Targeting Aviation Delay through Simulation Optimization

Analyses of benefits due to changes in the National Airspace System (NAS) tend to focus on the delay reduction (or similar metric) given a fixed traffic schedule. In this paper, we explore the use of simulation optimization to solve for the increased traffic volume that the proposed change can support given a constant delay. The increased traffic volume as a result of the change can therefore be considered another benefit metric. As the NAS is a highly nonlinear stochastic system, the technique required to compute the increase traffic volume necessarily requires stochastic optimization methods.