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Increase Arrivals/Departures at High Density Airports

Summary Description:

The Increase Arrivals/Departures at High Density Airports solution set involves airports (and the airspaces that access those airports) in which:

Demand for the runway capacity is high;
There are multiple runways with both airspace and taxiing interactions, or;
There are close proximity airports with the potential for airspace or approach interference.

These airports require all the capabilities of the flexible terminals and airspace plus integrated tactical and strategic flow capabilities. They may require higher performance navigation and communications capabilities for air traffic and the aircraft to support these additional operational requirements.

Background:

With increasing demand, an even greater need exists to achieve and maintain peak throughput performance at the busiest airports and in the busiest airspace. Capability improvement via new procedures to improve airport surface movements, reduce spacing and separation requirements, and improve overall traffic flow management into and out of busy metropolitan airspace is needed to maximize traffic flow and airport usage.

Operations are conducted to achieve maximum throughput while facilitating efficient arrival and departure profiles. Traffic Flow Management and overall planning for the entire airport complex, currently help achieve higher airport throughput, ensuring that arrival flows match the projected airport capacity.

Operational Capability Description:

High density corridors will provide transitions to and from trajectory-based en route airspace. High density operations will seamlessly integrate surface operations through transition altitudes to en route airspace. As illustrated in Figure 1a, aircraft arriving from all directions receive specific 4D Trajectory profiles via data communications as early as possible. As routes converge approaching the airport, arriving traffic conduct airborne spacing and merging procedures that reduce excess spacing between aircraft and maximize throughput. ANSP personnel provide overall tactical separation in this airspace, making full use of aircraft capabilities. Wake vortex detection, tracking, dissipation, and prediction information is also provided to controllers, as well as arriving and departing aircraft, in the terminal area.

Depending on the runway configuration at the high density airport, various arrival procedures may be employed. Specific configurations and routes will be chosen in near-real time to provide flexibility and maximize arrival and departure throughput, even when severe weather is present. RNP/RNAV routes will be prevalent, allowing for closer route spacing than is available today. In trail aircraft approaching a single runway will achieve and maintain optimum spacing via airborne spacing procedures. Aircraft approaching closely spaced parallel runways may conduct parallel runway procedures. Other “equivalent visual” approach procedures may also be developed to remove the restrictions imposed today during times of limited visibility and ceilings. At high density airports, precision approaches will be available to every runway. Low-visibility landing procedures will also be conducted.

Figure 1a
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High density operations may be required at more airports than today’s Class B airports to handle the projected traffic increase; however, as high density operations restrict access to high capability aircraft, they will only be designated when warranted by demand (e.g., some airports may be high density during peak traffic hours but not high density otherwise). Satellite airport operations will be incorporated into high density operations if demand or operational conditions warrant; otherwise, access will be provided via negotiation of an appropriate 4D Trajectory.

Taxi operations will be integrated into the aircraft’s 4D Trajectory, allowing the ANSP to complete capacity management and flow contingency management activities and provide streamlined departure management. Onboard displays of assigned taxi route, coupled with display of surface traffic and other hazards, will enable aircraft to safely taxi at or near normal taxi speeds in low visibility and at night and will virtually eliminate runway incursions and other taxi errors. Cockpit and ground automation will allow aircraft to plan for crossing active runways and taxi across when the runway is clear without tower intervention. Near-real time updates for airport surface maps (e.g. taxiway or runway closures) will be available to pilots via data communications.

The same level of shared situational awareness and collaborative planning between the ANSP and operators applied to high density surface operations will be applied to the aircraft in flight. This will enable much more efficient use of airport facilities, such as gates, taxiways, ramps, fuel trucks, and deicing facilities for both the ANSP and operator than currently possible.

To accommodate high density procedures, advanced technology and procedures may enable reduced same-runway separation standards and runway occupancy rules. These modifications may include use of active wake vortex detection systems and automated aircraft braking systems that can optimize brake application to safely reach a pre-coordinated runway exit. (Safety analysis will determine whether any of the preceding concepts can be safely implemented, both generally and at specific airports and runway ends.)

