Approach to Reducing Airline Fuel Consumption Through Ground Delay Program

The discrepancy between the demand for arrival slots at an airport, and the available arrival slots on a given day, is resolved by the Ground Delay Program (GDP). The scope of the GDP determines the number of flights and the type of aircraft that are issued delays prior to departure. As the GDP scope decreases, the number of aircraft affected by the GDP decreases, the average delay per aircraft increases, and the average rate of fuel-burn per aircraft decreases. Depending on how much additional pre-departure delay is assigned to each flight, reduced GDP scope can result in reduced total fuel consumption during the GDP. This paper examines the impact of exploiting the asymmetry between increasing flight delays and decreasing pre-departure fuel-burn rates (as the scope of the GDP decreases) to reduce total fuel consumption during a GDP. Analysis of the fuel savings for 517 GDPs at the three New York Metroplex airports in 2007 identified a 9% (1.95 million kg) reduction in fuel used for ramp-parking pre-departure delays during the GDPs with reduced scope. At $7 per gallon, this is equivalent to a fuel savings of $4.2M per year. The implications of reduced scope on equity and the limitations of this analysis are discussed.