Performance comparison of interval management concepts using an optimization-based scheduler in terminal airspace

Abstract

A rapid increment in the amount of air traffic flows in aviation markets causes severe problems of flight delays. As part of an effort to resolve the problems, advanced Interval Management (IM) concept for Air Traffic Management (ATM) has drawn attentions. It focuses on reducing aircraft separation amount by fully taking advantages of modern avionics of flight management system and ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcasting) capabilities. The main purpose of this paper is to understand the multidirectional performance metrics including the efficiency of airspace usage and aircraft scheduling performance, which should be balanced when the advanced IM concepts are applied to the practical demand set of flights which composed of different classes. To improve the scheduling performance, the optimization-based scheduling planner is utilized and predicts the optimum Scheduled Times of Arrival (STAs) at the pre-defined scheduling points in a given route structure. The scheduling planner is integrated in a dynamic planner (DP) by interacting with the real-time simulation algorithm to emulate the flight time advancement in a series of update cycles until all aircraft arrive at the runways. The realtime simulation produces the Actual Times of Arrival (ATAs) in consideration of the uncertainties during flight, and the computed ATAs become the initial conditions of the scheduling planner for the next cycle. Combined with the various IM concepts, the DP computes the relative efficiency of the flight scenarios that have different IM strategies corresponding to the level of equipage of the aircraft.