Developing an airspace structure to integrate Increasing Diverse Operations (IDO) in the final approach phase regarding capacity aspects

Abstract

Over the past decades, international aviation has grown almost steadily (Eurocontrol, 2019b). Especially airport capacity has become a bottleneck for further growth and the predictions for the future estimate this situation to intensify. At the same time, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are expecting Increasing Diverse Operations (IDO) with a large spectrum of different approach speeds (Chan et al., 2018). The diversity of the new entrants represents a further reduction of the already scarce capacity of hub-airports. The objective of this thesis is the quantification of the expected additional capacity required for IDO and the development of a concept to reduce the possibly thereto related capacity losses. The newly developed Late Lateral Merging Point Concept (LLMPC) appears to mitigate this loss in capacity by using the diversity of approach speed schedules. For this purpose, the LLMPC provides three different deemed separated flight paths for the largest possible part of the last 12 NM on final until touchdown. One flight path leads directly onto final, whereas the other two flight paths join the final approach at one of the two Late Lateral Merging Points (LLMPs) at 3 NM and 6 NM before threshold. This way, a longer spatial separation of different speed schedules of approaching aircraft is possible than it is the case with today’s airspace structure, which leads to reduced required separation values in between approaching aircraft. The allocation of speed schedule groups for the three different deemed separate approach routes determine the benefit of the respective LLMPC. To evaluate the strengths and weaknesses, four concept ideas and two traffic mix scenarios are developed and compared. The investigation shows that the introduction of IDO has a significant impact on capacity demand. However, depending on the concept, the proposed LLMPC can compensate for approximately 40 – 60 % of this capacity reduction. It is also shown which of the concept ideas are preferable and under which traffic mix conditions the different versions are particularly suitable.