The Design and Optimization of an Integrated Arrival/Departure Scheduler

Intelligent Automation, Inc. (IAI) proposes the design and validation of a dynamic integrated arrival/departure scheduler. In contrast to current approaches, we propose changing arrival and departure runway assignments dynamically based upon the traffic situation, weather conditions, surface congestion, and planned departure pushbacks as well as planned arrivals flowing into the terminal area from the enroute centers. Testing of the concept will be done in a virtual software environment, first using an analytic environment and later with humans-in-the-loop (controllers and pilots). When complete, this project has the potential to provide (1) a strategy to handle the FAA's Best-Equipped Best-Served concept at airports, (2) a significant increase in Metroplex capacity without building additional runways and (3) support for a new aviation business model in which flights are scheduled to Metroplexes rather than specific airports. To accomplish these goals, this effort will develop a controller that dynamically assigns arrival and departure slots available at a given runway based on the valuation of an "integrated capacity utilization metric." The metric will be a function of arrival/departure demand, arrival queue lengths at fixes and surface departure queues. The result is a more efficient use of airport resources than provided by currently available controllers.