Body of Knowledge Module 4

Airport Capacity and Delay

Ph.D. Student Tukhtaev Dilshod

Department of Flight Operation and Management

Capacity and Delay

1. Capacity (throughput capacity) is a measure of the maximum number of aircraft operations which can be accommodated on the airport or airport component in an hour. Circe the capacity of an airport component is independent of the capacity of other airport components, it can be calculated separately. 2. Delay. Delay is the difference between constrained and unconstrained operating time

Capacity and Delay

Capacity refers to the ability of a portion of airspace or an airport to handle a given volume of traffic (demand) within a specified time period. As a result of airline deregulation and the general strength of the U. S. economy, more people are using the system. The resulting increased activity affects not just the

capacity of the airfield and gate areas but also the terminal buildings, public
access routes, and parking facilities.

Capacity and Delay

Beginning with the 1987 Airport and Airway Safety and Capacity Expansion Act (ACEA), funding priority was given to airport projects that focused on enhancing and developing an airports overall capacity to handle aircraft and ground operations.

AIP Priority System for Capacity Enhancement

1. Electronic or visual guidance on each runway;

2. Grooving or friction treatment on each primary and secondary runway; 3. Distance-to-go signs for each primary and secondary runway; 4. A precision approach, vertical guidance, and full approach light system for each primary runway; 5. A non-precision instrument approach for each secondary runway; 6. Runway end identifier lights on each runway that does not have an approach light system; 7. A surface movement radar (SMR) system at each CAT-III airport; 8. Taxiway lighting and sign systems; 9. Runway edge lighting, marking; and 10. Radar approach coverage for each airport terminal area.

Impact of Capacity Restraints

To understand the impact of capacity restraints or improvements, airport

management must view the different areas of an airport as a set of interrelated

and interdependent physical facilities and components. For an airport to function efficiently the capacity of each component must be matched to the others. Improving or restricting one part of the system has an impact on the others.

Impact of Capacity Restraints

The four distinct elements in a capacity analysis are

(1) airspace, (2) airfield, (3) terminal, and (4) ground access.

Impact of Capacity Restraints

Airfield capacitythe rate at which aircraft movements on

the runway/taxiway system result in a given level of delay

Impact of Capacity Restraints

Throughput capacity and practical capacity define airfield capacity. Throughput is the rate at which aircraft can operate into or out of the airfield without regard to any delay. Practical capacity, always less than throughput capacity, is the number of operations that can be expressed in terms of the maximum acceptable rate incurring an average delay. PHOCAP( practical hourly capacity)the total combined capacity measure of the runway, taxiway, and gate areas.

PANCAP( practical annual capacity)the level of operation that results in not more than four minutes average delay per aircraft in a normal peak two-hour operating period.

Impact of Capacity Restraints

AAR (Airport Acceptance Rate) used by airport radar traffic control centers to calculate the desired interval between successive arrival aircraft. An airport is considered severely congested when average delays exceed nine minutes per operation. Practical capacity is a subjective value judgment about how much delay is tolerable. Acceptable delay is a judgment that recognizes that some delays are

(1) unavoidable,
(2) too expensive to eliminate, and (3) a few aircraft will encounter a higher level than normal.

Impact of Capacity Restraints

ATOMSAir Traffic Operations Management System ASQPAirline Service Quality Performance The FAA now stipulates that AIP grants can be issued for capacity enhancement projects only if airport certifies that all of its elements can handle the increased traffic.

Managing Capacity

Factors that lower capacity or induce delayairfield characteristics, airspace characteristics, air traffic control, meteorological conditions, and demand characteristics

Airfield Characteristics

The most critical capacity determinant runway use configuration Historically, the lateral distance for aircraft operations on parallel runways has decreased in accordance with emerging technology. Currently, FAA Air Traffic control procedures allow for simultaneous departure and arrival

operations under visual meteorological conditions (VMC) and instrument

meteorological conditions (IMC) when two parallel runways have a minimum spacing of 2,500 feet.

Airspace and Air Traffic Characteristics

TMS (traffic management systems) software packages that assist the management of a smooth flow of aircraft to and from airports with minimum delay. The mile-in-trail or minute-in-trail restrictions are both the least disruptive traffic management initiatives and the least accurate. Metering aims to match the arrival of aircraft to the ability of the airport to handle the volume (known as acceptance rate).

Wake vortexan aerodynamic disturbance that originates at the wingtips of an aircraft and trails in a corkscrew fashion behind the aircraft
Spacing standards between aircraft taking off require ATC to double departure release times from 60 seconds to 120 seconds after a heavy jet.

Demand Management

Administrative or economic demand management methods promote more effective or economically efficient use of existing facilities rather than adding true capacity. Allocating or restricting airport access by setting quotas on passenger enplanements or on the number and type of aircraft operations permitted is an administrative method of managing demand. Rehubbingusing transfer hubs to redistribute operations to less busy airports in other regions as a means to alleviate or reduce delays at busy Airports Aviation economists favor allocating airport access by demand management, which relies on a pricing mechanism.

Demand Management

Differential pricing and the auctioning of landing rights or slots are the two most commonly favored methods of reducing delay by including airport costs and demand as determinants of user fees. By applying a peak hour surcharge, which is one type of differential pricing, three New York City metropolitan airports managed to reduce congestion.

Slot Management

A slot identifies a block of time allocated to an airport user to perform an aircraft operation, either a takeoff or a landing Slot allocation rules, first proposed in 1968, designated five airports as experiencing high-density operations. They were Chicagos OHare (ORD), New Jerseys Newark (EWR), New Yorks John F. Kennedy (JFK), New Yorks LaGuardia (LGA), and Washingtons National (DCA). The high-density rule was implemented in 1969 and formalized under Federal Aviation Regulation Part 93. When weather deteriorates to instrument meteorological conditions, the airlines would be required to reroute or cancel flights that exceeded the capacity limit. The reservation system is used primarily for allocating general aviation and charter slots on a first come-first serve basis.

