Alternative Trajectory Options for Delay Reduction in Demand and Capacity Balancing

Aiming to a more collaborative demand and capacity balancing (DCB), in the scope of trajectory based operations, this paper presents an approach that takes alternative trajectories into a DCB optimization algorithm. These alternative trajectories are generated by the airspace users for those flights traversing hotspots (i.e. sectors with demand above capacity), which are predicted by the Network Manager. The trajectories consider lateral re-routings and/or vertical avoidance of all detected hotspots, which, along with different types of delay measures (including linear holding and in-flight delay recovery), are then integrated as a whole into a centralized optimization model to manage the traffic flow under a set of static scheme of airspace capacities. The combination of trajectory options and distribution of delays are hence optimized with the objective of minimizing the total deviation with regard to airspace users’ preferences (taking into account the fuel consumption, route charge and the cost of delay). Results suggest that delays can be remarkably reduced once alternative trajectory options are included in the DCB algorithm. Nevertheless, this delay reduction is obtained by diverting a large number of flights, yielding to an interesting trade-off between environmental impact and cost-efficiency for the airspace users.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version