Application of aircraft interval management concepts based on the optimized scheduling algorithm

The main purpose of this paper is to understand the multi-directional performance metrics including the efficiency of airspace usage and aircraft scheduling performance, which should be balanced when the advanced Interval Management (IM) concepts are applied to the practical demand set of flights which composed of different aircraft classes. To improve the scheduling performance, the optimization-based scheduling planner is utilized and predicts the optimum Scheduled Times of Arrival (STAs) at the pre-defined scheduling points in a given route structure. The scheduling planner is integrated in a dynamic planner by interacting with the real-time simulation algorithm to emulate the flight time advancement in a series of update cycles until all aircraft arrive at the runways. The real-time simulation produces the Actual Times of Arrival (ATAs) in consideration of the uncertainties during flight, and the computed ATAs become the initial conditions of the scheduling planner for the next cycle. Combined with the various IM concepts, the dynamic planner computes the relative efficiency of the flight scenarios that have different IM strategies corresponding to the level of equipage of the aircraft.