A Baseline for Terminal Airspace Design Assessment

We report on initial steps in our joint work on redesign of Stockholm Terminal Maneuvering Area. We explore possibilities for optimizing assignment of flights to entry/exit points to/from the area under several models of traffic organization on approach/departure routes. Comparison of the distances flown in the optimal flights-to-points matchings under the different routing paradigms allows us to estimate the price of structuring and controlling aircraft within the airspace. In general, our results may serve as a baseline for evaluation of current and future terminal airspace designs in terms of flight efficiency and costs incurred due to the need for control of the traffic flow.

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