CEE Professor Mark Hansen and PhD candidate Yi Liu published the study, Incorporating Predictability into Cost Optimization for Ground Delay Programs in Transportation Science, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).
The study shows that it is good to know early how late a flight will be. Ground Delay Program (GDP) decisions that recognize this are superior to those that do not, substantially reducing the cost of GDPs to flight operators.
The model results can guide traffic managers on when to be optimistic, pessimistic, or neutral in their assumptions about when arrival capacity at an airport will recover.
Hansen is a member of CEE's Transportation Engineering faculty. Liu received honorable mention for her research in the 2013 INFORMS Aviation Applications Best Student Presentation Competition.