Expedited Successive Departure Operation Concept and Initial Evaluations

Abstract

Over the past decade, the proliferation of Performance Based Navigation (PBN)-enabled diverging departure procedures has increased departure capacity, reduced delay, and lowered aircraft emissions at major airports across the National Airspace System. However, increasing departure capacity at airports with narrow departure corridors remains challenging as implementations of additional departure paths and the current requirement for immediate divergence may markedly change an airport's noise footprint. This paper explores options for capacity-enhancing application of divergence-based initial spacing without requiring aircraft to diverge immediately after departure. It presents the analysis approach taken to characterize departure performance of aircraft observed in actual operations and the simulation model developed to estimate collision risk. The results indicate that the proposed operations meet target level of safety requirements for aircraft on PBN procedures that diverge within 10 miles after departure and suggest the feasibility of realizing departure capacity benefits while minimizing changes to the noise footprint of the operations.