Departure Throughput Study for Boston Logan International Airport

We propose a new parametric representation of the departure capacity of airports. In particular, we show how the departure capacity can be represented by the variation of the average departure throughput as a function of arrivals, conditioned on persistent departure demand. We also show how this approach can be extended to quantify the dependence of departure capacity on other parameters such as the fleet mix. The proposed approaches are illustrated through the parametric estimation of the departure capacity of Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)

Demonstration of Reduced Airport Congestion Through Pushback Rate Control

Airport surface congestion results in significant increases in taxi times, fuel burn and emissions at major airports. This paper presents the field tests of a control strategy to airport congestion control at Boston Logan International Airport. The approach determines a suggested rate to meter pushbacks from the gate, in order to prevent the airport surface from entering congested states and reduce the time that flights spend with engines on while taxiing to the runway. The field trials demonstrated that significant benefits were achievable through such a strategy: during eight four-hour tests conducted during August and September 2010, fuel use was reduced by an estimated 12,000-15,000 kg (3,900-4,900 US gallons), while aircraft gate pushback times were increased by an average of only 4.3 minutes