Originally Posted by
rubik101
It would be interesting to see if such a system would work for all the London airports, 2 hours of just arrivals, then 2 hours of just departures. It would certainly make flow control a lot simpler
This is, of course, a variation on what effectively happens at Hub airports in the US, where carriers based there schedule a massed arrival over a short period of both mainstream and commuter flights, employing as many runways as practical, followed by connecting passengers all interchanging, and then mass departures in similar style. The arrivals at the larger points tend to be concentrated in about a 30 minute window, then 30 minutes with all gates occupied, and 30 minutes of departures. A little later the whole cycle starts again.
Possibly someone at Berlin in 1948 looked out and said "one day my grandson will organise the same as this at Dallas".