Guidance control strategy for air traffic flow in terminal areas

Abstract

This article researches on the characteristics of air traffic flow with guidance information to improve operation efficiency and safety for terminal control areas. First, several microscopic air traffic flow models are proposed based on aircraft's behavior and operation rules in terminal areas. Second, a traffic flow guidance strategy is developed to optimize aircraft's flight routes and velocities with several guidance decision factors, which include guidance strength, node saturation, runway coordinate coefficient, and so on. Finally, the proposed guidance strategy is verified using simulation with an airport terminal area in China. The simulation results show that the proposed guidance strategy helps in controlling the air traffic flow in a more safe, smooth, and efficient manner by changing the relationship among traffic flow parameters. In addition, the average arrival delays and the average departure delays decrease by 56.3% and 29.4%, respectively, and the total number of conflict resolution behavior also decreases remarkably. It is also found that the runway coordinate coefficient has an important influence on optimization results, and that a certain runway coordination coefficient value (2.5) can help minimize air traffic delays. These results indicate that the proposed guidance strategy helps to remarkably improve air traffic operation safety and efficiency in the terminal area.