Dynamic Control of Airport Departures: Algorithm Development and Field Evaluation

This paper proposes dynamic-programming-based algorithms for controlling the departure process at congested airports. These algorithms, which are called Pushback Rate Control protocols, predict the departure throughput of the airport and recommend a rate at which to release aircraft from their gates in order to control congestion. This paper describes the design and field testing of a variant of Pushback Rate Control at Boston airport in 2011 and the development of a decision support tool for its implementation. The analysis of data from the field trials shows that during eight 4-h test periods, fuel use was reduced by an estimated 9 U.S. tons (2650 U.S. gallons), and taxi-out times were reduced by an average of 5.3 min for the 144 flights that were held at the gate.