The take-off problem at Heathrow has been considered before, but no research has previously
considered all of the constraints upon the take-off sequencing. The runway is well known to
represent a bottleneck for the departure system, so much so that the capacity of an airport is
often estimated by considering the number of runway movements possible per hour.
The take-off problem has two components: a sequencing problem and a control problem.
This is also the case for the arrivals problem. Much of the arrivals and departure research considers
either the sequencing problem or the control problem but not both. Due to the position at
which the take-off sequencing is performed at Heathrow, the control problem must be considered
when solving the sequencing problem.
The problem faced by a decision support system is considered in more detail in the next
chapter, which ends with an overview of the designed system. The designed decision support
system is then considered in more detail in the following chapters.