A framework for the classification and prioritization of arrival and departure routes in Multi-Airport Systems Terminal Manoeuvring Areas

Typically major cities (London, New York, Tokyo) are served by several airports effectively creating a Multi-Airport System or Metroplex. The operations of the Metroplex airports are highly dependent on one another, which renders their efficient management difficult. This paper proposes a framework for the prioritization of arrival and departure routes in Multi-Airport Systems Terminal Manoeuvring Areas. The framework consists of three components. The first component presents a new procedure for clustering arrival and departure flights into dynamic routes based on their temporal and spatial distributions through the identification of the important traffic flow patterns throughout the day of operations. The second component is a novel Analytic Hierarchy Process model for the prioritization of the dynamic routes, accounting for a set of quantitative and qualitative characteristics important for Multi-Airport Systems operations. The third component is a priority-based model for the facility location of the optimal terminal waypoints (fixes), which accounts for the derived priorities of each dynamic route, while meeting the required separation distances. The proposed Analytic Hierarchy Process model characteristics are validated by subject matter experts. The developed framework is applied to the London Metroplex case study.