Observation and analysis of departure operations at Boston Logan International Airport

In order to support the development of improved methods for departure operations, the flow constraints and their causalities --primarily responsible for inefficiencies and delays-- need to be identified. This thesis is an effort to identify such flow constraints and gain a deep understanding of the departure process underlying dynamics based on field observations and analysis conducted at Boston Logan International Airport. It was observed that the departure process forms a complex interactive queuing system and is highly controlled by the air traffic controllers. Therefore, Flow constraints were identified with airport resources (runways, taxiways, ramp and gates) and with air traffic controllers due to their workload and control strategies. While departure delays were observed in all airport components, flow constraints manifested mainly at the runway system, where the longest delays and queues concentrated. Major delays and inefficiencies were also observed due to flow constraints at National Air Space locations downstream of the airport, which propagate back and block the departure flow from the airport. The air traffic controllers' main strategies in managing the traffic and dealing with the flow constraints were also identified.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2001

Author dc:creator

• Idris, Husni Rifat

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• R. John Hansman.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8862

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/8862