Comparative analysis of operations in landing-take off cycles at different airports in the European Union

Abstract

It is known that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has standard times, power settings and velocities for LTO cycles. Those parameters do not contemplate aircraft type, engine, airport configuration and specific operation conditions. The aim of this paper is to make a comparison among those parameters in ten different and significant airports around the European Union, to develop an alternative to the ICAO standards. The variation of parameters is related to different operational times and fuel consumption, and as a consequence different amounts of emissions are produced: unburned hydrocarbons (HC), Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) , Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Carbon Dioxide (CO2), inter alia. The difference between take off times, velocities, distances and power settings, and the standards values make the development of indicators feasible, which is the main goal of this study. Equivalent aircraft mixes and different operative scenarios were used in each airport, emphasizing the minimum and maximum conditions in “Taxi In” and “Taxi Out” situations. From the comparison, differences between the standard parameters and issues related to the operative strategy in each airport were observed.