Scheduling models for air traffic control in terminal areas

We propose a job-shop scheduling model with sequence dependent set-up times and release dates to coordinate both inbound and outbound traffic flows on all the prefixed routes of an airport terminal area and all aircraft operations at the runway complex. The proposed model is suitable for representing several operational constraints (e.g., longitudinal and diagonal separations in specific airspace regions), and different runway configurations (e.g., crossing, parallel, with or without dependent approaches) in a uniform framework. The complexity and the highly dynamic nature of the problem call for heuristic approaches. We propose a fast dynamic local search heuristic algorithm for the job-shop model suitable for considering one of the different performance criteria and embedding aircraft position shifting control technique to limit the controllers/pilots’ workload. Finally, we describe in detail the experimental analysis of the proposed model and algorithm applied to two real case studies of Milan-Malpensa and Rome-Fiumicino airport terminal areas. This work has been partially supported by grant CNR FPCCR021074 from the Italian National Research Council.