Evaluation of Taxiing Behavior by Airport and Flight Characteristics

Taxiing efficiency is a critical measurement for airport surface performance. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of airport and flight characteristics on taxiing behavior that is not included in preceding surface performance studies based on Aviation System Performance Metrics (ASPM) timestamps. Specifically, the influence of the airport, flight’s equipment type Taxiway Design Group (TDG), time of day (peak vs off-peak), and taxiing area (movement vs non-movement area) on taxiing speed and distance are included. This study evaluates the taxiing efficiency at six major U.S. airports using Airport Surface Detection Equipment – Model X (ASDE-X) Surveillance data, which provides the aircraft position with second-by-second timestamps for each recorded movement at the airport. The computer tool is created to overlay the ASDE-X flight tracks with the geospatial information of the airport layouts. This study presents the advantages of using surveillance flight data and the computer tool to extract valuable information for both landing and takeoff operations. Results suggest that the operation (i.e. arrival vs departure), airport and TDG are important to incorporate when estimating surface performance benchmark metrics.