A two-step solution approach for air traffic flow delay minimization

This study proposes a two-step solution approach for minimizing airborne delays due to conflict resolutions and fuel consumption due to resolution maneuver occurring in free route airspace. This model aims to provide a mathematical basis for a decision support system that is used during the online strategic control of flights in air traffic management. Mathematical model of the first step presents an alternative entry points on both side of existing sector entry points to minimize delays by directing aircraft to the most convenient entry points. The second step suggests a vector maneuver to minimize extra fuel consumption caused by conflict resolution. GAMS/CPLEX solver is used to solve first stage of the model but the solution is not produced in a reasonable time. To obtain feasible solutions genetic algorithm and tabu search algorithms are implemented the first stage. Small size test problems are generated to evaluate the meta-heuristic algorithms and results compared with GAMS/CPLEX solver solutions. According to this comparison both meta- heuristics algorithms produce near optimal solutions in a short time. The proposed approach has made approximately %88 and %90 improvements for airborne delays and extra fuel consumptions caused by aircraft conflicts resolution in large-scaled airspaces.