Runway capacity management – An empirical study with application to Doha International Airport

•Runway capacity depends on its configuration, scheduling policy and safety standard.•We use a model that optimizes a fuel burn cost under alternative runway settings.•Our empirical analysis is grounded in data on Doha International Airport.•Substantial capacity and cost savings reported using proposed approach.

This paper examines a three-faceted approach for runway capacity management, based on the runway configuration, a chosen scheduling approach, and an aircraft separation standard. These factors prompt alternative runway settings that are encapsulated using a classical mixed-integer formulation. The optimal solution for each runway setting is compared against our proposed optimization-based heuristic. This integrated approach is applied to investigating the transition from the (Old) Doha International Airport to the New Doha International Airport. Our empirical study based on historical data reveals that the proposed heuristic consistently yields optimal or near-optimal schedules, with considerable savings in fuel cost and reductions in delays, while preserving the spirit of an FCFS sequencing policy.