This thesis consists of two topics. The first topic is a performance assessment study of the flight operations in the North Atlantic Organized Track System. This study begins with the demand shortfall analysis of demand sets provided by the Federal Aviation Association (FAA). These sets were used to simulate OTS traffic for a number of scenarios that consider different separation minima. For this reason, algorithms were developed to modify the NAT OTS configuration applying reduced lateral separation between tracks and estimate the probability that any given flight that traverses the Atlantic will use the OTS. The preliminary results showed that the scenario with reduced lateral separation minimum (RLatSM) (25 nm) and the reduced longitudinal separation minimum (RLongSM) (8 nm) was the most optimal among all five that were simulated. The application of RLatSM also decrease the mean fuel consumption of flights that shift from traversing the OTS to flying random routes. The second topic is a noise study performed for the Chicago O'Hare International Airport. The contributions to this topic were three fold: 1) we analyzed data to understand the current operations at ORD airport 2) we verified the noise contours produced in 2002 by the FAA, Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) and the engineering contractors 3) we produced noise contours for today's airport activity. / Master of Science

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) proposed to introduce new operational strategies across the North Atlantic (NAT) airspace. This includes Minimum Navigation Performance Specifications (MNPS) airspace to increase the capacity and efficiency of the North Atlantic Organized Track System (NAT OTS). A numerical integration and simulation model called North Atlantic Simulation and Modeling (NATSAM) is developed to study the effects of these new strategies on NAT system performance. The model is capable of investigating the effects of implementing different operational policies and strategies proposed by ICAO such as Reduced Lateral Separation Minimum (RLatSM), NAT Region Data link mandate (DLM), Reduced Longitudinal Separation Minimum (RLongSM), cruise-climb profiles, variable Mach number profiles, step-climbs and other operational concepts to be studied by the ICAO. NATSAM models the individual flight performance using the Base of Aircraft Data (BADA) 3.9 model to calculate the flight profiles and fuel burn. The model employs simple heuristics to execute flight track assignment in the organized track system for each scenario. Detailed outputs and also aggregated outputs are provided by the model from which various key performance indicators (KPI) can be derived to assess the performance of the system. / Master of Science