Abstract: Flight delay is nowadays one of the most critical curbing factors in aviation industry. While the efficiency of air transportation is improved by air traffic flow management, massive research work on wake vortex separation reduction is also performed by researchers all around the world. One of the technologies developed to date is to modify flight procedure aiming at the reduction of the wake vortex separation of closely spaced parallel runways; and another is to build wake turbulence prediction models in order to anticipate the dissipation and transportation of wake vortex. Thus a wake turbulence separation consultative matrix is calculated to acquire more landing and take-off slots. The wake vortex separation reduction systems can alleviate flight delay and increase terminal capacity. They are assorted into two categories according to different principles adopted in design, i. e. , wake vortex separation system based on offset approach procedure and wake vortex separation system based on dynamic prediction. The theory, algorithm and components of each system are thoroughly analyzed. The performance of the systems is compared and the advantages and drawbacks of each system are discussed.

Key words: vortex flow, wake vortex, separation, safety factor, air traffic control