The Network Flow Environment: Slot Allocation Model Evaluation With Convective Nowcasting

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a slot allocation heuristic algorithm close to Eurocontrol‘ s Computer-Aided-Slot-Allocation. The heuristic algorithm represents a First-Planned- First-Serve approach for tactical Air Traffic Flow Management slot allocation in order to balance air traffic demand with network capacities. It is part of DLR‘s Network Flow Environment (NFE) introduced in this paper, which allocates tactical Air Traffic Flow Management slots throughout the whole European Air Traffic Management Network by satisfying the objective of optimal network delay minimization. In order to quantify delay cost reduction applying a binary integer programming approach, the First-Planned- First-Serve heuristic serves as delay allocation reference for individual adverse impact scenarios. Short-term convective forecasts (nowcasts) serve as use-case to generate demand-capacityimbalances. It shows, that the First-Planned- First-Serve heuristic is capable to generate representative slot allocation data for operational scenario setups. In terms of delay performance, results can be improved by optimization for largescale Air Traffic Flow Management problems.