Proximity versus dynamicity An analysis of traffic patterns at major European airports

摘要

This paper presents an analysis of proximity and dynamicity aspects between arrival flights at five major European airports representative of different types of operations. The analysis, purely data driven, relies on two existing indicators of proximity and dynamicity, in combination with the additional time representing the level of congestion, and at different time horizons. The analysis considers more than 300.000 arrival flights in total, in an area of 50NM around each airport. The analysis aims at assessing the exposure to small distance and small closure time (below 2 times the separation and 2 minutes). The main results are: (1) overall duration of exposure in the order of 4.0min for distance and 3.8min for closure time (95% percentile); (2) differences among the airports for similar levels of congestion by a factor of 2.3 for both distance and closure time (additional time in 0-5min); and (3) increase with the level of congestion for some airports by a factor of 1.8 for distance and 1.2 for closure time (additional time from 0 to 5min). The analysis at different time horizons provide more insight on the location and duration of exposure, in relation with the additional time. Future work will involve identifying the causes of the differences observed among the airports, as well as further analyzing traffic patterns with close proximity and high dynamicity. It will also involve extending the analysis to all flows in the area.