Fuel and Energy Benchmark Analysis of Continuous Descent Operations

In this paper the existing continuous descent operations (CDO) procedures at three relevant German airports are analyzed with respect to both the achievable (maximum specific range) and the effectively achieved fuel savings, when compared to conventionally flown arrivals. To do so, we applied our highly precise flight performance model Enhanced Jet Performance Model (EJPM) to several thousand flown trajectories before and after CDO implementation, the data of which were provided to us as radar track data. A technique was developed to estimate the individual aircraft gross mass for calculating the optimum rate of descent starting from the computed flight-specific top of descent (ToD). Furthermore, we considered 3D weather and wind data to determine the CDO trajectory. When locating the trajectories within typical ICAO CDO procedure corridors, we found that the current generic design criteria do not allow using the full fuel-saving potential of CDO. Often because of poor CDO execution from the ground and fl...

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