Procedural and Operational Consequences of Navigational Equipment Outages: Exploration of Airport Performance
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 131, Issue 10
Abstract
This paper explores the impact of unscheduled navigational and surveillance equipment outages on airport performance during visual flight rules and instrument flight rules at San Francisco International Airport and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The following most common unscheduled short outages, which occurred during January 2000–December 2002, are analyzed in detail: very high frequency omnidirectional range (VOR), approach lighting system type 2 (ALSF-2), the secondary radar Mode , and air traffic control radio beacon system (ATCRBS). We explore the air traffic control procedures and responses to unscheduled outages, and develop a methodology to examine the effects of unscheduled outages on airport performance. Two Federal Aviation Administration databases, maintenance management system and aviation system performance metrics, are used to construct censored regression models (i.e., Tobit models) to assess the airport throughput performance during such unscheduled outages. It is found that airport arrival and departure throughputs do not deteriorate with VOR and ALSF-2 outages due to availability of air traffic procedures that allow alternative approaches into the airport. However, the unscheduled outages of secondary radar Mode and ATCRBS do cause airport throughput degradations.
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Acknowledgments
The research underlying this paper was funded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and was conducted by the National Center of Excellence for Aviation Operations Research (NEXTOR). The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the writers, and responsibility for all errors remains with them. The writers wish to express their gratitude to the FAA for financial support and in particular to Dr. Jady Handal of the National Airspace System (NAS) Quality Assurance and Performance Division (No. UNSPECIFIEDATO-200), a part of the Office of Airway Facilities of the FAA, for providing the data. They would also like to thank Patty Daniel of the California Northern TRACON for her useful comments and suggestions.
References
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 131 • Issue 10 • October 2005
Pages: 790 - 801
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Jun 30, 2004
Accepted: Dec 13, 2004
Published online: Oct 1, 2005
Published in print: Oct 2005
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