The Airport Ground Movement Problem: Past and Current Research and Future Directions

Determining efficient airport operations is an important and critical problem for airports, airlines, passengers and other stakeholders. Moreover, it is likely to become even more so given the traffic increases which are expected over the next few years. The ground movement problem forms the link between other airside problems, such as arrival sequencing, departure sequencing and gate/stand allocation. This paper provides an overview, categorisation and critical examination of the previous research for ground movement and highlights various important open areas of research. Of particular importance is the question of the integration of various airport operations and their relationships which are considered in this paper.