Investigating the effect of disruptions on aircraft delays

Abstract

Airport operations are susceptible to disruptions from external factors like adverse weather conditions. Restrictions to operations may be imposed in such situations. This research investigates the effect of disruptions on the delays experienced by aircraft at the airport, with focus on the turnaround process. Using Arena Simulation Software, a discrete event simulation model was built to simulate the processes that an aircraft undergoes in an airport during turnaround. The model was based on Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3, and historical data was used to run the simulation. Runway closures of varying periods were imposed to simulate disruption in operations. It was found that the disruption contributed to no significant increase in turnaround times at the gates but did cause delays due to waiting for the runways to reopen, thereby having an increase in airport cycle time. Further investigation on runway queuing priority suggested that allowing delayed incoming flights to have a higher priority to land first reduced the impact of the disruption on the delay experienced by aircraft due to disruption.