Integrated Control of Airport and Terminal Airspace Operations

Airports are the most resource-constrained components of the air transportation system. This paper addresses the problems of increased flight delays and aircraft fuel consumption through the integrated control of airport arrival and departure operations. Departure operations are modeled using a network abstraction of the airport surface. Published arrival routes to airports are synthesized to form a realistic model of arrival airspace. The proposed control framework calculates the optimal times of departure of aircraft from the gates, as a function of the arrival and departure traffic as well as airport characteristics such as taxiway layout and gate capacity. The integrated control formulation is solved using dynamic programming, which allows calculation of policies for real-time implementation. The advantages of the proposed methodology are illustrated using simulations of Boston's Logan International Airport.