Commitments:

HAATS: This is a redesign (in stages) of the Houston area airspace. In 2007, it includes NECP dual arrivals and BPT acquisition; in 2008 it includes the 5th departure route; all elements are complete in 2010.
Chicago Airspace: This is a redesign of the Chicago airspace. It includes southbound components in 2008 and improvements known as “High and Wide” in FY2009.
NY/NJ/PHL Metro Area Airspace: This includes a series of airspace design improvements in the New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia areas (commitments pending successful Record of Decision in 2007).
Northern California 3 Tier Airspace: Provide an additional altitude strata for segregating traffic to improve flows.
Implement TMA: This provides the Traffic Management Advisor functionality to the en route Traffic Management Units to improve their ability to match flows and resources.
Implement En Route Time Based Metering Procedures: This provides the Traffic Management Advisor capabilities to R-controllers so that they can better match aircraft flows to airport resources.
Implement ASDE-X: This provides improved surveillance information of aircraft on the surface at OEP 35 airports.
Cockpit Display of Traffic Information (CDTI) Assisted Visual Separation (CAVS): Increase the opportunities to land at VMC capacities, or increase the capacity during IMC, based on cockpit based technology applications at Louisville.

Mid-Term Capabilities (2012 – 2018):

Initial Surface Traffic Management: Provide automation tools for the controller to do planning of surface movements including runway loading and aircraft sequencing.

Reduced Horizontal Separation Standards – 3 miles: Provide reduced horizontal separation standards in expanded “terminal” airspace to increase capacity and efficiency by improved surveillance data processing using radar and existing technology.

Integrated Arrival/Departure Management: In major metropolitan areas, the interaction between flows to airports and individual runways make its difficult to utilize the full independent runway capacity. By integrating the management of flights from the transition to the runway threshold, utilizing RNP 1 with 4 mile track to track procedural separation and 3 mile radar separation minima and associated techniques, flows to the runways will be decoupled and individual flights will be made more efficient.

Time Based Metering using RNP/RNAV Route Assignments: Increase efficiency by coupling off-set RNAV/RNP routings to the time-based metering tools. Currently a metering list is provided to the controller with delay recommendations that are most often accommodated with a series of vectors and speed changes. By utilizing different RNAV/RNP routings to meet the time delay recommendation, the efficiency objective is achieved with reduced controller and flight deck workload.
Independent Operations to CSPR: Maintain airport/runway capacity in lower visibility conditions by providing independent operations onto closely-spaced/converging runways with spacing lower (down to 750 feet) than the current standards.
Cockpit Display of Traffic Information (CDTI) Assisted Visual Separation (CAVS): Increase the opportunities to land at VMC capacities, or increase the capacity during IMC, based on cockpit based technology applications.

Timeline:

Click on image for larger view

Benefits:

The benefits to the system include increased capacity and efficiency at high density terminal areas, improved ANSP productivity for managing taxi operations, and environmental advantages, such as reduced emissions per flight and reduced airport noise. The benefit to the operator is better taxi efficiency and access to airport facilities.

This initiative will increase the throughput of the nation’s busiest airports and metroplex areas and increase capacity with minimal to no increase in human resources. Benefits include:

The provision of surface information to traffic flow management will improve prediction of wheels-off times resulting in a more accurate load prediction for NAS resources.
Increased flexibility in obtaining user preferred routing with reduced coordination.
Optimized surface movement and runway utilization will result in increased departure throughput and average taxi-out times will decrease due to better sequencing and load balancing at departure points.
An integrated arrival/departure airspace structure (including the use of dynamic airspace reconfiguration) will enable benefits such as: reduced arrival delays due to earlier sequencing; increased capacity of the airspace; reduced airspace volume use increases access to non-commercial classes of operators in metro areas; reduced complexity; more efficient traffic flow management; additional and integrated arrival/departure routes; expansion of smaller terminal separation standards further from the airports.
Increased use of data communication departure clearances and departure clearance revisions will reduce controller and pilot workload and voice channel occupancy, and will increase pilot awareness of taxi instructions.

