POTENTIAL OF NONCAPITAL METHODS AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION TO REDUCE CONGESTION AND SAVE ENERGY AT MAJOR U. S. AIRPORTS

The objective of this study was to examine and investigate the potential of noncapital methods and their implementation to reduce airport congestion and conserve energy at major U.S. airports. The Network Scheduling Optimization Model (NSOM) was developed and implemented to define a more efficient air transportation system and, thereby, to provide a standard against which improvements to the base case system could be evaluated. The NSOM was applied to air travel among eight major U.S. air hubs and it was found that the same passengers as were served in the base period could have been served with a 20 percent reduction in operating costs, a 21 percent fuel savings, and a 16 percent reduction in airport congestion--though at some cost in passenger convenience. There is no method currently available, however, for scaling these results for eight hubs to the entire national air network. Three major types of noncapital policies for reducing airport congestion and conserving energy were investigated in this study: (1) policies to reduce the overall level of aircraft activity, (2) policies to temporally redistribute aircraft activity, and (3) policies to spatially redistribute aircraft activity. Effectiveness of these different noncapital policies was assessed and considerations affecting their implementation in specific situations were identified. Finally, strategies to implement the various noncapital policies were described and the more promising implementation strategies identified.