Simulation Research on Optimization of Airport Ground Operation
Xiong Li
1
, Xiaoqing Chen
2
and Dongbin Li
3
1
Planning and Design Institute, China Airport Construction Group Corporation, Beijing, China
2
Aviation Industry Development Research Center of China, Beijing, China
3
Department of Air Traffic Management, Civil Aviation of Management Institute of China, Beijing, China
Keywords: Air transportation, capacity evaluation, computer simulation, airport ground operation, Simmod.
Abstract: To determine the reasonable and effective ground operation capacity of the airport is of great significance
for the overall planning of the airport construction. Selected Beijing Capital International Airport
(BCIA) with 3 parallel runways as the research object, the airfield operating models were simulated by
using Simmod in current operating condition and optimizing operation condition respectively. The operation
capacity of BCIA is close to its maximal value. By reducing the air traffic control separation and optimizing
the flight schedule, the flight movements of peak day can reach 1760, and the annual passenger throughput
is around 95~98 million-person-times.
1 INTRODUCTION
The continuous growth of social economy drives
China air transport on the fast-growing track, during
which China civil aviation has become the second
largest air transport system in the world. The
increase of air demand leads to huge pressure of
large hub airports and trunk airports in China. How
to determine the ground capacity of existing airports
and improve the capacity by optimizing operating
rules and flight schedules is of great significance for
the scientific decision-making of airport
development and the rational co-ordination of new,
modified and expanded airport projects.
In general, there are three approaches to evaluate
airport capacity and operation efficiency: data
statistics, mathematical theory and computer
simulation. (1) Method of data statistics is used to
estimate airport capacity through drawing a capacity
envelope graph based on existing statistical
information of airport flow. As a frequently-used
approach for capacity analysis in early stage, it
accompanies disadvantages that it only evaluates
established operation pattern of existing runway
system in busy airport, which lacks prospectiveness
(Gilbo, 1993). (2) Approach of mathematical theory
could be harnessed to calculate runway capacity
through proposing proper assumption, establishing
mathematical equations of airport ground operation
parameters. It is mainly used for macroscopic
capacity evaluation, lacking consideration on
operation details and commonality (Neufville and
Odoni, 2002). (3) Approach of computer simulation
is at present the most popular solution to evaluate
airport capacity and efficiency. Via establishing
operating environment and control rule models
through simulation software, it reflects airport
operation status with reality, and reaches to airport
capacity based on analysis on simulated operation
data (Gao and Jiang, 2010). Simmod and TAAM are
the mainstream simulation modeling software for
airport capacity evaluation (Li and Wei, 2015).
In this paper, Beijing Capital International
Airport (BCIA) is selected as the research object.
The airport operation efficiency is improved by
analyzing the operation status of the airport,
optimizing the operating rules and improving the
flight schedule. The effect of the application is
verified and evaluated through the simulation of the
airport.
2 AIRPORT STATUS OPERATION
BCIA has three north-south parallel runways, the
west runway, the middle runway and the east
runway. The distance between the west Runway /
middle Runway / East runway is 1960m and 1525m,
respectively. The west runway and the east runway
are mixed operation; the middle runway is mainly
168
Li, X., Chen, X. and Li, D.
Simulation Research on Optimization of Airport Ground Operation.
In 3rd International Conference on Electromechanical Control Technology and Transportation (ICECTT 2018), pages 168-171
ISBN: 978-989-758-312-4
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

