Effects of queueing congestion on runway capacity at airports

We model queueing congestion at an airport to estimate delays in the landing queue. The model applied to the problem captures both time varying arrival profile and weather dependent service rate. Aircraft are considered as customers utilizing a set of runways, which together constitute a single server. Arrivals are treated as time varying but deterministic. To capture the weather dependent service rate, a stochastic process is employed. A recursive algorithm is then used to compute the waiting time and queue length in the system. The model can be applied to all airports. In order to define the necessary inputs for the model, characteristics of the airside operation at a particular airport need to be thoroughly studied. We apply the model to the Halifax International Airport. Modeling congestion delays at airports should be of particular interest to Airport Planners, Airlines, and providers of Air Traffic Control, because delay is an important factor in benefit-cost analysis in the airport system. If a fiscal value can be placed on delay, the delay reduction savings resulting from an improvement become benefits that can be used to offset cost of the improvement.