NEXTOR II

Noise Footprint of Electric Aviation at Regional Airports: A Case Study of VNY

Datey, Aboli
Kao, Bryan
Francisco, Renee
Moradpour, Megan
Kim, Robin
Bronicki, Nadav
Rakas, Jasenka
2023

Following an increased interest in aviation decarbonization, electric aircraft - including conventional fixed-wing and electric Vertical Take-Off & Landing aircraft (eVTOLs) - are approaching certification. While several studies and eVTOL manufacturers claim noise pollution reduction near airports to be a significant benefit of replacing existing aircraft with electric aircraft, there is little research quantifying this suggested benefit. This study develops a method for quantifying noise footprint benefits of electric aviation at regional airports. The method is applied to Van Nuys...

Optimal Time Advance in Terminal Area Arrivals: Throughput vs. Fuel Savings

Sadovsky, Alexander V.
Swenson, Harry N.
Haskell, William B.
Rakas, Jasenka
2011

The current operational practice in scheduling air traffic arriving at an airport is to adjust flight schedules by delay, i.e. a postponement of an aircraft's arrival at a scheduled location, to manage safely the FAA-mandated separation constraints between aircraft. To meet the observed and forecast growth in traffic demand, however, the practice of time advance (speeding up an aircraft toward a scheduled location) is envisioned for future operations as a practice additional to delay. Time advance has two potential advantages. The first is the capability to minimize, or at least reduce,...

Proactive, Reactive, and Interactive Risk Assessment and Management of URET Implementation in Air Route Traffic Control Centers

Uang, Grace
Rakas, Jasenka
Bolic, Tatjana
2008

The current trend within air traffic management (ATM), as a part of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), is to increase the airspace system capacity to operate in diminishing capacity conditions while improving standards of safety. An extensive body of research exists regarding introducing automation into air traffic control in order to create more flexible and cost-efficient operations. The User Request Evaluation Tool (URET) is a strategic support tool designed to assist controllers with timely detection of conflicts; it offers tools for checking the conflict...

Procedural and Operational Consequences of Navigational Equipment Outages: Exploration of Airport Performance

Rakas, Jasenka
Yin, Huifang
Hansen, Mark
2005

This paper explores the impact of unscheduled navigational and surveillance equipment outages on airport performance during visual flight rules and instrument flight rules at San Francisco International Airport and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The following most common unscheduled short outages, which occurred during January 2000–December 2002, are analyzed in detail: very high frequency omnidirectional range (VOR), approach lighting system type 2 (ALSF-2), the secondary radar Mode S, and air traffic control radio beacon system (ATCRBS). We explore the air...

Quantifying the Resilience of the U.S. Domestic Aviation Network During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Bauranov, Aleksandar
Parks, Steven
Jiang, Xuan
Rakas, Jasenka
González, Marta C.
2021

This paper analyzes the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the United States air transportation network between March and August 2020. Despite dramatic reductions in flight and passenger volumes, the network remained robust and resilient against perturbation. Although 24% of airports closed, the reduction in network efficiency was only 5.1%, which means airlines continued to serve most destinations. A deeper analysis of airport closures reveals that 1) small peripheral airports were the most likely to be closed; 2) socio-economic and epidemiological factors characterizing the airport’s region...

Re-inventing Airport Land Use Planning in California: A Strategy for Updating the California Airport Land Use Planning Handbook — Recommendations for Update of California Airport Land Use Handbook

Rakas, Jasenka
Lindbergh, Sarah
University of California, Berkeley. Institute of Transportation Studies
The FAA Consortium in Aviation Operations Research (NEXTOR III)
2024

This report is written in response to the State of California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), Division of Aeronautics, relating to the need to update the 2011 version of the California Airport Land Use Planning (ALUP) Handbook. The purpose of this technical report and its supplementary materials is to provide a robust scientific foundation for the final Handbook update publication for airport land use compatibility planning, which will be created soon by Caltrans. In this study, optimized are visualizations of spatial distribution patterns of aviation accidents across 259 airports...

Reduce Aviation’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Immediately Feasible and Affordable Gate Electrification

Greer, Fiona
Rakas, Jasenka
Horvath, Arpad
2021

Aircraft at airport gates require power and air conditioning, provided by fossil fuel-combusting equipment, to maintain functionality and thermal comfort. We estimate the life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and economic implications from electrifying gate operations for 2354 commercial-traffic airports in the world. Here we show that complete electrification could yield GHG reductions of 63%–97% per gate operation relative to current practice, with greater reductions correlated with low-carbon electricity. Economic payback periods average just 1–2 years. Shifting to complete...

Reducing Emissions through Monitoring and Predictive Modeling of Gate Operations of Idle Aircraft: A Case Study on San Francisco International Airport

Rakas, Jasenka
Achatz Antonelli, Pietro
Walia, Chanan
Rouzbahani, Parham
Gikas, George
2025

The use of airport gate electrification infrastructure in the form of ground power (GP) and preconditioned air (PCA) systems can reduce energy and maintenance costs, emissions, and health risks by limiting the use of aircraft auxiliary power unit (APU) engines at the gate. However, their benefits can only be gained when they are actually being used; otherwise, pilots keep APUs on to fulfill their aircraft’s demands for electrical power and air conditioning. GP and PCA systems require a large initial infrastructure investment to increase energy efficiency, and they are installed with the...

Selecting Climate Change Mitigation Strategies in Urban Areas Through Life Cycle Perspectives

Hendrickson, Thomas P.
Nikolic, Milos
Rakas, Jasenka
2016

Urban governments globally have generated climate change mitigation plans in recent decades. With greenhouse gases (GHG) being emitted from far-ranging anthropogenic sources, selecting mitigation alternatives from a portfolio of options can be highly challenging, particularly when capital budgets and life cycle costs are considered. This research combines life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle cost accounting (LCCA), and mathematical formulation methods to select ideal alternatives for a case study city. We utilize LCA and LCCA to determine the environmental and economic costs associated...

Statistical Modeling and Analysis of Landing Time Intervals: Case Study of Los Angeles International Airport, California

Rakas, Jasenka
Yin, Huifang
2005

Existing literature suggests that analyses of landing time intervals employ simple statistical models based on time-separation histograms, usually approximated by normal distributions. Although the literature focuses on important issues such as safety, capacity improvements, and separation rules, it does not take into account another important issue: the possible, unique behavior of airlines, pilots, and controllers. In this study such possible, unique behavior is taken into account and a statistical analysis on landing time intervals is performed to find the operational properties of Los...