used for take-off, as shown in Figure 1. The main
landing direction of the airport is restricted by the
noise, and the east runway 23:30-5:30 (the next day)
is forbidden to land.
1960m
1525m
Take-off Landing
Figure 1: Runway use mode of BCIA.
The apron of BCIA is bounded by the middle
runway, which is divided into west and east apron. ,
The gate aprons, departure points and runways use
basic principles: West to the west side of the apron
aircraft using the west runway; East to the east side
of the apron aircraft using the east runway; West to
east side of the apron aircraft, east to the west side of
the apron aircraft, mainly using the middle runway.
The basic principles of using the gate apron,
approach point and landing runway are as follows:
on the premise of giving priority to the smooth flight
path of inbound flight, the flight entering the west on
the inbound point will mainly land on the west
runway; the east side will enter the port Point-to-
point flights mainly use the east runway to land;
landing flights in more cases, the middle runway can
assist the east and west into the flight into the flight
landing.
Analysis of the peak monthly flight schedule of
BCIA for the last two years (2015~2016) shows that
the average daily take-off and landing waveforms
are shown in Figure 2. The peak monthly average
flight movements are about 1725, including 865
arrival flights and 860 departure flights. The flight
schedule has obvious characteristics, namely more
take-off flights at 7:00~9:00, more landing flights at
23:00~ 1:00(the next day).
Figure 2: Flights take-off and landing waveform of the
current peak month.
3 SIMULATION MODELING
This paper operates Simmod Plus 7.6(simulation
software) to make a simulation analysis of the
operational efficiency in different operational
patterns of BCIA. Simmod, one dynamic and
comprehensive airport simulation micro-software
firstly proposed by FAA in 1978, through the
continuous upgrading and perfection, has become
one of the most applied airport and airspace
simulation software (Gao and Huang, 2010).
In the simulation model, the use of BCIA
taxiway and apron is set up by reference to the
manual of the ground operation of BCIA. The arrival
and departure routes are set up to refer to the
standard RNAV instrument flight procedures. The
simulation model takes into account the analysis of
four typical daily flights, and the related parameters
are shown in Table 1, in which the types of flights
include passenger, business and cargo. The
parameters such as take-off and landing waveform,
aircraft combination and airline share of typical
daily flights are set up, referring to the current
operation statistics of BCIA and its prediction data.
Table 1: Typical daily take-off and landing flights.
Flight
movements in
peak day
Movements
in peak hour
Annual passenger
throughput (in
10,000 person-time)
1680 95 8400
1720 100 8900
1760 105 9400
1820 110 9900
Considering the operating conditions feasible in
the future, this paper presents optimization operation
scheme for BCIA: (1) the airport runway all-weather
Simulation Research on Optimization of Airport Ground Operation
169

operation; (2) based on the promotion of the total
daily flights, optimization flights waveform,
appropriate to reduce the peak hour flight; (3) in the
premise of ensuring security, moderately reduce the
air traffic control operation interval, as shown in
table 2.
Table 2: Aircraft wake turbulence separation.
Aircraft Wake Turbulence Separation
Front
Follow
A380 Heavy Middle
A380 8 k
m
5.5 k
m
5.5 k
m
Heavy 12 km 7.4 km 5.5 km
Middle 13 k
m
9.3 k
m
5.5 k
m
The demonstration of the simulation of BCIA
under optimal operating conditions is shown in
Figure 3.
Figure 3: Demonstration in optimal operation conditions.
4 RESULT ANALYSIS
According to the status and optimized air traffic
control operation conditions of BCIA, the airport
flight area simulation model is established. After
each model runs several times, the average value of
the simulation results is taken for data analysis.
The capacity of airport system is directly related
to the level of flight delay (FAA, 2015). In general,
on the premise of landing priority, the average
ground delay time of departing flights can be used to
measure the airport's busy degree and utilization
capacity. The ground delay time and trend of
departure flights are shown in Figure 4 under
different daily flights.
Figure 4: Ground delay trend of departure flights.
Taking the 6 minute delay level as a standard to
measure airport operation capacity, it is concluded
that under the improved operation condition, the
airport can meet the peak daily movements capacity
of 1760, and the corresponding annual passenger
throughput is about 95~98 million-person-times, as
shown in Figure 5. The optimized operation capacity
increases about 5%, compared with the current
operating conditions.
Figure 5: Comparison of annual passenger throughput.
It is mainly used for the capacity and delay
evaluation of the airport under normal condition.
The simulation results are not including the flow
control, bad weather, continued flight delay,
passengers and military aviation activities, and so
on. As a result, the simulation result shows that the
delay is usually lower than the actual operational
delay.
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170

5 CONCLUSIONS
This paper operates Simmod simulation software to
establish the computerized simulation model for
different utilization conditions of BCIA, and make
systematic analysis and quantitative evaluation of
airport capacity and operational efficiency.
The operation capacity of BCIA is close to
saturation. Before the Beijing new airport put into
operation, the current stage is undoubtedly the
busiest stage of BCIA. Through reasonable
optimization of control operation, the operation
capacity of BCIA can be improved properly. The
flight movements of peak day can reach 1760, and
the annual passenger throughput is around 95~98
million-person-times.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work is supported by China civil aviation
security ability building funds (2016)--Research on
application of simulation technology in civil airport
planning and design.
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