Departure management: Savings in taxi time, fuel burn, and emissions

Departure management holds the promise of improved runway throughput and reduced queue length, taxi time, fuel burn, and emissions. A departure management tool (DMAN) in development at Sensis Corporation achieves these benefits by controlling the times at which aircraft push back from the gate or enter the airport movement area. DMAN automatically determines times for taxi clearance and take-off for each flight, and allows users to modify this schedule as desired. This tool integrates with existing information sources and other decision support tools, requiring minimal equipment investment and minimal changes to operational practice. Therefore, the efficiency benefits of departure management are achievable today. We evaluate the likely benefits of using a departure management tool by performing day-long simulations of traffic at two airports - John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Philadelphia International Airport (PHL). For each airport, we simulate two scenarios. The first is a baseline in which departures taxi and queue at the runway on a first-come-first-served (FCFS) basis, corresponding to airport operations today. The quantitative accuracy of this model is validated by comparing to recorded surveillance data. In the second simulated scenario, DMAN is used to hold aircraft at the gate and to adjust the departure sequence. Comparing taxi times, fuel burn, emissions, and overall delay between the two scenarios, we find substantial improvement in all of these measures when the DMAN tool is in use.