The movement of aircraft within the Baltimore-Washington area airspace, as presently configured and controlled, has become increasingly inefficient. The era of aviation deregulation witnessed an explosive and unpredictable growth in the demand for air traffic services. The proximity of aircraft operating in and out of four major airports with four separate radar facilities was exacerbated by the advent of high performance jet aircraft. National security requirements in and around the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area have also resulted in numerous restrictions being placed on airspace use. The combined factors of increased traffic volume, proximity of airports, the mix of aircraft with widely varying operating characteristics, and special use airspace requirements, have compounded operational complexity and degraded overall operational efficiency.

Consolidation of the individual airspace controlled by each of the existing four TRACONs enables altitude optimization, and use of a high downwind operation at the primary airports in the area. All area airports can be served from an arrival fix. Different altitudes can be used to ensure that aircraft going to the nearest airport would be lowest in the arrival pattern of a particular fix. Rather than vectoring arrivals farther out from the airport and descending the aircraft, these arrivals can be kept high enough to allow departure aircraft to exit the airport area beneath the arrival stream, but not so high as to cause aircraft passenger discomfort during the descent. The departures can then be allowed to climb relatively unrestricted toward their destination.

The airspace redesign EIS will evaluated alternative routes and altitudes for aircraft flying in the Baltimore-Washington area. These aircraft are under control of the Potomac Consolidated TRACON or the Washington Center.

Our primary consideration in the redesign, that comes right behind our concern for safety, is to keep both arriving and departing aircraft at as high an altitude as we can. We believe we have formulated the alternatives to reduce or eliminate current restrictions that inhibit aircraft climbing at a steady rate as they leave the airport. Likewise we can allow arriving aircraft to stay at higher altitudes longer as they approach the airport. Higher altitudes are better from an environmental perspective since they generally create less noise on the ground. Higher is also better operationally since fuel efficiency improves with altitude. Most importantly, higher is better from a safety standpoint since airplanes close to the ground have less time to react in the event of problems.

Next, we will create more direct routes to and from the airports. We want to reduce or eliminated the indirect routing that the previous four TRACON arrangement required. The new TRACON will no longer require the involvement of up to four TRACONs in guiding airplanes through the Baltimore-Washington area. We will also be taking advantage of improvements in satellite navigation technology that will allow more direct routing.

Next we will use the flexibility that the consolidated TRACON provides us. In the previous system each of the four TRACONs has its own airspace and is tied to a single airport. The consolidated TRACON supports all the airports on a shared basis so routes can be less airport specific.

Lastly we designed routes that will separate unlike aircraft types. Basically this means that we will not be allowing the performance characteristics of a propeller type aircraft to impede the progress of a higher performing jet type aircraft.

The airspace study looked at changes in an area of roughly 75 miles around Washington. The study area EXCLUDED the airspace controlled by the Towers at the area airports. Additionally, the alternatives we developed did not change noise abatement or initial departure or final arrival procedures at an airport. These procedures have been worked out over the years by compromise among the airport, the regional planning organizations and citizens. In fact any effort to change landing or take-off procedures for noise abatement purposes should be initiated by and is a function of the airport authority not the FAA.

Tier 2 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)

Tier 2 Public Meetings

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