Optimization of movement of the aircraft on taxiway area

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop model to optimize the movement of the aircraft on taxiway area. The optimization process is carried out on a number of flights over a period of time and is performed sequentially between one flight to the next flight with the principle of first come first served. Optimization is based on the principle of choosing the shortest path between the start and end of the movement of aircraft on the taxiway area, taking into account the holding time which may result due to avoiding any conflict in the taxiway area. The best path is the one with the minimum total taxiing time and holding time within a set of alternative paths. Set is determined by the shortest path principle. Optimization is limited by the maximum allowable holding time, as well as minimum separation distance between aircrafts on the taxiway area. The proposed algorithm is applied on an illustrative example of case of Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport. Results show that the optimization model could provide a better total time than the one of current practice.