Integrating Atmospheric Conditions into the Dynamic-Arrival-Routes Framework

We consider the computation of dynamic arrival routes (DARs): arrival routes from all entry points of a terminal maneuvering area that merge traffic arriving in a given time in- terval towards the runway for which we can guarantee separation for all arriving aircraft and enable all aircraft to follow optimal descent profiles. We exploit our recent mathematical results to bring the concept of DARs closer to practical applicability by demonstrating how we can integrate both the impact of atmospheric conditions on the aircraft’s descent profiles and the interaction with departing traffic into our DARs framework. With experimental results for Stockholm Arlanda airport, we give a proof of concept of this integration—showing that we can quickly obtain optimal solutions—and highlight the importance of these aircraft-specific and traffic-situation-dependent factors.