Calculating block time and consumed fuel for an aircraft model

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this paper we present a novel approach to calculate Block Time and Fuel (BTF) consumed for an aircraft model during a flight. The BTF model computes the ground distance between the origin and destination airports, derives the flight’s cruise altitude and by integrating two institutional data sets calculates the duration and the fuel consumed for the whole of taxi-out, take-off, climb, cruise, descent, approach, landing and taxi-in phases. We use the French Association for Operational Research and Decision Support (ROADEF) 2009 Challenge flight rotation to sample our model. The statistical analysis of the results consisted of comparing BTF results for the block time and those from the ROADEF Challenge 2009 with the real ones retrieved from Flightaware® for the same origin and destination airports and aircraft model. Statistical results are reported for percentile and root mean square error, and we show that, using simple calculations, the BTF computational results for block time are in a lower percentile and have lower root mean square error than the block times used by the ROADEF 2009 Challenge. To compare the fuel consumed, we used the values for the real flights published in the literature review. We were able to verify a good fit between the BTF results and those values. Since the BTF model computational results are obtained within a few seconds, we also conclude that the BTF model is suited for flight planning and disruption recovery in commercial aviation.