An Efficient Landing Route Structure to Enhance Airport capacity

Due to the air traffic growth tendencies around the world, capacity problems have been emerging among different elements within the system, but perhaps one of the most visible and expensive is the air traffic congestion. Therefore, innovative methodologies to tackle it have been developing. Special attention has been centering at the terminal maneuvering area which is perhaps one of the most complex types of airspace. In this work, a simulationoptimization modeling technique is presented to tackle the air traffic congestion by building an optimal landing sequences to feed optimally the runway. Therefore, different Terminal Maneouver Area route structures have been designed and tested to analyze its benefits. In a first approach, Queretaro (Mexico) airspace is used as a case study. Following this, the merging and sequencing problem is addressed by means of genetic algorithms aiming to minimize conflicts between arrivals; and in a third stage, a discrete simulation approach is used to introduced the stochastic aspects of the problem such as arrival speed profiles, delays, and wind interaction, among others.