Runway Assignments That Minimize Terminal Airspace and Airport Surface Emissions

Air traffic operations at and around major airports in the United States are in need of improvement. From the perspective of arrivals, when one or more runways are in great demand, unnecessary delay and emissions occur during peak periods at major airports while other runways at the same airport are operating under capacity. The primary cause of this imbalance in runway utilization is that traffic flow into and out of terminal areas is asymmetric (as a result of airline scheduling practices) and arrivals are typically assigned to the runway nearest the fix through which they enter the terminal area. From the perspective of departures, delays and emissions are incurred because arrivals take precedence over departures with regard to the utilization of runways (despite the absence of binding safety constraints) and because arrival trajectories often include level segments that ensure “procedural separation” from arriving traffic while planes are not allowed to climb unrestricted along the most direct path to...