Airside Capacity Analysis and Evaluation of İstanbul Atatürk Airport Using Fast-Time Simulations

Abstract

The demand for air transportation increases rapidly each year and introduces serious problems such as system-wide delays and congestions in air traffic operations. Airports, one of the most critical points of the air transportation system, are affected most by these problems. One of the most effective approach to reduce delays and congestions is to improve existing airside capacity of airports through the enhancement of taxiway network around runways. This study investigates the impacts of various rapid-exit and end-around taxiway combinations on capacity and delays for İstanbul Atatürk Airport. Four different runway configurations are analyzed using fast-time simulations for the existing (baseline) and improved (alternative) taxiway network of the airport. The results show that end-around taxiways can decrease departure taxi times up to 52% and rapid-exit taxiways reduce arrival runway occupancy time by 10.6%. Besides, implementations of end-around taxiways can improve runway capacity especially when the airport experiences intense arriving traffic while rapid-exit taxiways improves runway utilization for arrivals.