En-Route Flight Planning: A Mathematical Modeling Approach for Operating Cost Minimization, Dynamic Speed Control and Mid-air Collision Avoidance

The presented study discusses the Air Traffic Flow Management Problem by introducing alternative routing options for aircrafts in a constrained airspace. This work aims to minimize the total cost while all safety constraints such as mid-air collision avoidance and separation distance between aircrafts are respected. In this regard, a mixed integer programming (MIP) model has been developed by using a non-time indexed modeling strategy that benefits from a 3-dimensional (3D) network. The model provides the flight-route with a list of consecutive nodes to be visited by an aircraft and calculations on speed changes, and exact arrival and departure times on each travelling arc. Therefore, the separation distance between aircrafts on the network will be guaranteed despite of high travelling speeds over the arcs to avoid mid-air collisions. Designed for a single airport arrival and departure instances, the NP-hard nature of the MIP model does not prevent large problems to be solved on a personal computer using CPLEX, but also provides real-time decision making possible through performing an iterative solution. To conclude the results for various air traffic capacities and verify mid-air collision avoidance, a simulation model has been developed using ARENA simulation software by Rockwell