Prediction and Control of Departure Runway Balancing at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport

At many airports, aircraft take off from multiple departure runways. During periods of high departure demand, whether or not the departure runways are balanced directly affects the capacity and efficiency of the airport. This paper begins by investigating the cause of runway imbalances. Homogeneity in the direction of flight during a departure push and the procedures for runway assignments are demonstrated to be the primary source of departure runway imbalances. Second, the paper studies how well departure runways are currently balanced. A method for reconstructing the departure queues that existed at each runway is presented along with results from applying the method. Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) airport is used as a case study throughout the paper. Controllers currently do not have accurate information about the future departure demand, nor the ability to predict how the surface situation will evolve, necessary to plan efficient traffic management strategies. Finally, the paper introduces automation concepts that will reduce the occurrence and impact of imbalanced departure runways, by providing this information along with traffic management advisories.