The flow management problem in air traffic control: A model of assigning priorities for landings at a congested airport

An Air Traffic Control (ATC) network consists of departure airports, a single landing airport and a network of airways connecting the airports. The flights planned to be carried over the network represent the demand for service which should be served during a given period of time under given conditions. Landing airport capacity is the element of the network which causes congestion and potentially lengthy flight delays which spread over the network. Under such conditions the landing airport and the ATC network are considered to be overloaded. This paper presents a model of assigning priorities for landings in such an overloaded system. The model is based on a concept of deterministic priority queues which enables ATC to control and distribute the total delays and their costs to particular flights subject to given criteria. The model can be used for planning purposes. It will also support calculation of the total cost of aircraft delays under various conditions prevailing in the ATC network during a given time period, as well as sensitivity analysis of the cost of these delays depending on changes in various influencing factors.