Airspace closure challenges: Exploring the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on flight operations and pathways to solutions

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has resulted in significant flight cancellations and flight rerouting, disrupting routine flight operations and increasing economic costs. This study tries to relieve these problems by optimizing flight trajectories from the perspective of air traffic management. First, t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Dabin Xue, Sen Du, Yifan Xu, Qing Zhang, Xiaoqian Sun
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-05-01
Series:Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198225000752
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850113841935941632
author Dabin Xue
Sen Du
Yifan Xu
Qing Zhang
Xiaoqian Sun
author_facet Dabin Xue
Sen Du
Yifan Xu
Qing Zhang
Xiaoqian Sun
author_sort Dabin Xue
collection DOAJ
description The Russia-Ukraine conflict has resulted in significant flight cancellations and flight rerouting, disrupting routine flight operations and increasing economic costs. This study tries to relieve these problems by optimizing flight trajectories from the perspective of air traffic management. First, the density-based cluster method is used to obtain representative flight trajectories for the selection of flight routes. Then, a multi-objective optimization model is proposed to minimize the weighted sum of flight time and fuel consumption by assigning flight routes, flight altitudes, and flight speeds, considering the wind effect. Results show that the proposed method can generate optimal assignments while satisfying the thresholds of flight time and fuel consumption. Besides, some policies and suggestions are advocated to alleviate the current issues caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The findings of this study can also be applied to other airspace closure scenarios, offering strategic insights and practical guidance for air traffic management.
format Article
id doaj-art-157dc55ea76e43168c91a449c36bc383
institution OA Journals
issn 2590-1982
language English
publishDate 2025-05-01
publisher Elsevier
record_format Article
series Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives
spelling doaj-art-157dc55ea76e43168c91a449c36bc3832025-08-20T02:37:03ZengElsevierTransportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives2590-19822025-05-013110139610.1016/j.trip.2025.101396Airspace closure challenges: Exploring the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on flight operations and pathways to solutionsDabin Xue0Sen Du1Yifan Xu2Qing Zhang3Xiaoqian Sun4Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China; School of Aviation, University of New South Wales, Sydney, AustraliaDepartment of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, ChinaCollege of Civil Aviation, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China; National Key Lab of CNS/ATM, School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, ChinaDepartment of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, ChinaNational Key Lab of CNS/ATM, School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China; Corresponding author.The Russia-Ukraine conflict has resulted in significant flight cancellations and flight rerouting, disrupting routine flight operations and increasing economic costs. This study tries to relieve these problems by optimizing flight trajectories from the perspective of air traffic management. First, the density-based cluster method is used to obtain representative flight trajectories for the selection of flight routes. Then, a multi-objective optimization model is proposed to minimize the weighted sum of flight time and fuel consumption by assigning flight routes, flight altitudes, and flight speeds, considering the wind effect. Results show that the proposed method can generate optimal assignments while satisfying the thresholds of flight time and fuel consumption. Besides, some policies and suggestions are advocated to alleviate the current issues caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The findings of this study can also be applied to other airspace closure scenarios, offering strategic insights and practical guidance for air traffic management.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198225000752Russia-Ukraine conflictAirspace closureFuel consumptionFlight trajectory optimizationAir traffic management
spellingShingle Dabin Xue
Sen Du
Yifan Xu
Qing Zhang
Xiaoqian Sun
Airspace closure challenges: Exploring the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on flight operations and pathways to solutions
Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Russia-Ukraine conflict
Airspace closure
Fuel consumption
Flight trajectory optimization
Air traffic management
title Airspace closure challenges: Exploring the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on flight operations and pathways to solutions
title_full Airspace closure challenges: Exploring the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on flight operations and pathways to solutions
title_fullStr Airspace closure challenges: Exploring the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on flight operations and pathways to solutions
title_full_unstemmed Airspace closure challenges: Exploring the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on flight operations and pathways to solutions
title_short Airspace closure challenges: Exploring the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on flight operations and pathways to solutions
title_sort airspace closure challenges exploring the impact of the russia ukraine conflict on flight operations and pathways to solutions
topic Russia-Ukraine conflict
Airspace closure
Fuel consumption
Flight trajectory optimization
Air traffic management
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198225000752
work_keys_str_mv AT dabinxue airspaceclosurechallengesexploringtheimpactoftherussiaukraineconflictonflightoperationsandpathwaystosolutions
AT sendu airspaceclosurechallengesexploringtheimpactoftherussiaukraineconflictonflightoperationsandpathwaystosolutions
AT yifanxu airspaceclosurechallengesexploringtheimpactoftherussiaukraineconflictonflightoperationsandpathwaystosolutions
AT qingzhang airspaceclosurechallengesexploringtheimpactoftherussiaukraineconflictonflightoperationsandpathwaystosolutions
AT xiaoqiansun airspaceclosurechallengesexploringtheimpactoftherussiaukraineconflictonflightoperationsandpathwaystosolutions