Departure queue management in the presence of Traffic Management Initiatives

In today's Traffic Flow Management (TFM) operation, some flow restrictions may be used that are procedurally applied to aircraft while they are on the ground before departure. Although there are some drawbacks to this approach, the application of required delay before flights depart allows that delay to be taken by the flight when it does not have to burn fuel to stay aloft. Delaying flights on the ground also allows the delay to be taken in a manner (i.e., parked on the ground) that does not create significant workload for the sector controllers. Traffic Management Initiatives (TMIs) that may cause flights to be held on the ground directly affect the airport surface operation. These TMIs must be explicitly considered in any airport surface decision support capability. In the case of Departure Queue Management, it is necessary to synchronize and coordinate the assigned take-off times for each flight with the airborne restrictions and requirements of these TMIs. In principle, this synchronization of the airport surface plan for a flight and the airborne requirements is the initial implementation of trajectory-based operations, including the synchronization of the surface and airborne portion of the trajectory. This paper describes the algorithms and methods by which the Collaborative Departure Queue Management (CDQM) concept for queue management accomplishes this integration and synchronization of the airport surface operational plan with the airborne and TFM plan.