Simulation and modeling of air traffic over the Western Atlantic Route System

The increase in air traffic over the oceanic airspace and the ever rising cost of fuel prompted the investigation of the reduction of separation standards on and between flight tracks so as most, if not all aircraft, operating on the tracks realize their optimum flight paths that minimize fuel consumption. This paper summarizes the work that investigates the effect of proposed reductions in vertical and longitudinal separation between aircraft operating in the Western Atlantic Route System (WATRS). The principal effect of concern is aircraft fuel consumption. Currently aircraft are required to maintain a vertical separation of 2000 ft. when assigned to the same route, the proposed vertical separation standard is 1000 ft; similarly aircraft pairs operating on the same route and flight level are separated by 15 minutes, a reduction to 10 minutes is investigated. We model and simulate the air traffic over the WATRS region under different separation scenarios. Optimization algorithms are developed to determine the optimum flight plan for every aircraft operating in the region. Comparisons of fuel consumption under these scenarios are conducted. The initial results of this research show that the proposed Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum (RVSM) results in a significant reduction in fuel consumption when compared with current separation standards.