Jenifer Miller Simulation Modeling and Analysis Term Project December 2000 Simulation of Airplane Traffic at Bradley International Airport

Objective and Scope Simulation model of airplane traffic at Bradley International Airport –Planes only, no customer or baggage impact –Current utilization and impact of increased schedule and airport remodel

Requirements Airline flight schedule data Actual flight arrival/departure times Airport runway/gate capacities FAA procedural information Validation information - Taxi-in times

Assumptions No flight cancellations One gate per airline - Capacity is number of actual gates at airport Taxi-in time not modeled - results used for model validation

ProModel Elements Locations - 34 Entities - 11 Processing Arrivals/Arrival Cycles Attributes User Distributions

Locations

Processing

User Distributions Used for time at gate - 1 for each type of plane –overnight at gate –from remote –from arrival Arrival schedules –separate for each airline based on arrivals for that airline –1 used for all airlines based on arrivals for all planes

Results

Conclusions Base model represents current airport operation reasonably well Doubling traffic indicates runway is limiter for most airlines - 2 airlines have gate limitations as well 25% increase for new gates does not significantly impact operation and does not require additional runway construction