Disseny i implementació d’un algoritme de planificació ETOPS

Abstract

Planning a route operated according to ETOPS regulations consists of a study in which different factors must be considered: its alternative airports, the number of ETOPS alternate airports, the speed of the aircraft and, therefore, the maximum distance of 60-minute diversion and the diversion time at which it can operate. This project intends to design a first algorithm to plan this type of operation in ideal conditions, showing different options for the desired route. This has been coded using the MATLAB programming platform. This first version of the algorithm studies a total of 45 routes, originating in LEBL, LEMD, LFPG, EGLL or EHEM and destined for KJFK, SAEZ or YSSY. These may vary from the values previously mentioned, such as the number of ETOPS alternate airports, the 60-minute radius, or the diversion time. To do this, a list of information from different airports around the world was generated, containing the ICAO identifier and its coordinates. Once the routes to be studied had been decided, five independent lists of airports were created, one for each possible origin, with all the necessary airports to generate each of the routes. Finally, the relevant functions were coded, obtaining the MAIN program, which allows selecting the destination, three functions according to the destination chosen to enter both the airport of origin and the different variables of the route, and 45 functions of the routes, one for each of them considering the number of ETOPS airports in the operation. With this code, it was possible to obtain a graph where we could analyse the route visually and obtain on screen the values of the total distance of the route and the coordinates of the points of interest of this one (EEP, EXP and ETP). It can be concluded that this generated algorithm is a good first version, as several improvements would have to be added, such as the introduction of the wind component, which would make the algorithm adjust to the reality of current flights.