Integrated Prediction and Distributionally Robust Optimization for Air Traffic Management

Abstract: Strategic Traffic Management Initiatives (TMIs) such as Ground Delay Programs (GDPs) play a crucial role in mitigating operational costs associated with air traf- fic demand-capacity imbalances. However, GDPs can only be planned (e.g., duration, delay assignments) with confidence if the future capacities at constrained re- sources (i.e., airports) are predictable. In reality, such future capacities are uncer- tain, and predictive models may provide predictions that are vulnerable to errors and distribution shifts. Motivated by the goal of planning optimal GDPs that are distributionally robust against airport capacity prediction errors, we study a fully integrated learning-driven optimization framework. We design a deep learning- based prediction model capable of forecasting arrival and departure capacity distributions across a network of airports. We incorporate the predictions into a distributionally robust formulation of the multi-airport ground holding program (DR- MAGHP). Our results demonstrate that DR-MAGHP can achieve up to a 15.6% improvement over the stochastic programming formulation (SP-MAGHP) under airport capacity distribution shifts. We conclude by outlining future research di- rections aimed at enhancing both the learning and optimization components of the framework.