Rule Design for Interpretable En Route Arrival Management via Runway-Flow and Inter-Aircraft Control

There are ongoing research efforts to implement En route arrival manager (AMAN), which decides arrival runways and controls cruise speed in en route airspace. Air traffic control operations that regulate arrival air traffic flows from en route airspace are considered effective in mitigating the congestion close to destination airports. Therefore, this study proposes a scientific system design for operationally feasible En Route AMAN assisting air traffic controllers (ATCos) through runway-flow and inter-aircraft control. Herein, we devise an airline-oriented runway assignment rule that selects a target minimizing arrival taxi time in case of over-demand according to the maximum estimated through the stochastic distribution of inter-aircraft time and runway occupancy time. We also formulate speed control rules based on inter-aircraft spacing using simulation-based optimization and decision tree analysis to visualize the distinct strategies and rules for the traffic responsible for each ATCo. Furthermore, an agent-based simulation is performed to evaluate the system effectiveness in reducing the arrival delay. The simulation indicates 20-d arrival and departure at the Tokyo International Airport, Japan, between 06:00 and 23:00. The results show that the designed IF–THEN rules reduce the total arrival sequencing delay time and arrival taxi time by 21% (median, 55.8 s) and 6.9% (median, 24.6 s). Our findings suggest that truly optimal scheduled time of arrival (STA) and operationally feasible rules for ATCos could promise congestion relief while ensuring the interpretability and possibility of En Route AMAN implementation.