A Comparative Analysis of Departure Metering at Paris (CDG) and - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

A Comparative Analysis of Departure Metering at Paris (CDG) and Charlotte (CLT) Airports

Ji Ma and Daniel Delahaye ENAC, Université de Toulouse Sandeep Badrinath and Hamsa Balakrishnan Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Problem: Demand exceeds capacity at major airports surface congestion
• Results in increased taxi times, emissions and fuel burn
• Potential solution: Departure metering

Motivation

Departure gates

1 2 3 4 5 6

Departure gates

2 3 4 5 6

Default procedures Large queue

• Problem: Demand exceeds capacity at major airports surface congestion
• Results in increased taxi times, emissions and fuel burn
• Potential solution: Departure metering
• Part of surface management programs: FAA TFDM (NASA ATD-2), EUROCONTROL’s A-CDM

Motivation

Key challenge: Develop an efficient algorithm that yields high taxi time reduction without adversely impacting airport throughput.

Departure gates

1 2 3 4 5 6

Departure gates Hold aircraft at gate Smaller queue

2 3 4 5 6

Our approach

• Assessment of different departure metering algorithms
• Trajectory-based approach
• Queue-based approaches: ATD-2 logic, Optimal control, Robust control.
• Comparison of benefits for a major US airport (CLT) and a major European airport (CDG)
• Models developed and validated using operational data.
• Benefits computed using stochastic simulations.

• Average taxi-out time reduction per flight varies by approach
• CDG: 0.2 to 0.5 min
• CLT: 1.3 to 2.9 min
• Robust control approach performs better in stochastic environments without

adversely impacting airport throughput.

• Potential extensions:
• Evaluating the impact of airline supplied Earliest Off-Block Time (EOBT) on departure metering.
• Departure metering algorithms that can explicitly account for uncertainties in arrival times and EOBT.
• Analysis can be easily extended to other major airports to evaluate NAS wide benefits.

Key results and next steps