Simulation-Based Airport Runway Performance Optimization By Modeling Multiple Control Tower Operations: A Case Study

Abstract

The substantial growth in the overall demand for air transportation makes the capacity of existing airports a key constraint for major cities in developing countries. One of any airport's main building blocks is its control tower, whose decisions influence the airport system's throughput and waiting times, particularly for civil purposes. This study investigates several operations and decisions involved in the landing and takeoff of airplanes. What makes the system more complex is the different time requirements for safely admitting various sizes of aircraft. This research develops a novel digital twin using discrete event simulation to study the outcome of different applicable expansion scenarios in the presence of such complex, realistic decisions. The study is applied to an international civil airport in the Middle East, yielding a substantial overall improvement in the realized runway capacity and a significant reduction in the aircraft waiting time.