Improved rolling horizon approaches to the aircraft sequencing problem

A down to earth solution: Applying a robust simulation-optimization approach to resolve aviation problems

“…The main advantages of this method are that the subproblems are easier to solve and require less computational time, moreover, it tackles the problem in a dynamical fashion by updating the decision variables while the window slides along the time horizon, resulting in an improvement of the quality of the solution. This approach has already been employed in similar problems giving good results (Hu and Chen 2005, Zhan, Zhang, Li, Liu, Kwok, Ip, and Kaynak 2010, Furini, Kidd, Persiani, and Toth 2015, Toratani, Ueno, and Higuchi 2015, Man, Delahaye, and Xiao-hao 2015, Ma, Delahaye, Sbihi, and Mongeau 2016. In this approach, each entity (aircraft) is associated with a certain status according to its position relatively to the current window.…”

Coordination of scheduling decisions in the management of airport airspace and taxiway operations

“…For example, Furini et al (2015) distinguish the Approach Radar Control (ARC), the Ground Control (GC) and the Tower Control (TC). The ARC manages the sequencing of landing aircraft from the border of the TCA to the runways, the GC manages the sequencing of taxiway operations from the gates to the runway holding points, before the runways.…”

“…These systems usually take decisions based on local and partial information on airport management, while optimization is often limited to very simple scheduling rules. Furthermore, the management of a Terminal Control Area (TCA) requires to coordinate a number of operations (e.g., ground and/or air traffic) that are under the control of different authorities (e.g., Furini et al (2015) cite the Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON, the Ground Control and the Tower Control). Hence, the overall plan of operations must take into account the different needs and points of view of the various stakeholders, see SESAR (2015).…”

Scheduling Aircraft Take-Offs and Landings on Interdependent and Heterogeneous Runways

“…This approach is referred to as rolling planning horizon (RPH), receding horizon, or sliding window and has been analyzed by Xiangwei et al (2011), Samà et al (2013Samà et al ( , 2014a, and Furini et al (2015). RPH can be used to apply the (static) ASP in a dynamic environment and for longer planning horizons.…”

“…Xiangwei et al (2011) propose a similar approach for interdependent runways, scheduling a fixed number of aircraft in each iteration using a standard MIP solver to iteratively solve the subproblems. Furini et al (2015) evaluate different strategies for finding favorable subproblems in a singlerunways setting, using a standard MIP solver as well as a tabu search heuristic to solve the subproblems. Rolling horizon approaches for the ASP with approach paths are given by Samà et al (2013Samà et al ( , 2014a.…”