Advanced Algorithms and Development for Four-Dimensional Flight Trajectory Optimization for Airline Route Planning

The efficient optimization of aircraft flight plans is the main focus of flitePLAN. This problem devolves in a 1st iteration of determining a flight plan that minimizes the cost of the flight. That done, a 2nd iteration of the innovation attempts to optimize simultaneous major area traffic flows using the same business logic. The main problem in the 1st iteration is in developing a mathematical approach which allows a precise numerical calculation of the costs of arcs and using an optimization algorithm that efficiently minimizes the total cost. The 2nd iteration of the problem arises in simulating major area route network flows involving multiple airlines, aircraft and city-pairs vying for the same airspace within a given time window. Empirical studies indicate opportunities where an optimization of 1 minute in flight time results in annual savings of $37 million in fuel and 170 million kgs of CO2 emissions.

Faculty Supervisor:

Maryam Mehri Dehnavi

Student:

Ashkan Nejati

Partner:

flitePLAN International

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Toronto