Design of Ground Delay Programs to Consider the Stakeholder's Perspective

A ground delay program (GDP) is an initiative used by FAA to manage the arrival demand rate at a capacity-constrained airport. A key challenge regarding GDPs is to identify the stakeholders, those groups whose interests should be considered during the design process. A review of the existing literature shows that many conflicting definitions and methods for identifying GDP stakeholders exist. A new definition is proposed to resolve this conflict, which not only applies to GDPs but is also grounded in stakeholder theory. Subsequently, the key stakeholders are identified and classified by importance. The results show that FAA should give passengers and the federal government greater consideration. The conclusions offer suggestions for how FAA might address this disparity in the design of GDPs in practice.