An approach sequencing model for minimum total fuel consumption and most efficient use of runway capacity

This study addresses to the problem of arrival-departure scheduling for a single-runway airport within the terminal maneuvering areas. In this respect, a multi-objective mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model is developed to minimize total delay and total fuel consumption. The fuel consumption functions used in the model include airspeed, altitude, bearing angle variations and aerodynamic properties of the aircraft. These functions provide a more accurate representation of flight profiles and vector maneuvers of aircraft. Based on traffic data of Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport (LTFJ), the model has been solved for different operational scenarios and time windows using GAMS/ DICOPT. When the extended time windows are used without allowing any early operations before their estimated arrival/departure times, total delay and total fuel consumption are improved by, 26.8% and 9.2% respectively compared to the first available first service (FCFS) principle. In case departures have priority over arrivals, the improvements reached 81.6% in total delay and 5.7% in total fuel consumption.