Collaborative optimization model and algorithm for airport capacity and traffic flow allocation

How to efficiently utilize the existing airport capacity without physical expansion and considerable economic inputs to meet air traffic needs is one of the important tasks of air traffic management. To improve the efficiency of capacity utilization, it is necessary to find the actual airport capacity properly. In this work, taking Shuangliu International Airport as an example, a methodology for capacity estimation is proposed that combines the empirical method with an analytical approach that uses historical performance data from the airport to construct a capacity envelope to approximate the airport’s actual capacity to the greatest extent, establishes a collaborative optimization model that reflects the inherent relations between airport capacity and arrival and departure traffic demand, adopts an improved optimization algorithm to solve the model, and generates an optimal flight allocation scheme. Priority ratio is introduced to dynamically adjust management preferences for arrival and departure traffic demand to further reveal the synergy mechanism between departure and arrival traffic flow demand and the airport capacity. The result shows that the Flight On-time Performance rate is lifted by 6% in the case study which proves the feasibility of the proposed method, demonstrating its value for maximizing airport capacity and traffic flow demand without requiring expansions on airport scales.