Constraints Analysis of Air Passenger Flow in Major Corridors-in-the-Sky of China and the Comparison with the U.S.— Based on Delayed Trajectory Data

  • Xinru DU ,
  • Zi LU ,
  • Jianghui DING
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  • 1.School of Geography Science, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050024, China
    2.Laboratory for Geo-Big Data Computing and Resource Planning Research, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050024, China
DU Xinru, research areas include air transport geography research. E-mail: geo_duxinru@hebtu.edu.com
LU Zi, research areas include information economy and airspace scientific research. E-mail: luzi@hebtu.edu.com

Received date: 2024-12-31

  Revised date: 2025-03-16

  Online published: 2025-05-14

Supported by

the National Natural Science Foundation of China(42171176);The Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Hebei Normal University(L2024B27)

Abstract

This paper aims to develop solutions for two significant and urgent problems in air transportation. One is the contradiction between the bustle of main airspaces and the huge aviation industry development demand, and the other is the contradiction between the large-scale developments of aviation industry and the traditional aviation management mode. The application of continuous trajectory data and the development of airflow micro-temporal analysis technology have created the conditions for operational efficiency assessment in corridors-in-the-sky to meet the challenges of some key issues such as the detection of full process detection and economic effect measurement. This paper presents a framework for assessing the operational performance of air passenger flow including temporal variation and spatial state, internal composition relationship and external connection relationship. Based on the delayed trajectory data of flights and taking time delay cost as a feedback variable, a series of indicators of delay number, delay duration, delay occurrence area and delay propensity index are concluded, and the operational performance of air passenger flow of major corridors-in-the-sky in Sino-U.S. is compared. There are the following findings: the constraints on operational performance occur mainly in the maintenance phase of the airspace, where delayed trajectory clusters lead to longer Euclidean distances and narrower flight path activity, resulting in increased flight path rigidity or invariability and then reduced opportunities for multi-path selection. In addition, the limited over-flow capacity of the corridors-in-the-sky in China is likely to cause delays in delay-intensive segments and downstream delay contagion, and also leads to the accumulation of terminal delays. On this basis, this paper expected to play a certain role in improving the construction of corridors-in-the-sky, improving the utilization rate of airspace, promoting the reform of airspace configuration and also will bring a comprehensive technical support for optimisation of dynamic airspace and the implementation of the national strategic plan of “Airspace Channel”.

Cite this article

Xinru DU , Zi LU , Jianghui DING . Constraints Analysis of Air Passenger Flow in Major Corridors-in-the-Sky of China and the Comparison with the U.S.— Based on Delayed Trajectory Data[J]. Advances in Earth Science, 2025 , 40(4) : 401 -412 . DOI: 10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2025.028

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