Air Traffic And Airport Congestion

In total passenger miles, air travel has never been more popular. But as any frequent flyer knows, air travel problems are growing even faster - long lines, lost luggage, overbooking, flight delays, and serious safety issues. And instead of doing something about it, the traveling public seems simply to be sitting down, buckling in, and allowing itself to be treated like sheep.But it doesn't have to be this way. There are solutions to our air travel problems, real solutions that can make real differences. And they don't require 15 years to implement.With decades of experience in civil aviation and policy, Drs. George Donohue and Russell Shaver are well qualified to assess the problems in the system and offer responsible, workable solutions. Dr. Donohue, the current Director of the Center for Air Transportation Systems Research and a Professor of Systems Engineering at George Mason University (GMU), has extensive high-level experience at the Federal Aviation Administration and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Dr.Shaver, formerly a senior RAND Corporation research analyst and now a visiting research fellow at GMU, served as chief scientist for policy analysis at the MITRE Center for Advanced Aviation System Development.The stories they tell are compelling. There are high-profile horror stories - passengers stranded for hours on the tarmac, flights cancelled for 'bad weather' when there's not a drop of rain anywhere near the flight path - as well as an overall sense of apathy and obstructionism among those responsible for managing the industry. Interestingly, these problems are not the inevitable result of the size or complexity of the U.S. system. Air transportation in Europe, with almost identical air traffic control systems and safety standards, is far better.Amsterdam moves 30 per cent more passengers than Newark, but the average flight delay is an order of magnitude lower. In addition, a European Passenger's Bill of Rights - giving distressed passengers the right to substantial and immediate compensation - has been a powerful incentive for non-U.S. airlines to maintain their schedules.So just how did we get where we are in the U.S. system today?Donohue and Shaver cite multiple reasons that have combined to create the chaos we now face. These causes include airline deregulation, multiple governmental agencies with no central oversight or responsibility, multiple corporate entities with conflicting agendas, and a technologically outdated air traffic control system. Even more importantly, there seems to be a complete absence of advocacy for the customer - the passengers. The authors also explain that our air travel problems, if left unaddressed, are on a direct course to greatly impact the overall U.S. economy and harm our global competitiveness. In 2006 alone, delays and cancellations cost U.S. travelers an estimated $3.2 billion. And in 2004 and 2005, the U.S. tourism industry is estimated to have lost $98 billion in revenue due to our air travel mess.Fortunately, Donohue and Shaver don't leave us in this state of chaos. Their provocative analysis not only identifies the causes and extent of the problems, but also provides us with a course heading to put us on the path to recovery.The solutions they propose include holding the government decision-makers responsible, expanding the capacity of airports and airplanes, modernizing the air traffic control system, and implementing what the authors call the '30 per cent solution' to significantly reduce congestion.In short, this book should be read by every airline passenger traveling in or through the United States. As a country, we simply can't afford to let the chaos continue.

In the late 1980s, Transport Canada concluded that air traffic congestion at Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport required urgent corrective measures. In August 1989, a two-phase strategy was announced, with the first phase being the development of Pearson Airport to its optimum capacity by 2011, including construction of more runways, and the second phase being the developments of other airports in the area. This summary gives background information to the development of the airport and the formation of the panel; describes the current proposal, including demand and capacity for air services and the advantages and disadvantages of potential solutions; sets out stakeholder positions; and gives the panel's analysis, conclusions and recommendations.

This volume is a compendium of papers presented during the International Workshop on Air Traffic Management, which took place in Capri, Italy, on September 26-30, 1999. The workshop was organized by Italian National Research Council in co-operation with the University of Rome "Tor Vergata", and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This was the fifth in a series of meetings held periodically over a ten-year span for the purpose of encouraging an exchange of views and fmdings by scientists in the field of Air Traffic Management (A TM). The papers presented at the workshop dealt with a wide range of topics and covered different aspects that are currently important in Air Traffic Control and Air Traffic Management. This volume contains only a subset of the papers presented, namely the ones that addressed the main area emphasis in the workshop, new concepts and methods. The subject of the first two papers is Collaborative Decision Making (CDM), a concept which embodies, to a large extent, the new philosophy of partial decentralization and increased delegation of responsibilities to users in A TM operations. In the first of these papers Wambsganss describes the original CDM project and its initial implementation in the form of the Ground Delay Program Enhancements. He also provides a brief description of some of the tools that have been developed as part of the CDM effort and identifies future research and development requirements.