Arrival Sequencing and Scheduling using an Evolutionary Approach in a 4D
Environment
Abstract
The aim of this article is to use an Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) to
solve the Aircraft Landing Problem (ALP) in an Air Traffic Flow
Management (ATFM) environment. The ALP addresses the function of
generating optimal or near-optimal landing sequences and time intervals
between arrivals to provide runway capacity increase and reduce air
delay. Problems of the ALP type in a dynamic environment such as Air
Traffic Control (ATC) are considered Non-Polynomial (NP) complete. We
simulated three different models. In the first model, the algorithm was
applied when there was a schedule conflict between aircraft and
separation measures where used to ensure safety. On the second and third
models,we scheduled the flights in hourly batches. In the third model, a
Maximum Constrained Shift (MCS) restriction was introduced to simulate
more realistic conditions. To test the effectiveness of our study, we
used actual data from Guarulhos International Airport. Results showed a
capacity gain of 12 aircraft and a delay decrease of five percent when
compared to the airport current sequencing operations. Introducing this
technique represents a shift from the current arrival sequence model to
a Trajectory-Based Operations (TBO) model, balancing air traffic demand
with airspace capacity to ensure the most efficient use of the airspace
system.