Arrival Time Control during Continuous Descent and Its Application to Air Traffic Control

Abstract

Arrival time control in a continuous descent operation (CDO) and its application to arrival traffic control are discussed. Through numerical simulations, the feasibility of the arrival time extension and reduction while maintaining the idle thrust during the continuous descent trajectory is presented. The extensible and reducible time of a CDO trajectory are also numerically analyzed. They are uniquely determined by the aircraft speed, altitude and distance from the runway. The CDO trajectory that potentially has the maximum extensible and reducible time is also proposed, which is expected to cancel the deviation of arrival time from that scheduled. A set of numerical traffic simulations proves the effectiveness of the proposed traffic control strategy. It is concluded that CDO using the proposed traffic control strategy is able to achieve delay-free air traffic with enhanced arrival time predictability. A noteworthy numerical result is also obtained showing that a slower trajectory for a larger reducible time can achieve a faster arrival time on average than the fastest trajectory with no reducible time.