ATFM airborne delays without extra fuel consumption in wind conditions

Abstract

Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) regulations, such as ground holdings, are often canceled before their initially planned ending time. The ground delays impact on the cost of recovering part of the delay if the regulation is canceled, as aircraft are still at the origin airport. In previous publications, the authors have suggested a speed reduction strategy to split the assigned ATFM delay between ground delay and airborne delay. By flying at the the minimum speed that gives the same fuel consumption as initially planned, the airline can maximize the airborne delay without any extra fuel consumption. In this paper, the effect of wind on the amount of airborne delay is assessed and a case study of Chicago O’hare airport is presented. Results show that wind has a great effect on the airborne delay that can be achieved and that, in some cases, even tail winds might lead to an increase of airborne delay