Abstract: Flight substitution and reroute is accomplished based on frequently updated flow constrained areas and a flight substitution system to minimize the impact of severe weather on the NAS. Each flight is assigned a route, a FCA controlled time of arrival (FCA_CTA) slot, a controlled time of departure, and a destination controlled time of arrival, wherein the flights are sorted according to the FCA_CTA slot to pass sequentially through an FCA. When a flight is re-routed, the subsequent flight FCA_CTA is updated with the FCA_CTA slot made available by the preceding flight. If such an update is not feasible, then the subsequent flight FCA_CTA is updated according to a slot credit substitution give-away method. The benefits and costs for rerouting a flight out of an AFP are input to an optimization framework for providing the best flight time and flight reroute options.

Abstract: A method is presented here for mitigation of airport congestion problem by manipulating flight arrival times to coincide with expected departure times in order to keep airport demand under a specific limit and optimize utilized capacity of an airport. In one example, a threshold is defined which is related to the airport surface capacity to represent airport's tolerance for accumulation. At the time the congestion problem is overcome, the accumulation rate is not positive. In another example, a threshold is defined which is related to the airport facilities available to a specific carrier and is applied to the flights operated by that carrier.