IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ortrsc/v47y2013i4p584-602.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Addressing the Pushback Time Allocation Problem at Heathrow Airport

Author

Listed:
  • Jason A. D. Atkin

    (Automated Scheduling, Optimisation and Planning Research Group, School of Computer Science, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, United Kingdom)

  • Geert De Maere

    (Automated Scheduling, Optimisation and Planning Research Group, School of Computer Science, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, United Kingdom)

  • Edmund K. Burke

    (Department of Computing and Mathematics, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland, United Kingdom)

  • John S. Greenwood

    (NATS CTC, Whiteley, Fareham, Hampshire, PO15 7FL, United Kingdom)

Abstract

This paper considers the problem of allocating pushback times to departing aircraft, specifying the time at which they will be given permission to push back from their allocated stand, start their engines, and commence their taxi to the runway. The aim of this research is to first predict the delay (defined as the waiting time at the stand or runway) for each departure, then to use this to calculate a pushback time such that an appropriate amount of the delay is absorbed at the stand, prior to starting the engines. A two-stage approach is used, where the feasibility of the second stage (pushback time allocation) has to be considered within the first stage (takeoff sequencing). The characteristics of this real-world problem and the differences between it and similar problems are thoroughly discussed, along with a consideration of the important effects of these differences. Differences include a nonlinear objective function with a nonconvex component; the integration of two sequence dependent separation problems; separations that can vary over time; and time-slot extensions. Each of these factors has contributed to the design of the solution algorithm. Results predict significant fuel-burn benefits from absorbing some of the delay as stand hold, as well as delay benefits from indirectly aiding the runway controllers by reducing runway queue sizes. A system for pushback time allocation at London Heathrow has been developed by NATS (formerly National Air Traffic Services) based upon the algorithm described in this paper.

