Design Analysis of Corridors-in-the-Sky

Abstract

Corridors-in-the-sky is a new airspace structure designed to accommodate high density trac by grouping flights with similar trajectories. Less air trac controller workload is expected than with classic airspace structures. Thus, corridors-in-the-sky may increase national airspace capacity and reduce flight delays. To evaluate/design corridors-in-thesky, besides identifying locations, their utilization, altitudes, and impacts on non-corridor trac need to be analyzed. Although not providing complete analysis, this paper chooses a single corridor and presents analyses of its spatial and temporal utilization, impact on the remaining trac, and the potential benefit caused by o-loading the trac from underlying sectors. Methods developed to assist the analysis are described. Analysis results visualize the utilizations of the corridor, suggest the number of lanes, and show the possibility of deploying corridors dynamically. It is shown that combined lane options would be a better choice to lower the impact on non-corridor users compared with other options. Finally, analysis shows significant reduction of peak aircraft count in underlying sectors with only one corridor enabled.