Airport Capacity and NAS-Wide Delay Benefits Assessment of Near Term Operational Concepts

Abstract

Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) has evaluated the airport capacity and NAS -wide delay benefits of an operational concept for Air Traffic Management (ATM) for implementation in the 2008 – 2012 timeframe. The concept enables increased airport and airspace capacity through the integration of Flight Management System (FMS) Required Navigation Performance (RNP) capabilities, ground -based Air Traffic Management (ATM) automation tools, 3D path -based operations, Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS), and advanced runway concepts for closely -spaced parallel, converging, and crossing runways. Benefit applications for these near -term capabilities are proposed and the increase in airport capacity for the 35 U. S. National Airspace System (NAS) benchmark airports is evaluated using the Boeing Airport Capacity Constraints Model. The increased airport capacities are then used by the National Flow Model (NFM) to evaluate the NAS -wide delay benefits. Results for annualized average arrival delay show that a 20 – 25% increase in airport capac ity associated with the implementation of the near -term operational concept produces a nearly 50% reduction in delay by 2020 . The capacity increases enabled by the implementation of this near -term operational concept in 2012 are adequate to serve the antic ipated traffic growth. However, by 2015, additional system improvements will be needed to maintain delay performance at or below today’s levels .