Estimation of departure metering benefits at major airports using queuing analysis

Due to high demand and adverse weather conditions, aircraft often spend excessive time taxiing and waiting for takeoff during congested time periods at major airports. The excessive taxi time causes considerable costs in terms of fuel burn and surface emissions. The next generation air transportation system proposes to optimize airport surface operations in part by applying departure metering, which manages the departure queue size through limiting the number of flights that enter the airport movement area during congestion. This paper compares departure metering benefits at a number of congested airports in the United States using queuing analysis. The benefits were measured in terms of average savings in taxi out time and reduction in taxi congestion. Impacts on the takeoff time and the gate congestion were also measured to assess the feasibility of departure metering. The results provide insights on how departure metering compares at the airports under the same metering strategy and assumptions. For example, the results identified some constrained airports with lower total number of operations but that benefit more from departure metering than some airports with higher total operations.