Including linear holding in air traffic flow management for flexible delay handling

摘要

This paper introduces a strategy to include linear\udholding into air traffic flow management (ATFM) initiatives,\udtogether with the commonly used ground holding and airborne\udholding measures. In this way, ATFM performance can be\udimproved when handling delay assignment with uncertainty.\udFirstly, a trajectory generation method is presented, aiming at\udcomputing, per flight, the maximum linear holding realizable\udusing the same fuel as the original nominal flight. This\udinformation is assumed to be computed and shared by the\uddifferent airlines and it is then used to build a network\udATFM model to optimally assign ATFM delays, in the scope\udof trajectory based operations. Hence, the best distribution\udof delay is optimized at given positions along the flight\udtrajectory (combining the three holding practices together) and\udtaking into account the cost of delay, especially in the fuel\udconsumption. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer\udlinear programming and solved with a commercially-of-the-shelf\udsolver. An illustrative example is given, showing that under the\udcircumstance of capacity recovered ahead of schedule, including\udlinear holding contributes to a notable delay reduction compared\udto the case where only ground and/or airborne holding apply.