Slot Management

The purpose for having slot allocations and auctions was to alleviate congestion at highdemand or high-density airports.

Advocates of slot auctions have argued that access to an airport should be treated as a scarce
resource and priced accordingly.

Slot auctions allow peak-hour access for a market-determined price. Slotsone of the most significant barriers to entry in the airline business The FAA recalls any slot that is not used 80 percent of the time over a two-month period.

The FAA has modified FAR Part 93 and incorporated into it special rules that allowed slots to be purchased, sold, traded or leased by any party.

Modeling Airport Capacity

SIMMOD is the name of a simulation model used by the FAA, airlines, airports, architects, and engineers to design improvements, calculate travel times and flow rate for an airport or an airport component, and/ or develop procedural alternatives for domestic and international air traffic management.

The Airport Machine Model (AMM) is a general-purpose simulation product that provides detailed landing deceleration modeling, as well as exit selection, runway crossing spacing intervals, and controlled departure queuing. Another simulation model is the Airfield Delay Simulation Model (ADSIM).

Technological and Weather Solutions

In the search for solutions to capacity and delay problems, the value of new technology is typically measured by its ability to achieve one or more of the following results:

(1) increased capacity, (2) higher efficiency or throughput, (3) greater safety, (4) improved reliability, (5) greater accuracy, (6) lower cost, and (7) greater convenience.

National Airspace Architechure

The NAS architecture integrates services, procedures, facilities, and technologies into a compatible network. It does so by enhancing safety through the component areas of communication, navigation, surveillance, decision support systems, weather, flight service, and oceanic routes.

GPS (Global Positioning System), coupled with the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) and the Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS), is intended to be the sole means of future navigation and landing guidance.

DSS (Decision Support System) provides more functions and information, upgraded displays, and better data exchange capabilities for the air traffic controllers and traffic management coordinators.

National Airspace Architechure

STARS (Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System) supports current radar, traffic and weather advisory, and navigational assistance services.

OASIS (the operational and supportability implementation system)a commercial- based DSS, incorporating functions currently provided by the graphic weather display, flight service data processing equipment, aviation weather processor, and direct user access terminal service.

Impact of Very Large Aircraft (VLA)

Aside from technological advances in navigation capabilities, the possibility of future very large aircraft (VLA) or super large aircraft (SLA) will impact airport capacity. VLA and SLA will affect airport components such as the runways, taxiways, ramps, terminal bridges, baggage rooms, and security.

Factors, which must be considered, include weight, length and wingspan

(estimated at up to 265 feet in width).

Meteorological Effects and Weather Aids

Weather has significant influence on efficiency, capacity, and safety. The FAA estimated in 1992 that 80 percent of all delays greater than 15 minutes were caused by weather. Improved weather reporting systems can reduce the occurrence of aviation accidents related to weather and improve the

economic operating conditions of the airlines and other users of the airport
system.

Wake Turbulence and Vortices

Wake vortex or turbulence is an aerodynamic disturbance that originates at the wingtips of an aircraft and trails in a corkscrew fashion behind the aircraft.

Previously, wake turbulence separation was based upon the aircrafts design classification of A, B, C, or D. The standard separation between two aircraft approaching an airport required a two-minute wait, while three minutes of wait were required for small aircraft departing behind large aircraft.

Wind Shear

A special type of weather phenomenon affecting airport capacity is wind shear. Wind shear is defined as any sudden change in wind velocity or direction. It is associated with weather conditions such as warm or cold fronts, low-level jet streams, and mountainous terrain.

The LLWAS consists of Doppler radars positioned at different locations on and around an airport for measuring wind velocity and direction.

Flight Service Stations

The Flight Service Station is an air traffic facility that provides pilot briefing, aircraft enroute communication, and visual flight rule (VFR) search and rescue services. In providing pilot briefings, the FSS broadcasts aviation weather and National Airspace System (NAS) information, receives and

processes IFR flight plans, and relays ATC clearances. The FSS has
responsibility for originating and disseminating notices to airmen (NOTAMs) and for monitoring various navaids around the country.

Flight Service Stations

Some aviation users have criticized the use of ASOS because (1) it cannot replicate the observations of distant phenomena, such as thunderstorms,

(2) it doesnt provide a trend analysis of whether conditions are improving or deteriorating, and

(3) sometimes the information transmitted is in error.

Future Weather Technologies

Through their ongoing modernization, the NWS and the FAA have collaborated to develop plans for new and enhanced capabilities, which, if implemented, will bring about a dramatic transformation in the accuracy, timeliness, and applicability of aviation weather information. Focusing on aviation-impacted variables and decision aids, the planned system offers the potential for achieving enhanced safety and efficiency. An example is the Integrated Terminal Weather System (ITWS) display. It integrates information from the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar and the Low Level Wind Shear Alert System. The ITWS provides detailed information and situational awareness for departing or arriving aircraft. It can also assists in the metering and spacing of both inbound and outbound traffic at an airport as a means of improving airfield capacity.

Summary

The ability of the national airspace system to serve the growing demands of the flying public and cargo operators is dependent upon the ability of airports and the FAA air traffic control system to handle increased traffic. Efforts to improve airport capacity are centered on the construction and development of runways, taxiways, terminal facilities, roadway access, and navigational aids. There are also a number of administrative processes available to airport executives, which can help manage the demand. Not all capacity problems exist at the airport. Aircraft operating in the airspace encounter restrictions as a result of other factors such as weather and separation standards. Technological improvements in weather reporting, instrument and global positioning systems, and automated decision support all aid in improving overall system capability.