Individual Wake Vortex Separations: Capacity and Delay Impact on Single and Dual Dependent Runway Systems

Abstract

Airport capacity constraints and growing traffic demand in air transportation cause congestion and delay on the ground and in the air. Conservative wake turbulence separation minima in the approach phase guarantee a minimum of in-flight wake encounters of trailing aircraft. On the other hand, in many situations weather-based separation minima could support more efficient runway utilization. This work estimates delay reduction and capacity gains of DLR`s Wake Vortex Prediction and Monitoring System (WSVBS) through the application of reduced time-based approach separations for a single and dual dependent runway system. The system dynamically adjusts approach separations without compromising safety. Delay calculations are conducted with a dynamic runway queuing model, which is capable to process time varying approach separations. It provides the relevant delay data, where several representative operational scenarios enabled through the application of reduced separations on a single and dual dependent runway system are considered. Capacity profiles are created by processing WSVBS separation data with the actual traffic demand. The results give insight about possible delay reductions as well as related operational impact under given implementation assumptions. It is shown that the WSVBS provides efficiency gains on both runway systems, whereas operational requirements regarding the single runway system need to be taken into account applying reduced individual separations. Regarding the dual dependent runway system, an average hourly delay reduction up to 15 minutes maximum is revealed for the defined scenario setup.