Sequencing of arrival aircraft with operational constraints

Abstract

At most airports around the world landings are assigned based on the first come, first served rule. Limited airport capacity and environmental issues have called for better sequencing strategies. New technologies can be helpful, but hardware approaches require significant time and resources before the actual implementation. This research investigates possible fuel savings obtained only by re-sequencing of arrival aircraft. This novel re-sequencing method consists of a set of rules obtained after analyzing the statistical performance of several suggested guidelines. It is concluded that refining only the landing sequencing operations can lead to average fuel savings of 2.8 % of the total fuel consumed during the descent. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.