Dependencies:

This solution set is dependent on data communications, terminal automation platform enhancements, Required Navigation Performance (RNP) and RNAV, ADS-B transmit (out) and receive (in); SWIM, TFM-M, flight object, data communications, NAS Voice Switch, FMS Auto Load, 4D trajectories, training, Safety Management System processes, procedures, and airspace redesign.

This solution set depends on (and expands on) the capabilities of the Increased Flexibility in the Terminal Environment solution set.

FY08 Activities:

Key Research:

Wake Turbulence: Will provide the concepts of use, prototypes of the applied technology, system engineering and the procurement requirements for the ANSP decision support tools that will accomplish the required separations to mitigate the impacts of aircraft generated wake vortices in dependent ILS arrivals (757 and heavier) separations on closely spaced parallel runways (CSPR). The NextGen concepts assume reduction of separation can be achieved by the addition of technology to both the air navigation service provider (ANSP) and the Flight Deck. Additionally, it will also be used to develop requirements/standards for the Flight Deck capability – as an entry point to the avionics standards setting processes. In FY08, the focus will be on the development of the concept and benefit feasibility study for an ANSP decision support tool used to reduce wake mitigation separations.

Demonstrations:

High Density Airport Time-based RNAV/RNP Demonstration – The focus of this demonstration is on the integration of RNAV/RNP routings and the Traffic Management Advisor (TMA); it links two important activities, time based metering and procedures that reduce separation minima (RNAV/RNP), to more fully and efficiently utilize every landing opportunity at the airport runway in high density airport/metropolitan environments. This activity accelerates the first integrated demonstration of super density terminal operations described in the NextGen concept that will result in a set of requirements and operational procedures for initial stages of super density terminal operations.

Other Activities:

Terminal Automation Modernization and Replacement TAMR: Complete deployment of hardware and software to the four ARTS IIIE, FDAD sites in Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis, and St. Louis; complete deployment of replacement automation systems to the five ARTS IIE sites.

Performance Based Data Processing: Conduct analysis of performance-based data processing to see if it is appropriate for lowering separation minima. Performance-based data processing is a way to integrate all information about an aircraft’s path and location to provide full situational awareness and predict possible problems. This analysis includes the concept of integrating departure and arrival control and the expansion of major metropolitan and terminal airspace also.

Avionics: Develop policy for GNSS and Inertial Reference Unit (IRU) integration

Wake Turbulence: As a step towards NextGen reduced separations, FAA has included in its acquisition planning - an air traffic controller decision support tool system that utilizes runway crosswind information to determine when it is safe to reduce time separation between aircraft departures on closely spaced parallel runways. In FY08, FAA will evaluate the data collected during the NASA Wake Turbulence Mitigation for Departures (WTMD) research prototype air traffic control decision support tool demonstrations (FY07) at Lambert – St. Louis International Airport and at George Bush Intercontinental Houston Airport. Also during FY08 FAA will begin the engineering needed to integrate the enhanced departure spacing capability into the FAA systems deployed at our airports, and the development of requirements for validating and displaying the wake turbulence spacing information to controllers. This information along with an overall system safety analysis will be used to develop a WTMD procurement package and fund program startup work once FAA has decided (decision late FY08) to add this service capability.

Airport Surface Tools: Accelerate trajectory based operations to manage the airport surface to meet NextGen’s efficiency, capacity and safety goals. This activity accelerates development of capabilities that will improve decisions made on the airport surface, improving departure routing and, therefore, traffic flow in the air. The results will be used to develop options and inform future investment decisions. The results will be a business case, requirements for existing systems and new capabilities.