Airport Surface Management at LGA:Metering the departure traffic

Hector FornesAdvisor: Hamsa Balakrishnan

Agenda• Current situation at LGA• Current pushback strategy• Metering strategy• Calibration of the parameters for the model• Results and performance measures

Current situation at LGA

Source: faa.gov

Source: Balakrishna, H. , Hansman, R.J. & Reynolds 2013

Origin of the problems• Over-scheduling• Limited gates• Crossing runways (capacity reductions)• Abundance of small planes (shuttles/regional carriers)

Consequences• Operations close to capacity• Capacity limitations• Long delays• Long queues

Current taxi-out strategy:Push-back at discretion

Source: Kladilkar, H. & Reynolds, T. 2013

• How airlines dispatch departing flights • Consequences of the “at discretion” policy

Source: Balakrishna, H. , Hansman, R.J. & Reynolds 2013

Tower

Proposed taxi-out operations: Metering

Source: Balakrishna, H. , Hansman, R.J. & Reynolds 2013

Source: Balakrishna, H. , Hansman, R.J. & Reynolds 2013

Other considerations: - Gate conflicts (how we handle them)

N-control

Queing model

GOALS• Reduction of fuel burn while

taxiing out• Reduction of emissions• Reduce congestion at the

airport

Calibration of the parameters for the model

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traffic (aircrafts/15 minutes)

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traffic (aircrafts/15 minutes)

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Regression tree

Unimpeded taxi-out time

Results

04:00 08:00 12:00 16:00 20:00 00:000

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Time of day (hrs)

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Taxi time simulation for Aug 15

Unrestricted trafficNctrl traffic

Unrestricted pushbacksNctrl pushbacks

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Unrestricted taxi timesNctrl taxi times

Gate holds

04:00 08:00 12:00 16:00 20:00 00:000

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Time of day (hrs)

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Taxi time simulation for Aug 15

Unrestricted trafficNctrl traffic

Unrestricted pushbacksNctrl pushbacks

4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24-100

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Unrestricted taxi timesNctrl taxi times

Gate holds

Results: Reduction of fuel and emissions

Concept Value (minutes)Total taxi in the current strategy

(pushback at discretion)21,505

Total taxi with the metering strategy (pushback at discretion)

17,509

Total taxi-out time difference 3,996

Concept ReductionFuel consumption 11,988 Kg

NOx emissions 119,880 gHC emissions 48,751 gCO emissions 267,732 g

Concept Value (per minute)Fuel consumption 3.0 Kg

NOx emissions 30 gHC emissions 12.2 gCO emissions 67 g

Unitary values

Total results

Taxi-out reductions

18.5% reduction

Results: Gate conflicts-Maximum of 6 additional conflicts over 15 days in each 15-minute period.

-This represents a maximum 1 additional conflict per 15-minute period

Results:FCFS queuing policy

AirlinePercentage of flights moving

forward

Percentage of flights moving

back% change

Delta & Regionals 7,4 16,0 -8,6American and Eagle 13,3 2,1 11,3

Us Air & Regional 7,0 13,1 -6,1United 13,7 2,0 11,7Spirit 17,5 0,0 17,5

Southwest/AirTran 10,3 1,6 8,7Jetblue 11,1 1,3 9,8Others 12,7 2,5 10,3

AirlinePercentage of flights moving

forward

Percentage of flights moving

back% change

Delta & Regionals 15,7 34,1 -18,4

American and Eagle 28,7 2,1 26,6

Us Air & Regional 6,6 25,7 -19,1

United 30,1 2,6 27,5

Spirit 30,5 0,0 30,5

Southwest/AirTran 24,1 1,3 22,8

Jetblue 20,4 1,7 18,7

Others 26,8 5,4 21,4

Current pushback strategy

Metering strategy

Summary of the performance of metering at LGA

Aspect Results of the implementation of metering

Surface congestion Reduced to the Nctrl value

Gate conflicts A maximum of 1 additional gate conflict for 15 minute period (particularly peak ours)

Taxi-out reductions 18.5% of taxi-out time18.5 % in fuel consumption18.5 % in emissions

FCFS Less deviation from the ideal FCFS policyDeviations from FCFS are reduced