacity information will be useful to manage demand and minimize the delay. Prediction of runway capacity aids in developing strategies for efficient air traffic management. This paper presents the airport runway capacity studies carried out using Time Space diagrams for major Indian Airports.

Congestion pricing and capacity for internationally interlinked airports

This study investigates congestion pricing and capacity investment for an international network linking two countries’ airports and airlines. Under a Bertrand-Nash supposition for airports and Cournot competition for airlines in a duopoly, we characterize the locally optimal pricing rules for uniform and discriminatory charges levied by each country's airport. We clarify that the locally optimal pricing rules include a significant component resulting from the incentive to exploit the foreign airline, which is not included in the optimal pricing rules set by a social/global welfare-maximizing authority. We evaluate the pricing rules of the two airport charges for a round trip (i.e., the sum of each airport's per-departing-passenger charge). We clarify that the incentive to exploit the foreign airline is, theoretically, the only source of deviation from global welfare maximization (which may reach the first-best outcome) regardless of the uniform or discriminatory charges’ pricing regimes. Furthermore, we show that each airport's runway capacity investment could be globally efficient under globally optimal pricing rules, whereas each airport tends to overinvest under locally optimal pricing rules.

A review of airport runway capacity evaluation model

In this paper, we analyze the domestic scholars about the airport runway capacity evaluation model, and they are mainly the analysis and introduction of some commonly used runway capacity evaluation methods and specific runway capacity evaluation models. These models respectively include the takeoff and landing capacity of aircraft, and give the calculation methods of runway capacity in various cases. By seeking the similarities and differences of these evaluation models, the future research focus and direction are put forward.

A Study on the Strategy for Departure Aircraft Pushback Control from the Perspective of Reducing Carbon Emissions

In order to reduce the taxiing time of departing aircraft and reduce the fuel consumption and exhaust emissions of the aircraft, Shanghai Hongqiao Airport was taken as an example to study the control strategy for aircraft departure. In this paper, the influence of the number of departure aircraft on the runway utilization rate, the takeoff rate, and the departure rate of flight departures under the conditions of airport runway capacity constraints are studied. The influence of factors, such as the number of departure aircraft, the gate position of the aircraft, and the configuration of airport arrival and departure runways, on the aircraft taxiing time for departure is analyzed. Based on a multivariate linear regression equation, a time prediction model of aircraft departure taxiing time is established. The fuel consumption and pollutant emissions of aircraft are calculated. The experimental results show that, without reducing the utilization rate of the runway and the departure rate of flights, implementing a reasonable pushback number for control of departing aircraft during busy hours can reduce the departure taxiing time of aircraft by nearly 32%, effectively reducing the fuel consumption and pollutant emissions during taxiing on the airport surface.

Modelling and simulation studies of the runway capacity of Changi Airport

ABSTRACTInternational air travel becomes more affordable over the years with the introduction of low-cost carriers (LCCs) in Asia Pacific. As a result, this region has seen an exponential growth in its air traffic movements. Asia Pacific has been recording faster air traffic growths, compared to regions such as Europe and North America. This is largely due to emerging markets and developing economies in Asia Pacific. This is especially seen in the demand and supply for LCCs in Southeast Asia. Changi Airport, being one of the major air traffic hubs in Asia, is facing overloaded traffic in the future due to this exponential growth. Although a new runway and new terminals are proposed and in the process of being built, the coming years could still bring a huge challenge to the airport, if its existing capacity is not maximised to cope with the increasing traffic demand. Hence, we studied the impacts of increasing LCC flights on the airport runway capacity. Different runway operational scenarios were simulated to investigate their advantages and disadvantages. It is found that the segregated parallel arrival-departure runway operation is beneficial. By simulating various operational scenarios with the projected increasing flight movements, it is found that a dedicated runway to medium-sized arrival aircraft may be more beneficial, as this would possibly enable it to have a higher runway capacity.

Studies for air traffic management R&D in the ASEAN-region context

We investigated flight delays and found that thunderstorms largely affected the flight delay duration. By performing Monte Carlo simulations, we also examined several scenarios to estimate the airport runway capacity. The results found might allow identifying crucial factors, meeting the rising air transport demand for more years ahead. In addition, a functioning modelling and simulation capability was established by the Air Traffic Management Research Institute to carry out analyses of traffic flows and airspace structures throughout the ASEAN region and to provide solutions for capacity and efficiency enhancements.

Airport Runway Capacity and Economic Development

Using an aggregate production function, the impact of runways at commercial airports on several measures of metropolitan statistical areas’ economic welfare in combination with labor, private capital, and public-sector capital is estimated. By focusing on runways at commercial airports, we estimate the impact of reducing congestion that sets in and takeoffs and landings as air activity nears the technical limit for safe operations. Both the number of runways and the maximum length of runway available at a given airport correlate positively with real gross metropolitan product with a negative cross product between the two, suggesting a trade-off between the number of flights possible and the size of the aircraft that can use the airport. Additional analysis examines the impact of additional runways on other measures of economic activity.

A Heuristic Algorithm for the Allocation of Airport Runway System Capacity

This paper develops a heuristic algorithm for the allocation of airport runway capacity to minimise the cost of arrival and departure aircraft/flight delays. The algorithm is developed as a potential alternative to optimisation models based on linear and integer programming. The algorithm is based on heuristic (‘greedy’) criteria that closely reflect the ‘rules of thumb’ used by air traffic controllers. Using inputs such as arrival and departure demand, airport runway system capacity envelopes and cost of aircraft/flight delays, the main output minimises the cost of arrival and departure delays as well as the corresponding interdependent airport runway system arrival and departure capacity allocation. The algorithm is applied to traffic scenarios at three busy US airports. The results are used to validate the performance of the proposed heuristic algorithm against results from selected benchmarking optimisation models.

Limited Study of Flight Simulation Evaluation of High-Speed Runway Exits

The provision of high-speed runway exits is one of several alternatives to increase airport runway capacity through reductions in runway occupancy time. The Runway Exit Design Interactive Model developed at Virginia Tech proposes new geometric design standards for high-speed turnoffs and an algorithm to locate optimal runway exits. The results from a limited flight simulation study that was conducted to assess the operational suitability of high-speed runway exits developed at Virginia Tech are presented. The flight simulation experiments were conducted at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City in a Boeing 727-200, 6-degree-of-freedom, full-motion-base aircraft simulator. The study used six FAA pilots rated in the Boeing 727-200 aircraft to obtain information about the operational suitability of the proposed high-speed exits. Pilot responses were extracted from questionnaires that were administered during the flight-simulation experiments. Aircraft state variable time histories extracted from the flight simulator computer were analyzed to verify the dynamic behavior of the aircraft as high-speed runway exits were negotiated. Two statistical experiments were carried out to evaluate the acceptance of the high-speed exit designs: ( a) a two-factor analysis of variance test to verify differences in runway exit speeds and ( b) nonparametric tests of pilots questionnaire responses. The results suggest that a new generation of high-speed runway exit geometries could be used to increase runway exit speeds without compromising safety or inducing extra workload on pilots.