High-volume tube-shape sectors (HTS): a network of high capacity ribbons connecting congested city pairs

We propose a network of high-volume tube-shape sectors (HTS) which is stretched between congested city pairs as a more efficient system for organizing and managing the aircraft flow, into and out of the large airports. One can think of this network as analogous to the system of interstate highways with passing lanes, breakdown areas, on-ramps and off-ramps, all designed to quickly move as much traffic as possible. This network would maximize the airspace throughput by more efficiently transporting aircraft, into and out of the congested airports. We apply visualization techniques to classify the current air traffic into different layers based on the demand profiles and route structure between origin and destination (OD) pairs. We also model the air traffic as flow of a fluid, where aircraft are the particles of the fluid. Velocity vectors for small volumes of the airspace are calculated as resultant of the velocity vectors for individual aircraft. Accordingly, we construct vector fields of the fluid velocity. Analysis of the routing structure and vector fields' topology assists us to determine the geometry and location of potential HTS.