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20 | UNDERSTANDING THE AIRPORTâS ROLE IN PERFORMANCE-BASED NAVIGATION Impact of PBN on Airports4 T his chapter summarizes the impacts that PBN procedures may have on airports and the local airspace. In general, there are many potential benefits to implementing PBN procedures, de-pending on the particular application and the design. Impacts of PBN Arrival, Departure, and Approach Procedures PBN procedures currently deployed at a number of airports have been credited with providing mea- surable benefits to the airport stakeholders. The benefits include increases in airport and local airspace capacity, increased trajectory efficiency of aircraft the airport serves, reduced emissions from aircraft, reduced noise exposure, improved safety, and reduced controller workload (RTCA 2014, Federal Avia- tion Administration 2014e). The benefits of PBN arrival, departure and approach procedures serving various U.S. airports are listed in Table 4-1. Table 4-1. Characteristics of PBN arrival, departure, and approach procedures and their impacts on airports. PBN PROCEDURE CHARACTERISTIC IMPACT ON AIRPORT More direct lateral paths May increase flight efficiency by reducing and improving the predictability of flight time in the airspace local to the airport. May reduce the fuel burn and emissions of aircraft. May shift the airport arrival and departure traffic, thereby exposing different segments of the surrounding community to the noise and presence of aircraft. While the noise exposure may change, the associated noise contours may not; this is fairly common and can be a major issue for airports and the communities. More efficient aircraft descent and climb profiles May reduce fuel burn and emissions of aircraft. May result in quieter climb and descent procedures for airport arrivals and departures. More precise lateral containment of aircraft May reduce the impact of aircraft noise on the local community by increasing adherence to designated noise corridors and reducing the dispersion of aircraft noise. However, can increase the concentration of flight tracks over a particular segment of the surrounding community, thereby increasing the number of noise events.
Impact of PBN on Airports | 21 PBN PROCEDURE CHARACTERISTIC IMPACT ON AIRPORT Procedurally separated traffic flows May increase airport throughput by eliminating this constraint on traffic flow. However, the shifted routes and altitude profiles may change the characteristics of noise exposure on the surrounding community, and the throughput increase may increase occurrence of noise events. Additional departure routes May increase departure throughput of the airport. The additional route may change the characteristics of noise exposure on the surrounding community by increasing the dispersion of operations to reduce noise concentration on a segment of the community. However, this may also introduce noise to other segments of the community previously not exposed to noise. The throughput increase may increase the occurrence of noise events. Reduced in-trail separations May increase the arrival and departure throughput of the airport; however, may increase the occurrence of noise events over affected areas of the community. Reduced separation from 5 nmi to 3 nmi in metroplex airspace May increase airport throughput by reducing the degree to which separation constrains the traffic flow. However, may increase the occurrence of noise events over affected areas of the community. The key benefits of PBN approach procedures serving various U.S. airports are listed in Table 4-2. Table 4-2. Characteristics of PBN approach procedures and their impacts on airports. PBN APPROACH PROCEDURE CHARACTERISTIC IMPACT ON AIRPORT APPLICABLE PROCEDURES Instrument Landing System (ILS)-like final approach with CAT I minimums May increase airport capacity with lower ceiling and visual range minimums. This is most beneficial for general aviation (GA) aircraft landing to runways without an ILS. This may increase runway accessibility and use. There is no equipment cost. However, most airlines do not plan to equip their aircraft for LPV approaches. Localizer Performance (LP), with Vertical Guidance (LPV) Table 4-1. Continued
22 | UNDERSTANDING THE AIRPORTâS ROLE IN PERFORMANCE-BASED NAVIGATION PBN APPROACH PROCEDURE CHARACTERISTIC IMPACT ON AIRPORT APPLICABLE PROCEDURES Radius-to-fix (RF) transition to final approach permits reduced staggered separation between arrivals to parallel runways with centerlines spaced 2,500 feet or greater May increase arrival throughput to parallel runways through reduced in-trail separation. There is no equipment cost. Required Navigation Performance (RNP) Approval Required (AR) Approach paths which avoid terrain or proximate traffic flows May increase airport arrival throughput by enabling approaches to terrain-constrained airports or procedural separation of multi-airport metroplex traffic flows. May reduce flight distance and time to final approach, and reduce aircraft fuel burn and emissions during final approach. There is no equipment cost. RNP AR Approaches for dependent parallel arrival runways with centerlines separated by 2,500 feet or greater. May increase airport throughput with lower ceiling and visual range minimums for dependent parallel runways. There is no equipment cost. PBN Approach Procedures In addition to the benefits listed above, PBN procedures may also reduce controller and pilot workload and increase safety by reducing the number of required radio transmissions, and by providing repeat- able and predictable flight paths (RTCA 2014). Specific Examples This section provides specific examples of the different ways in which PBN procedures, in combination with emerging ATC procedures, can increase the arrival and departure capacity of the airport, improve the flight efficiency of aircraft flying to and from the airport, and reduce the noise impact of airport traffic on the surrounding community. Table 4-3 presents several successful implementations, ongoing efforts, and future intentions of the FAA in leveraging PBN to provide a breadth of benefits to airport stakeholders. For each of these programs, PBN is the primary enabler of the application, along with new ATC procedures, new flight procedure design criteria, and various levels of the FAA Safety Man- agement System (SMS). Table 4-2. Continued
