Hourly Capacity of a Two Crossing Runway Airport

Abstract

At the international level, the interest in airport capacity is growing in the last years because its maximization ensures the best performances of the infrastructure. However, infrastructure, procedure, human factor constraints should be considered to ensure a safe and regular flow to the flights. This paper analyzed the airport capacity of an airport with two crossing runways. The fast time simulation allowed modeling the baseline scenario (current traffic volume and composition) and six operative scenarios; for each scenario, the traffic was increased until double the current volume. The obtained results in terms of average delay and throughput were analyzed to identify the best performing and operative layout and the most suitable to manage increasing hourly movements within the threshold delay of 10 min. The obtained results refer to the specific examined layout, and all input data were provided by the airport management body: the results are reliable, and the pursued approach could be implemented to different airports.