Solving optimally the static ground-holding policy problem in air traffic control

As air traffic congestion grows, ground-holding (or ‘gate-holding’) of aircraft is becoming increasingly common. The ‘ground-holding policy problem’ (GHPP) consists of developing strategies for deciding which aircraft to hold on the ground and for how long. In this paper the authors present a stochastic linear programming solution to the static GHPP for a single airport. The computational complexity of existing solutions requires heuristic approaches in order to solve practical instances of the problem. The advantage of the present solution is that, even for the largest airports, problem instances result in linear programs that can be solved optimally using just a personal computer. The authors present a set of algorithms and compare their performance to a deterministic solution and to the passive strategy of no ground-holds (i.e., to the strategy of taking all delays in the air) under different weather scenarios.