Evaluating Stand Allocation Scenarios for Airport Ground Delay Mitigation Using Fast-Time Simulation

At airports where both contact and remote stands are operated, stand allocation may influence aircraft ground movement flow and delay occurrence. However, directly validating alternative stand allocation strategies in an actual operational environment involves operational risks and controllability limitations. This study addresses these issues by developing and validating a SIMMOD-based fast-time simulation model for Gimpo International Airport, incorporating actual operational data, airport layout information, aircraft fleet composition, runway operating configurations, and stand operation characteristics. Model validation was conducted by comparing the simulated and observed hourly departure and arrival throughput and by evaluating taxi-time errors using the root mean square error and mean absolute error. Three stand allocation scenarios with different contact and remote stand allocation ratios were designed, and their effects on departure and arrival aircraft ground delay were compared. Using hourly outputs averaged over ten independent simulation replications, S1 and S2 showed lower mean departure ground delay than S0, whereas the arrival response exhibited greater hourly variability. Within-day nonparametric comparisons, supplemented by temporal-dependence diagnostics, identified significant differences between the baseline and alternative scenarios for total departure ground delay. These findings indicate that stand allocation can be considered an operational strategy for reducing airport ground delay.