RUNWAY CAPACITY OPTIMIZATION: AIRCRAFT SEQUENCING IN MIXED MODE OPERATION

To meet future air transportation requirements, technology advancement has paved a way for the application of decision support systems to optimize strategic and tactical operations. This paper presents a simulation approach for the optimal sequencing of aircrafts on a single runway operating in a mixed mode (arrival and departure) and runway system capacity assessment using State Space Analysis. System dynamics are specified using the Coloured Petri Nets (CPN) formalism. The approach is capable of automating the decision activity (scheduling), analyzing different scenarios of scheduling policies and optimizing the runway capacity at any given time based on actual or dynamic traffic flow. It is aimed at validating not only the expected benefit of capacity and safety but also the benefits on efficiency from the air traffic controller's perspective.