Evaluation of Potential Airspace Improvements in China’s Aviation System

This paper presents a fuel efficiency evaluation of the airspace system in China. A fuel efficiency decision-support model is built based upon BADA (Base of Aircraft Data) and regression analysis of realistic data. China’s civil aviation system fuel efficiency is evaluated using three airspace policies including opening more airways for civilian flights. It has been estimated that 78.4% of the civilian flights in China flying sub-optimal altitudes burning an additional 0.14 metric tons of fuel per flight. Adding one parallel airway to existing heavily travelled routes may have the best marginal benefit and can save 70 million USD of fuel every year. The analysis found that adding one parallel airway at the four most congested airways in China could save 12.8 million USD per year. This study serves as an independent evaluation of proposed changes in airway restructuring in China, helping authorities to make more informed decisions.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AV060 Standing Committee on Airfield and Airspace Capacity and Delay.
• Authors:
  • Gu, Songyuan
  • Trani, Antonio
  • Zhao, Hongduo
  • Jie, Yuan
  • Zhang, Jiake
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 16p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Airspace (Aeronautics); Airways; Decision support systems; Fuel consumption; Regression analysis
• Geographic Terms: China
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Economics; Energy; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01658593
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-04799
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jan 31 2018 10:47AM