Air traffic controllers at London Heathrow airport could benefit from take-off sequencing management decision support as a result of a research project carried out at the UK's University of Nottingham. The project - hybrid metaheuristic solutions for runway scheduling - has developed algorithms that give controllers an optimal sequence for departures.
Heathrow does not have an area where aircraft can be held, so aircraft taxi from the stands to the ends of the runway where they queue in holding points, awaiting instructions. Departure sequencing can be a problem when the airport reaches its peak throughput of one take- off every minute. As controllers' workload increases, they are not in a position to consider all possible departure orders and an advisory tool would be useful.
"We sat down with air traffic controllers and they explained the problem to us," says Jason Atkin, the doctoral student writing his thesis for the project. According to Atkin, by changing the order in which flights depart, it is possible to reduce the required separations between aircraft and thus increase airport throughput.
The research was carried out in conjunction with National Air Traffic Services and was funded by the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Source: Flight International
