Observation and Analysis of Departure Operations at Boston Logan International Airport
Name
ICAT-2000-7.pdf
Size
6.43 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
ce48cdef771f2e1920ff40f06876e73c
Author(s)
Idris, Husni
Hansman, R. John
Date Issued
November 2000
Series/Report no.
ICAT-2000-7
Abstract
The Departure Planner (DP) is a concept for a decision-aiding tool that is aimed at improving the
departure operations performance at major congested airports. In order to support the
development of the DP tool, the flow constraints and their causalities in the departure process -
primarily responsible for generating inefficiencies and delays- need to be identified. This thesis
is an effort to identify such flow constraints and gain a deep understanding of the underlying
dynamics of the departure process based on field observations and data analysis at Boston Logan
International Airport. It was observed that the departure process is a complex interactive
queuing system, where aircraft queues form as a manifestation of the flow constraints. While
departure delays were observed in all airport components (runways, taxiways, ramps and gates),
it was concluded that the flow constraints manifest mainly at the runway system, which exhibits
the largest delays and queues. Major delays and inefficiencies were also observed due to
downstream flow constraints, which propagate back and block the departure flow from the
airport. It was also observed that the airport system is a highly controlled system as the air
traffic controllers manage the flow constraints. The air traffic controllers were, therefore,
identified as another flow constraint due to their workload and their main strategies in managing
the flow constraints were observed. Based on the observations, a core departure process was
identified consisting of two main elements: a queuing element generated by the flow constraints
and a control element representing the air traffic controller actions. This core process was
abstracted using a controlled queuing framework, where the air traffic controller actions are
represented by blocking the flow of aircraft in order to maintain safe operation of the airport
resources according to the ATC rules and procedures and regulate the outbound flow to
constrained downstream resources. The controlled queuing framework was used to analyze the
departure process highlighting the queuing dynamics and the control behavior for different flow
constraint examples. In conclusion, a number of implications for the Departure Planner and
other improved methods for departure operations are inferred from the observations and analysis.
Subjects
Departure Planner
decision-aiding
flow constraints
air transportation
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