The present paper focuses on the development of an algorithm for safely and\r\noptimally managing the routing of aircraft on an airport surface in future airport operations.\r\nThis tool is intended to support air traffic controllers� decision-making in selecting the\r\npaths of all aircraft and the engine startup approval time for departing ones. Optimal routes\r\nare sought for minimizing the time both arriving and departing aircraft spend on an airport\r\nsurface with engines on, with benefits in terms of safety, efficiency and costs. The\r\nproposed algorithm first computes a standalone, shortest path solution from runway to\r\napron or vice versa, depending on the aircraft being inbound or outbound, respectively. For\r\ntaking into account the constraints due to other traffic on an airport surface, this solution is\r\namended by a conflict detection and resolution task that attempts to reduce and possibly\r\nnullify the number of conflicts generated in the first phase. An example application on a\r\nsimple Italian airport exemplifies how the algorithm can be applied to true-world\r\napplications. Emphasis is given on how to model an airport surface as a weighted and\r\ndirected graph with non-negative weights, as required for the input to the algorithm.
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