Analysis of congestion of taxiing aircraft at a large airport

In large airports all over the world, a large number of aircraft are taking off and landing daily. The capacity of the runway to handle departing and arriving aircraft on an hourly basis is determined in advance. The maximum frequency of arrival and departure is decided with consideration given to safety and general operations. The above process takes only the runway operation into consideration. For that reason, congestion during aircraft taxiing (going from terminal to runway) can still occur and is affected by several factors such as the concentration of aircraft and weather. In this study, taxiing is simulated by using actual operational data of aircraft. First, we propose a strategy for easing congestion in which the service diagram, or the schedule of arriving and departing aircraft, is adjusted. Next, we propose a strategy to adjust the time that an aircraft leaves a terminal prior to taxiing. The location of an aircraft near the terminal for boarding and disembarking is referred to as the ”spot” in this paper. A simulation of aircraft taxiing was conducted, and these proposed strategies are evaluated and compared to others.