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Controllers Support New Runways But Have Concerns
By NATCA
Posted: 11-21-2008
Just in time for Thanksgiving, President Bush and Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announce today the opening of three new delay-reducing runways at Dulles, O?Hare and Seattle-Tacoma airports. While the hype is heavy the overall effect that these runways will have is weak, with one entirely useless, another increasing the risk of runway incursions and only one being remotely beneficial to the airport operation.
Dulles: The Taxiway to Nowhere
Touted as a major fix for delays at Dulles, the new runway actually has the potential to increase delays and could be a distraction and a hassle to air traffic controllers, pilots and passengers. Though the designated taxiway for the new runway has been put in it offers no direct or convenient connection points to the terminal and dead ends, requiring aircraft to taxi at least two-and-a-half miles to the closest gate.
?How can a system be successful if the very people that utilize it day in and day out have no say in its development and improvement? This new runway is pure PR, a dog and pony show right before Thanksgiving to make the appearance to the flying public that the agency is doing everything it can to reduce delays,? said Kieron Heflin, NATCA facility representative at Dulles.
The new runway doesn?t just affect controllers at Dulles. Controllers at Potomac TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control) ? the air traffic control facility responsible for directing air traffic into and out of Dulles, not to mention other nearby airports ? will be tasked with increasing the spacing between airplanes. More spacing means a reduced flow of traffic into and out of the airport, leading to planes being put in holding patterns, wasting fuel. With this added spacing there will more than likely be an increase in delays because controllers will be required to provide twice as much spacing than is currently provided today.
Software called CRDA (Converging Runway Display Aid) is available and it would assist in coordinating landing traffic and allow departure traffic to depart in between the gaps of arriving aircraft, alleviating this potential problem. Though this software exists and is already installed on the Potomac TRACON computers FAA management chose not to implement it because the task of training controllers on this new software would take too much time ? time they didn?t have with the FAA?s runway press tour quickly approaching.
Said Chris Sutherland, NATCA facility representative at Potomac TRACON: ?What we are seeing here is the cutting of corners and the reduction of capacity just to meet an artificial deadline. The end result of this long-awaited project is a disaster and a true example of why controller involvement is so vital to the modernization process.?
Controllers Support New Runways But Have Concerns
