Departure sequencing systems and methods

A method for departure sequencing of aircraft at an airport, the method comprising:

• creating, by a processor, a graph network representing an airport, the graph network comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of links,
• wherein the plurality of nodes include a gate node, airlinks, a runway with an entrance node and an exit node, and a runway crossing with a crossing node and ground links;
• associating, by the processor, business rules to a sequence of events, state transitions and an aircraft entity in the graph network,
• wherein the business rules utilize real-time airport characteristics including rates and configuration to drive simulation parameters,
• wherein business rules are associated with aircraft path, pushback time, taxi speed and runway procedures;
• iteratively executing, by the processor, a graph network model to generate modeled results;
• scheduling, by the processor, events multiple times to model the taxi procedure for the aircraft entity,
• wherein the events for the aircraft entity that is departing include:
• scheduling the aircraft entity departure time that is modeled on gate node business rules;
• initializing the aircraft entity flight status that is modeled on gate node business rules;
• moving the departing entity on a ground link;
• calculating a time for the aircraft entity to pass a link distance that is retrieved from historical speed table business rules for the ground link;
• in response to the aircraft entity approaching a node, the next ground link having available capacity and the node not being occupied by other aircraft, allowing the aircraft entity to occupy the node and enter the node area
• checking potential future directional head-to-head aircraft conflicts with other aircraft to avoid gridlock;
• removing the aircraft entity from a last ground link;
• adding the aircraft entity to a next ground link;
• in response to other aircraft waiting on the last ground link, triggering to move the other aircraft forward as more space is made available on the ground link;
• releasing the node of the currently occupying aircraft;
• in response to the other aircraft waiting for the node, creating a trigger to enter the node area for the other aircraft;
• calculating and recording statistics of taxi time;
• implementing business rules for checking runway blockage by arrival or crossings;
• and
• after a take off, triggering another take off event in response to the aircraft entity waiting on the runway entrance node and no blockage is applied;
• scheduling, by the processor, multiple times the time for the aircraft entity to pass the current runway node to model the runway crossing for the aircraft entity;
• repeatedly executing, by the processor, the graph network to obtain suggested gate pushback times for a plurality of aircraft at the airport;
• calibrating, by the processor, a parameter of the graph network model utilizing historical aircraft flight information for the airport;
• and
• creating, by the processor, calibrated parameters based on different airport operating characteristics.