Incentivizing Aircraft Equipment Upgrade Through Preferential Merging: A Phoenix Case Study

Preferential Merging is a best-equipped best-served air traffic management concept meant to accelerate the adoption of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Out (ADS-B Out) in the national airspace by giving an operational incentive to airlines who invest in upgrading their fleet. The concept relies on re-sequencing aircraft arrival order at en-route arrival merge-fixes favoring high-equipped aircraft (such as ADS-B Out) over low-equipped aircraft. This in turn reduces flight-time for high-equipped aircraft and moves them ahead in the arrival queue. In this study Preferential Merging was simulated using historical flight traffic into Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, focusing on a benefit analysis from an airline’s perspective. A second set of Monte Carlo simulations randomizing aircraft equipage were run to determine the effectiveness of Preferential Merging as the percent of ADS-B Out equipped Aircraft increases. Results show that the policy creates a 4.5 minute reduction in total flight time for aircraft equipped with ADS-B Out, and that the incentive provided by the policy remains effective over a broad range of ratios of high- to low-equipage aircraft in the US airspace