Fuel Starvation Caused by Hub Closure

Many airlines run their home base as a hub airport to enable the efficient transfer of connecting passengers, causing several inbound and outbound peaks during the day with the airport operating near its maximum capacity. Disturbances, such as thunderstorms or blocked runways, however, can greatly interfere with the schedules. In those situations, airport capacity reduces greatly, sometimes the entire airport has to be closed. The inbound traffic has to be diverted to nearby, usually smaller airports. Ifa disruption occurs during a heavy inbound situation, the diverted traffic may not be easily handled by the diversion airports due to their restricted capacity, causing possible fuel starvation onboard those aircraft that have to hold until a landing slot becomes available. This study will demonstrate an approach to determine such probability offuel starvation and and show the effects ofadditional fuel that can be taken on board prior departure.     «

Many airlines run their home base as a hub airport to enable the efficient transfer of connecting passengers, causing several inbound and outbound peaks during the day with the airport operating near its maximum capacity. Disturbances, such as thunderstorms or blocked runways, however, can greatly interfere with the schedules. In those situations, airport capacity reduces greatly, sometimes the entire airport has to be closed. The inbound traffic has to be diverted to nearby, usually smaller air...     »