On-line decision support for take-off runway scheduling with uncertain taxi times at London Heathrow airport

: This paper addresses the challenge of building an automated decision support methodology to tackle the complex problem faced every day by runway controllers at London Heathrow Airport. Aircraft taxi from stands to holding areas at the end of the current take-off runway where they wait in queues for permission to take off. A runway controller attempts to find the best order for aircraft to take off. Sequence-dependent separation rules that depend upon aircraft size, departure route and speed group ensure that this is not a simple problem to solve. Take-off time slots on some aircraft and the need to avoid excessive delay for any aircraft make this an even more complicated problem. Making this decision at the holding area helps to avoid the problems of unpredictable push-back and taxi times, but introduces a number of complex spatial constraints that would not otherwise exist. The holding area allows some flexibility for interchange of aircraft between queues, but this is limited by th...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: SCHEDULING
• Authors: Jason A. D. Atkin, Edmund K. Burke, John S. Greenwood, Dale Reeson
• Keywords: Aircraft, Holding Area, Runway Controller, SCHEDULING 2008