Suggested Citation

  • Jason A. D. Atkin & Geert De Maere & Edmund K. Burke & John S. Greenwood, 2013. "Addressing the Pushback Time Allocation Problem at Heathrow Airport," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(4), pages 584-602, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ortrsc:v:47:y:2013:i:4:p:584-602
    DOI: 10.1287/trsc.1120.0446
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/trsc.1120.0446
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/trsc.1120.0446?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hamsa Balakrishnan & Bala G. Chandran, 2010. "Algorithms for Scheduling Runway Operations Under Constrained Position Shifting," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 58(6), pages 1650-1665, December.
    2. L. Bianco & P. Dell'Olmo & S. Giordani, 1999. "Minimizing total completion time subject to release dates and sequence‐dependentprocessing times," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 86(0), pages 393-415, January.
    3. Jason A. D. Atkin & Edmund K. Burke & John S. Greenwood & Dale Reeson, 2007. "Hybrid Metaheuristics to Aid Runway Scheduling at London Heathrow Airport," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(1), pages 90-106, February.
    4. Harilaos N. Psaraftis, 1980. "A Dynamic Programming Approach for Sequencing Groups of Identical Jobs," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(6), pages 1347-1359, December.
    5. Jason A. D. Atkin & Edmund K. Burke & John S. Greenwood & Dale Reeson, 2009. "An examination of take-off scheduling constraints at London Heathrow airport," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 169-187, August.
    6. J. E. Beasley & M. Krishnamoorthy & Y. M. Sharaiha & D. Abramson, 2000. "Scheduling Aircraft Landings—The Static Case," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(2), pages 180-197, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Samà, Marcella & D’Ariano, Andrea & D’Ariano, Paolo & Pacciarelli, Dario, 2017. "Scheduling models for optimal aircraft traffic control at busy airports: Tardiness, priorities, equity and violations considerations," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 81-98.
    2. Denise Trebes, 2017. "Die Einführung von marktbasierten Maßnahmen zur Emissionsbegrenzung im internationalen Flugverkehr unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Beschlüsse des ICAO," Discussion Paper Series RECAP15 27, RECAP15, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), revised May 2018.
    3. Daniel Karapetyan & Jason A. D. Atkin & Andrew J. Parkes & Juan Castro-Gutierrez, 2017. "Lessons from building an automated pre-departure sequencer for airports," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 252(2), pages 435-453, May.
    4. Samà, Marcella & D'Ariano, Andrea & Corman, Francesco & Pacciarelli, Dario, 2018. "Coordination of scheduling decisions in the management of airport airspace and taxiway operations," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 114(PB), pages 398-411.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ahmed Ghoniem & Hanif D. Sherali & Hojong Baik, 2014. "Enhanced Models for a Mixed Arrival-Departure Aircraft Sequencing Problem," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 26(3), pages 514-530, August.
    2. Geert De Maere & Jason A. D. Atkin & Edmund K. Burke, 2018. "Pruning Rules for Optimal Runway Sequencing," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(4), pages 898-916, August.
    3. Rakesh Prakash & Jitamitra Desai & Rajesh Piplani, 2022. "An optimal data-splitting algorithm for aircraft sequencing on a single runway," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 309(2), pages 587-610, February.
    4. Guépet, Julien & Briant, Olivier & Gayon, Jean-Philippe & Acuna-Agost, Rodrigo, 2017. "Integration of aircraft ground movements and runway operations," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 131-149.
    5. Samà, Marcella & D’Ariano, Andrea & D’Ariano, Paolo & Pacciarelli, Dario, 2017. "Scheduling models for optimal aircraft traffic control at busy airports: Tardiness, priorities, equity and violations considerations," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 81-98.
    6. Bo Xu & Weimin Ma & Hui Huang & Lei Yue, 2016. "Weighted Constrained Position Shift Model for Aircraft Arrival Sequencing and Scheduling Problem," Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research (APJOR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 33(04), pages 1-22, August.
    7. Pohl, Maximilian & Kolisch, Rainer & Schiffer, Maximilian, 2021. "Runway scheduling during winter operations," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    8. Daniel Karapetyan & Jason A. D. Atkin & Andrew J. Parkes & Juan Castro-Gutierrez, 2017. "Lessons from building an automated pre-departure sequencer for airports," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 252(2), pages 435-453, May.
    9. Julia Bennell & Mohammad Mesgarpour & Chris Potts, 2013. "Airport runway scheduling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 204(1), pages 249-270, April.
    10. Pohl, Maximilian & Artigues, Christian & Kolisch, Rainer, 2022. "Solving the time-discrete winter runway scheduling problem: A column generation and constraint programming approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 299(2), pages 674-689.
    11. A R Brentnall & R C H Cheng, 2009. "Some effects of aircraft arrival sequence algorithms," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(7), pages 962-972, July.
    12. Jason A. D. Atkin & Edmund K. Burke & John S. Greenwood & Dale Reeson, 2009. "An examination of take-off scheduling constraints at London Heathrow airport," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 169-187, August.
    13. Pasquale Avella & Maurizio Boccia & Carlo Mannino & Igor Vasilyev, 2017. "Time-Indexed Formulations for the Runway Scheduling Problem," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(4), pages 1196-1209, November.
    14. Salehipour, Amir, 2020. "An algorithm for single- and multiple-runway aircraft landing problem," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 179-191.
    15. Lieder, Alexander & Stolletz, Raik, 2016. "Scheduling aircraft take-offs and landings on interdependent and heterogeneous runways," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 167-188.
    16. Senay Solak & Gustaf Solveling & John-Paul B. Clarke & Ellis L. Johnson, 2018. "Stochastic Runway Scheduling," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(4), pages 917-940, August.
    17. Han Zhong & Wei Guan & Wenyi Zhang & Shixiong Jiang & Lingling Fan, 2018. "A bi-objective integer programming model for partly-restricted flight departure scheduling," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-18, May.
    18. Murça, Mayara Condé Rocha, 2018. "Collaborative air traffic flow management: Incorporating airline preferences in rerouting decisions," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 97-107.
    19. Dixit, Aasheesh & Jakhar, Suresh Kumar, 2021. "Airport capacity management: A review and bibliometric analysis," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    20. J E Beasley & M Krishnamoorthy & Y M Sharaiha & D Abramson, 2004. "Displacement problem and dynamically scheduling aircraft landings," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 55(1), pages 54-64, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ortrsc:v:47:y:2013:i:4:p:584-602. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.