Impact of PBN on Airports | 23 Table 4-3. Examples of PBN Implementations. APPLICATION DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE Equivalent Lateral Spacing Operations (ELSO) Leverages lateral containment of area navigation (RNAV) to permit additional departure routes from parallel runways to increase departure throughput and disperse aircraft noise at an airport ELSO are currently implemented at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport (ATL) to enable an additional standard instrument departures (SID) from one or two runways. In turn, ELSO provides ATL with additional capacity of 8â12 departures per hour (Mayer, R., et al., 2013) Established on Required Navigation Performance (EoR) Involves a required navigation performance (RNP) approval required (AR) with a radius-to-fix (RF) leg approach and a parallel instrument landing system (ILS) approach to parallel runways. The RNP AR approach comprises an RNP downwind leg, an RNP AR with RF turn onto final leg, and an RNP final approach RNP lateral containment throughout the approach supplants current- day separation requirements of 3 nmi laterally or 1,000 feet vertically until established on final approach. This increases arrival throughput by reducing the required minimum inter- flight spacing The FAA has ongoing efforts at Seattle-Tacoma Airport (SEA) and Denver Airport (DEN) to implement EoR procedures. Technical complications currently being addressed include managing mixed equipage (i.e., RNP AR-incapable aircraft to the non-ILS runway) and achieving precise timing to satisfy minimum separation standards while maintaining the RNP AR procedure RNP Parallel Approach with Transition (RPAT) Involves a RNP AR with RF leg approach and a parallel ILS approach to closely spaced parallel runways. RNP AR leverages the path keeping and vertical guidance capabilities of the aircraft to the runway threshold. The RNP aircraft visually separates from the ILS aircraft Permits near-simultaneous arrivals to the parallel runways in reduced ceiling and visibility conditions. This can increase the airport arrival rate in marginal weather At San Francisco International Airport (SFO), the airport arrival rate is typically reduced from 60 to 30â35 aircraft per hour in low visibility conditions. The RPAT may permit airport arrival rates of 36 to 43 aircraft per hour (Nakamura, 2007)
24 | UNDERSTANDING THE AIRPORTâS ROLE IN PERFORMANCE-BASED NAVIGATION APPLICATION DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE Dual STARs and Runway Transitions Dual standard terminal arrival routes (STARs) promote optimized profile descents (OPDs) by dispersing traffic between the two routes and permitting greater utilization of the parallel runways of an airport with runway transitions to both runways FAA Metroplex study team final report of Charlotte Metroplex Procedural Separation When two or more airports are in close physical proximity, the ILS approach to the airportâs runway can interfere with the traffic flow to or from the runway of another airport An RNP AR approach procedure with a curved, RF leg can provide the approach guidance and navigation to the airport runway while mitigating the interference An RNP AR approach procedure to Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW) runway 13C with a RF leg procedurally separates the arrivals from Chicago OâHare International Airport (ORD) departures via runway 22L. This obviates the need for a ground delay program (GDP) and permits ORD to maintain a 92 arrival rate (Belle, A., 2013). Noise Abatement Procedures RNAV enables more routing alternatives to avoid noise-sensitive areas, proximate traffic flows; terrain or special use airspace (SUA) RNAV and RNP enable greater conformance to noise corridors The RNAV SID departure flight procedure STREL fornoise abatement d at John Wayne, Orange County Airport (SNA). Departures fly 1 nmi beyond the shore of Newport Bay to gain altitude and mitigate noise after turning east. The approach procedure to runway 19 of the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) follows the Potomac River to minimize the noise impact of arrivals on the surrounding community while avoiding SUA. RNAV STARs with OPDs RNAV enables lateral paths to meet the requirements for conducting OPDs, more direct lateral paths to the airport, which reduces the time and geographic extent of noise event exposure and can reduce the fuel burned during transit OPDs enable reduced descent speeds, which reduce the noise generated during descent and reduce fuel burn via fuel efficient vertical flight paths The RNAV STAR arrival flight procedure EAGUL at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (PHX) evolved from multiple step-downs and level-offs at lower altitudes to dramatically reduced level segments, finally to âstair railâ (constant) descent profiles at higher altitudes. Table 4-3. Continued
