Benefits Analysis of Wind-Optimal Operations For Trans-Atlantic Flights

Abstract

North Atlantic Tracks are trans-Atlantic routes across the busiest oceanic airspace in the world. This study analyzes and compares current flight-plan routes to wind-optimal routes for trans-Atlantic flights. The historical flight track data recorded by EUROCONTROL’s Central Flow Management Unit is merged with data from FAA’s Enhanced Traffic Management System to provide an accurate flight movement database containing the highest available flight path resolution in both systems. The combined database is adopted for airspace simulation integrated with aircraft fuel burn to simulate traffic within the Organized Track System (OTS). The fuel burn for the tracks in the OTS are compared with the corresponding quantities for the wind-optimized routes for a month to evaluate the potential benefits of flying wind-optimal routes in North Atlantic Airspace. The potential fuel savings depend on existing inefficiencies in current flight plans, atmospheric conditions and location of the city-pairs. The potential benefits are compared with actual flight tests that have been conducted since 2010 between a few city-pairs in the trans-Atlantic region to improve fuel consumption.