Demonstration of reduced airport congestion through pushback rate control

•This paper describes field tests of a congestion control strategy at Boston Airport.•The approach meters pushbacks to reduce the time that flights spend with engines on.•The field trials demonstrated that significant benefits were possible.•During eight 4-h tests, fuel burn was estimated to reduce by 4000–4700 gallons. Airport surface congestion results in significant increases in taxi times, fuel burn and emissions at major airports. This paper describes the field tests of a congestion control strategy at Boston Logan International Airport. The approach determines a suggested rate to meter pushbacks from the gate, in order to prevent the airport surface from entering congested states and to reduce the time that flights spend with engines on while taxiing to the runway. The field trials demonstrated that significant benefits were achievable through such a strategy: during eight four-hour tests conducted during August and September 2010, fuel use was reduced by an estimated 12,250–14,500kg (4000–4700 US gallons), while aircraft gate pushback times were increased by an average of only 4.4min for the 247 flights that were held at the gate.