Analysis of Level-Off Flight Segments of Descending Aircraft for Busy Terminal Maneuvering Areas

Abstract

The demand for air transportation increases significantly worldwide, and the number of aircraft and passengers is also rising. This situation directly affects the major airports and their surrounding Terminal Manoeuvring Areas (TMAs) because they launch new destinations and increase flight frequency. However, airport and airspace structures have some difficulty meeting this increasing demand. Therefore, there is an increase in airborne delay in air traffic congestion. Airborne delay severely affects TMAs operations since they have several entry points, yet all arrival traffic lands mainly at the same airport. This problem also expands the flight duration within TMAs. Air traffic controllers regulate the arrival traffic with separation and sequencing methods, including vectoring, point merge approach or holding manoeuvres. These are generally implemented at a constant flight level. Therefore, they generate level-off flight segments during the descending profile of arrival aircraft. The level-off segments directly increase the fuel consumption and emissions values because of engine configurations. Therefore, this study aims to expose the level-off segments for the London Heathrow, Amsterdam Schiphol, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Istanbul airports. The results show that Amsterdam Schiphol has the lowest level-off time to total descent time ratio of 12.8% among other airports.

Keywords

• Continuous descent operations
• Vertical profile inefficiency
• Airborne delay
• Air traffic management
• Terminal Maneuvering Areas Operations

References

1. [1]. Eurocontrol. Continuous climb and descent operations. Available online: https://www.eurocontrol.int/concept/continuous-climb-and-descent-operations (accessed on 04.05.2024).
2. [2]. Vlachos, I, Lin, Z. 2014. Drivers of airline loyalty: Evidence from the business travelers in China. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 71:1-17.
3. [3]. Kafle, N, Zou, B. 2016. Modeling flight delay propagation: A new analytical-econometric approach. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 93:520-542.
4. [4]. AhmadBeygi, S, Cohn, A, Guan, Y, Belobaba, P. 2008. Analysis of the potential for delay propagation in passenger airline networks. Journal Of Air Transport Management, 14(5) : 221-236.
5. [5]. Kim, M, Park, S. 2021. Airport and route classification by modelling flight delay propagation. Journal of Air Transport Management, 93: 102045.
6. [6]. Kwasiborska, A, Skorupski, J. 2021. Assessment of the method of merging landing aircraft streams in the context of fuel consumption in the airspace. Sustainability, 13(22): 12859.
7. [7]. Irvine, D, Budd, L, Ison, S, Kitching, G. 2016. The environmental effects of peak hour air traffic congestion: the case of London Heathrow Airport. Research in Transportation Economics, 55: 67-73.
8. [8]. Montlaur, A, Delgado, L. 2017. Flight and passenger delay assignment optimization strategies. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies. 81:99-117.

9. [9]. Dönmez, K. 2023 Aircraft sequencing under the uncertainty of the runway occupancy times of arrivals during the backtrack procedure. The Aeronautical Journal, 127(1310): 562-580.
10. [10]. ICAO, "Continuous Descent Operations (CDO) Manual – Doc 9931/AN/476," Montreal, 1st edition, 2010
11. [11]. Aksoy, H, Turgut, ET, Usanmaz, Ö. 2021. The design and analysis of optimal descent profiles using real flight data. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 100:103028
12. [12]. Turgut, ET, Usanmaz, O, Ozan Canarslanlar, A, Sahin, O. 2010. Energy and emission assessments of continuous descent approach. Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, 82(1): 32-38.
13. [13]. Kaplan, Z, Çetek, C, Saraç, T. 2024. A multi-objective nonlinear integer programming model for mixed runway operations within the TMAs. The Aeronautical Journal, 128(1320) : 340-370.
14. [14]. Omer, J. 2015. A space-discretized mixed-integer linear model for air-conflict resolution with speed and heading maneuvers. Computers & Operations Research, 58: 75-86.
15. [15]. Demirel, S. 2023 Comparison of RECAT-EU and ICAO wake turbulence category on the Point Merge System. The Aeronautical Journal, 127(1315): 1623-1637.
16. [16]. Dönmez, K, Çetek, C, Kaya, O. 2022. Air traffic management in parallel-point merge systems under wind uncertainties. Journal of Air Transport Management, 104: 102268.
17. [17]. Dönmez, K. 2023. Evaluation of the performance of the multi-objective scalarization methods for the aircraft sequencing and scheduling problem using multi-criteria decision-making. Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, 95(4): 501-511.
18. [18]. Airbus, L. (2002). Getting to grips with Aircraft Performance Monitoring.
19. [19]. Olive, X, Sun, J, Basora, L, Spinielli, E. 2023. Environmental inefficiencies for arrival flights at European airports. Plos one, 18(6): e0287612.
20. [20]. Scala, P, Mota, MM, Delahaye, D. 2021. Air Traffic Management during Rare Events Such as a Pandemic: Paris Charles de Gaulle Case Study. Aerospace, 8(6): 155.
21. [21]. Dönmez, K, Çetek, C, Kaya, O. 2022. Aircraft sequencing and scheduling in parallel-point merge systems for multiple parallel runways. Transportation Research Record, 2676(3): 108-124.
22. [22]. Lemetti, A, Polishchuk, T, Sáez, R, Prats, X. Evaluation of flight efficiency for Stockholm Arlanda airport arrivals. In 2019 IEEE/AIAA 38th Digital Avionics Systems Conference. 2019. IEEE.
23. [23]. Gui, D, Le, M, Huang, Z, Zhang, J, D'Ariano, A. 2023. Optimal aircraft arrival scheduling with continuous descent operations in busy terminal maneuvering areas. Journal of Air Transport Management, 107:102344.
24. [24]. Sáez, R, Polishchuk, T, Schmidt, C, Hardell, H, Smetanová, L, Polishchuk, V, Prats, X. 2021. Automated sequencing and merging with dynamic aircraft arrival routes and speed management for continuous descent operations. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 132: 103402.
25. [25]. Liu, W, Delahaye, D, Cetek, FA, Zhao, Q, Notry, P. 2024. Comparison of performance between PMS and trombone arrival route topologies in terminal maneuvering area. Journal of Air Transport Management, 115: 102532.
26. [26]. OAG: Flight Database & Statistics | Aviation Analytics Available online: https://www.oag.com/blog/europes-busiest-airports (accessed on 04.05.2024).