Inefficient surface traffic management may lead to congested taxiways, long departure queues, and excess delay in the air transportation system. To address this problem, NASA researchers have developed optimization algorithms and a concept of operations for an airport surface traffic management tool called the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA). Past SARDA research efforts have been focused on the Dallas/Fort Worth International airport. This paper describes the development of SARDA-like schedulers for managing the traffic at an operationally dissimilar airport-Charlotte Douglas International airport, and presents the results of a fast-time simulation-based benefits assessment. Fasttime simulations were conducted to test the benefits of optimized scheduling over a baseline model of current-day operations. In the fast-time simulations, it was observed that optimization schedulers reduced movement area delays by up to 3.1 minutes per departure on average, as compared to the baseline simulation. The movement area delay savings translated to shorter movement area taxi-out times and an average reduction in fuel burn and emissions of approximately 24% per departure. The overall trend observed in the total delay (gate delay + ramp delay + movement area delay) comparison indicated the optimization schedulers were not able to reduce total delay, and runway throughput comparisons suggested the optimization schedulers had little to no effect on throughput.2 NASA researchers are developing surface optimization algorithms and a concept of operations for an airport surface management tool called the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA). 2 SARDA integrates two decoupled schedulers-the Spot Release Planner (SRP) and Runway Scheduler (RS). [2][3][4][5] Until recently, NASA's SARDA algorithm designs and experiments have been focused solely on Dallas/Fort Worth International airport (DFW). Some aspects of the SARDA schedulers are designed to take advantage of certain optimization opportunities or degrees of freedom that are specific to DFW airport. For example, runway scheduling at DFW is made easier by large areas of pavement or "pads" near the runway threshold, which are used to build up to three separate departure queues. Thus, departure sequencing decisions can be delayed until the very end of taxi-out.Research is currently underway to assess whether or not SARDA can be effective at other capacity-constrained airports where dissimilar airport geometries and operational characteristics exist. The benefits assessment described in this paper is focused on Charlotte/Douglas International airport (CLT). CLT has the potential to benefit from improved surface management since it experiences significant departure delays. The runway geometry at CLT is different than the geometry at DFW, and CLT features various types of dependent runway operations (e.g., mixeduse). Lastly, CLT is dominated by a single carrier (US Airways), which runs a single ramp tower for the entire passenger terminal.For the CLT assessment, fast-time simu...

The Ground Management Program at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) aims to leverage the availability of comprehensive airport surface surveillance data and airline schedule information to better manage the taxi-out process, reduce taxi times, and improve efficiency.During periods when departure demand exceeds capacity, departing aircraft are held at the gate or another holding location, and released to the runway in time to join a short departure queue before taking off. As a result, aircraft absorb delay with engines off, and decrease their fuel burn, emissions, and engine maintenance costs. This paper evaluates data from before and after departure metering was initiated at JFK, to assess its impacts. The results show that airport performance has improved, and that the departure metering is responsible for a significant portion of the improvements. The paper also finds that the new, more automated, Ground Management Program that was implemented in April 2012 has continued to yield significant benefits. The average taxi-out time savings at JFK due to departure metering in the summer of 2012 is estimated to be about 1.5-2.7 minutes per flight.

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