Analysis of the impacts of descent and climb profile inefficiencies on fuel consumption and emissions using flight data and fast time simulation

There are numerous strategies to reduce fuel consumption and mitigate emissions due to aviation. Continuous descent operations (CDO) and continuous climb operations (CCO) are the most prominent operational methods among these strategies to curb fuel consumption and emissions during the arrival and departure operations within the terminal control area (TMA). In this study, the descent and climb profile efficiency of arrival and departure traffic were analyzed in terms of flight time, fuel consumption and emissions. A flight data-based CCO/CDO design method was presented and implemented in order to perform this analysis. First, the descent and climb profiles based on the flight data were used as baseline scenarios in order to analyze the flight profiles of arrivals and departures. Second, CDO profiles were generated under the constraints of 3-degree descent angle and idle engine thrust for arrivals while CCO profiles were designed under maximum thrust and maximum rate of climb constraints for departures. These newly designed CDO and CCO profiles and baseline scenarios were compared for the analysis. The results of the analysis showed that the waypoint constraints, holding maneuvers and speed regimes changes have an important role in the efficiency of descent and climb profiles. Trabzon airport (TZX) was chosen as a sample for this study. The CCO profiles designed for TZX resulted in an average of 5.1 % flight time and 8 % fuel savings; CDO profiles resulted in an average of 3.9 % flight time and 7.8 % fuel savings.