Effects on airline costs of different air traffic management scenarios: an assessment method based on fast-time simulation outputs

This paper develops a methodology to compare the economic suitability of different Air Traffic Management (ATM) scenarios using Fast-Time Simulations (FTS), from an airline perspective. So far, FTS was mainly used for preliminary assessment of the capacity- and safety-related effects of novel ATM concepts, with hardly any application concerning the economic implications of those concepts. As a novelty, we put forward a method to assess costs to airlines’ of a new ATM scenario, based on FTS outputs. We first discuss the relevant ATM-related airlines’ economic interests, and consequently identify the associated indicators. To provide consistency with the Single European Sky II requirements and specifications, we show that our approach is clearly aligned with the performance-based framework proposed by the Single European Sky ATM Research Programme (SESAR).Then we demonstrate the capabilities of the FTS to address economic aspects of an ATM scenario. We illustrate the methodology through a case study of different sectorisations of the Greek airspace. The results indicate that FTS allows for a detection of statistically significant airline cost differentials between alternative ATM scenarios.