Benefit Balancing between Japan Departure Flights and Overflights in the North Pacific Route System

Abstract

Air traffic flies from Asia to North America via the North Pacific (NOPAC) route system in oceanic airspace. The cruise altitudes of NOPAC routes are assigned on a first-come first-served basis. As a result, when an overflight and Japan departure flight compete for a cruise altitude, the former tends to receive its requested altitude, while the latter is either delayed to receive its requested altitude or allocated a less favorable altitude. This arguably reduces the fairness and overall efficiency of the NOPAC route system. To balance the benefits between Japan departure flights and overflights, alternative strategies are proposed for allocating the cruise altitudes and departure delays more equitably. An optimization method is presented for evaluating such strategies in terms of minimizing departure delays and the difference between requested and assigned altitudes for both Japan departure flights and overflights without creating conflicts. Simulation experiments showed that the proposed strategies can optimize altitude assignment and revealed the tradeoffs involved with different strategies. The proposed strategies can contribute to realizing collaborative decision-making for air traffic management of the NOPAC route system by balancing the potential benefits for both overflights and Japan departure flights.