Centralized Disaggregate Stochastic Allocation Models for Collaborative Trajectory Options Program (CTOP)

Collaborative Trajectory Options Program (CTOP) is a relatively new Traffic Management Initiative (TMI) which assigns delays and/or reroutes around one or more Flow Constrained Area (FCA)-based airspace constraints in order to balance demand and capacity. CTOP allows flight operators to submit a set of desired reroute options, called a Trajectory Options Set (TOS), for each flight. This paper aims to answer the following question: given TOSs and scenario-based capacity information, what is the best system performance we can achieve in terms of total route and delay costs? Three disaggregate stochastic programming models, including one static model and two dynamic models, are proposed in this paper, which provides three benchmarks for a Collaborative Decision Making (CDM)-compatible CTOP. If we further assume the travel time between constrained areas is the same for all flights, which is a mild condition, we can get three corresponding more aggregate models which have better computational efficiency. Important issues like equity, maximum delay, intra-airline cancellation, and substitution are discussed. A realistic CTOP use case has been created to test effects of TOS participation and to compare static versus dynamic planning techniques. These results can be coded in a decision support tool and can help air traffic managers understand, initiate, and perform post-analysis for CTOP programs.