BBC News
Emma Wollacott
04 October 2024
Next time you're running at full tilt towards your airport gate, spare a thought for the airline staff who made sure that that gate was actually available.
Gate allocation is a surprisingly complex task.
"With 15 gates and 10 airplanes, there are more than 570 billion possibilities," says Dr Joseph Doetsch, who has been working on the problem of gate allocation as quantum computing lead at Lufthansa Industry Solutions.
Picking the best gate for each flight can help shorten aircraft taxi times and reduce congestion, meaning that travellers spend less time waiting on the tarmac.
It also cuts down on the amount of fuel required, and thus the plane's emissions.
Typically gates are allocated when flight schedules are published, so as much as a year ahead, but are then revisited a month in advance, a week in advance, and then finally on the day of the flight.
Read on: Airlines turn to AI to allocate gates and cut waiting times - BBC News