Exploring airport traffic capability using Petri net based model

► We present a Petri net model that represent main operations of airport traffic. ► We present GPenSIM, a new tool for Petri net based modeling and simulation. ► GPenSIm allows integration of Petri net models with any MATLAB toolboxes. The first part of the paper introduces a novel tool for modeling and simulation of discrete event system. This tool called GPenSIM is a Petri net based simulator and offers significant benefits to model builders such as flexibility to include diverse libraries, ease of extending the models, and ease of programming. The second part of the paper presents a case study on modeling and optimization of airport traffic management; this study is to explore air traffic management capability of Evenes airport in Norway. The case study shows that with GPenSIM, modeling and simulation problems of large industrial discrete event systems can be done. Future research directions are discussed as well.