Analysis of airport ground operations based on ADS-B data

Publicly available aircraft airborne and ground movement data pave the way to new advanced analyses of complex behaviours and collaborative decision making tools for the optimisation of airport operations. Such data-driven approaches will allow cost efficient implementations, which are a key enabler for the efficient integration of small/medium sized airports into the air transportation network. We present an operational milestone concept based on Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) messages emitted by approaching and departing aircraft. Since aircraft have to be equipped with a compliant transponder from 2020, airports only need cheap receivers to observe operations at the runway/taxiway system and on the apron (including parking positions). These observations will allow for a systematic monitoring (using operational milestones) and predictive analytics to provide estimated values for future system states. In this contribution, we present the core elements of an innovative framework, which may bring new insights for airport operations optimisation, with a particular focus on small and medium ones. We process here aircraft movements on the ground and around Zurich airport and present four examples of applications, which will enable prediction-based decision assistance tools for efficient airport operations.