Aircraft Performance-optimized Departure Flights Using Traffic Flow Funnels

Aircraft departures often follow standardized and restrictive routes intended to guarantee a safe transition to the en-route network. These procedures are designed usually for various aircraft types, but often without considering the individually optimized flight intents. This paper presents an approach where flights can fly their optimal profile within a procedural space based on actual flight performance to replace standard routes. For this, an algorithm based on DBSCAN identifies typical traffic flow funnels for both a set of radar tracks and individually optimized flight trajectories. For the latter, a 3D pathfinding grid is developed, which expands dynamically using the specific flight performance of the aircraft type. A set of funnels is created along a mean trajectory, which begins at the runway and provides a restricted space for individual trajectory optimization. The procedure is applied exemplary for Munich Airport, where the size of the funnels and the associated fuel-saving potential are determined. The results indicate an average fuel-saving potential of 0.4% with regard to the trip fuel.