سیستم پشتیبانی تصمیم گیری برای برنامه ریزی استراتژیک فرودگاه

This paper describes an integrated set of models for the estimation of the capacity of an airfield and the associated delays. The aim is to develop a decision support tool suitable for airport planning at the strategic level. Thus, the emphasis is on obtaining reliable approximations to the quantities of interest quickly and with a limited set of inputs. The models account for the dynamic characteristics of airfield capacity and demand, as well as for some stochastic aspects of airfield operations. They are sensitive to airfield geometry, the operational characteristics of the airfield and of the local air traffic control system, and the characteristics of the local air traffic demand for airport access and services. Through its integrated structure, the decision support tool can account for interactions among operations at different parts of the airfield.

A modelling approach has been described for estimating and assessing the capacity and level of service at the various parts of major airfields. The approach consists of a set of macroscopic models developed and utilized for the analysis of runway systems and apron areas, and a methodology for the integration of these models such that interactions among operations on the airfield are taken into account. MACAD is sensitive to most of the major parameters that affect airfield capacity and level of service. These include airport geometry and operational characteristics, characteristics of the local air traffic control system, operational characteristics of the airside, and the characteristics of the demand for airfield access and services. All the individual models integrated into MACAD are fast, flexible and easy to use. They provide good approximations to capacity and level of service under a wide range of scenarios. These characteristics make MACAD suitable for use by decision-makers at the strategic level of planning. MACAD has been subjected to rigorous evaluation and validation at Rome's Fiumicino Airport, one of the busiest in Europe, within the framework of the MANTEA (Management of Surface Traffic in European Airports DG XIII) project funded by the European Commission (Zografos et al., 1998). The results were very positive. For the evaluation, field data for a period of one full week of operations were used. The delays estimated by the model were very close to the observed values. Furthermore, MACAD was used as a tool for investigating a number of hypothetical scenarios about future conditions at the airport. A group of local experts also made positive comments in response to questions concerning user acceptance, cost effectiveness and potential contribution to airport planning processes. Those among them who obtained “hands-on” experience with MACAD indicated through questionnaires that the tool would help improve the quality of decisions, shorten turn-around times for analyses and reduce the cost of decision support. We have had similar experiences with informal applications of the model at a number of other airports. During 2002–03, an enhanced version of MACAD was applied with satisfactory results at six major European airports––Amsterdam, Athens, Frankfurt, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, and Toulouse––within the framework of the OPAL (Optimisation Platform for Airports including Landside) project, funded in part by the Directorate General, Transport and Energy (DG-TREN) of the European Commission.