The Impact of Fuel Based Speed Reductions on Controller Conflicts in the National Airspace System

Abstract

Motivated by increasing fuel prices and a higher environmental awareness, a reduction in aircraft cruise speed leads to fuel-burn benefits. However such a change will likely not occur simultaneously fleet wide. Thus, it is likely that in future scenarios the variation of speeds flown in the National Airspace System (NAS) will increase and lead to a higher system complexity. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of reduced aircraft cruise speed on the NAS. Using the airspace simulation tool FACET a set of scenarios has been simulated to determine how a reduction of cruise speed will impact the number of conflicts that occur in the NAS.