Optimizing runway resources is crucial for airports, especially for those with capacity constraints. The task of estimating runway capacity is fundamental to operational planning.
The traditional method of estimating capacity – using spreadsheets to calculate separations between aircraft landing or taking off – is too simplistic. It provides limited control over the specific circumstances affecting operations at an individual airport. While there are some sophisticated software alternatives that use aircraft trajectories, they are often labor-intensive and time-consuming to use. Other available tools may be less demanding but are subject to strict usage restrictions, including limitations to specific user groups or geographic regions.
AirTOP Runway Capacity Analyzer provides a practical and accessible alternative. The tool assesses the throughput of an airport’s runway system to estimate runway occupancy times, enabling airport planners to optimize traffic sequences on their runways.
Gustavo Mercado, Transoft’s Senior Product Manager, points out that the basis of AirTOP Runway Capacity Analyzer is simulating discrete events. “Every event is a block of time,” he explains. “Instead of simulating trajectories second by second, we say that a landing or a take-off is just a block of time that needs to use the runway. The software optimizes those blocks to find the best sequence, to maximize throughput.”
In other words, Runway Capacity Analyzer decouples the runway from those other aspects of the airport system – airspace, and the aircraft parking plan.
Airport planners can obtain a robust throughput estimate while respecting constraints on fleet mix, service level, arrival/departure ratio, and schedule times. Mercado emphasizes: “AirTOP can assess runway capacity in isolation, and it also supports separate analysis of parking and airspace capacities using the same tool.» Planners can import their airport’s design day traffic schedule and specific runway occupancy times, or they can use the tool to generate estimates based on accurate aircraft performance models.
Runway Capacity Analyzer generates an unlimited number of sequences and calculations based on saturation (constant demand) and sustainable (limited to a level of service) capacity levels. It can model crossed or close-parallel runways, and generate capacity curves that compare arrival versus departure throughput, or delay versus throughput.
The tool also accounts for maximum delays, and factors in an airport’s local operating culture. For example, at busy hubs, pilots know they must clear a runway in seconds, because another aircraft is immediately following behind. At other airports, vacating a runway might take longer. Runway Capacity Analyzer provides specific details about how much time it takes for a pilot to vacate the runway, and how braking distances affect runway usage. Mercado says. “You can randomize those reaction times to model those preferences, so you’re getting closer to what actually happens in real life. It provides users with a lot of possibilities.”
Ultimately, Mercado says, AirTOP Runway Capacity Analyzer “will tell you the maximum number of aircraft you can have on the runway per hour”. Mercado notes that runway capacity calculations need to be repeated 50 to 100 times to “have a good statistical significance that allows you to say with certainty that your results are correct”.
Runway Capacity Analyzer is a module within Transoft’s AirTOP software product, which also includes fast-time simulation tools. Using fast time simulations for runway capacity assessments would take a couple of days to complete, Mercado points out. “With Runway Capacity Analyzer, you can do it in minutes.”
Mercado explains: “Because you’ve done all that work [in Runway Capacity Analyzer], you’re starting to build a model. When the need arises for a more detailed simulation, those traffic schedules you generated with the Runway Capacity Analyzer module can be put to the test in a fast time simulation model in a very smooth process. It’s just the click of a button and you have that traffic ready to be simulated.”
In this way, the AirTOP tool can contribute to long-term master plans for airports, as well as optimizing current operations. “You have an idea of how the market is going to develop in 10 or 20 years,” Mercado says. “However, nobody knows for sure, but with these tools you can start getting an indication of what the future will look like.”
The analyzer tool is used by airport operators, consultants, regulators, research institutes and universities. Mercado concludes: “You can use it in any airport. It’s agnostic in terms of regulation and we’ve tried to make it as international as possible. Anybody can use it without restrictions.”
To discuss how Runway Capacity Analyzer can help you maximize your runway throughput, contact us today.