Abstract:

Excessive traffic at busy intersections of air routes in the air route network can cause aircraft to deviate from the optimal flight altitude and increase emissions of pollutants such as carbon dioxide， nitrogen oxides， sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide. From the perspective of fuel consumption and carbon emission， this paper proposes a method for determining the capacity of intersection of air routes. Based on the historical flight trajectory data， the relationship between the difference between the actual flight altitude and the optimal flight altitude and the flow and degree of intersection of air routes is mined. Based on the data of flight trajectory， aircraft type， engine type and atmospheric environment， a calculation model of aircraft fuel is established. A method is proposed to determine the hourly and daily capacity of air routes intersection based on the extreme value of the first derivative of the nonlinear regression equation of carbon emission and characteristics of air routes intersection. In the optimization stage of air route network planning and air traffic flow management， if the new capacity standard of air routes intersection is adopted to control that the flight flow at the air routes intersection is not greater than the traffic capacity， the average additional CO₂ emissions of aircraft will be reduced by 1.68%–8.27%， which is of great significance for energy conservation and emission reduction in the air transport industry.

Key words: air traffic management, intersection of air routes, capacity, fuel consumption, carbon emission