Airport Expansion 1

City Airport Expansion and Its Effects Tyler Cannon AMGT 202

Airport Expansion 2 Abstract As the manager of a city airport, the mayor of the city in which the airport is located has asked for funding to increase the size of the airport and its operations. This expansion will affect many areas and it is the job of the airport manager to decide how these problems will affect the operation of the airport and the areas surrounding the airport. Specific areas that will be looked at are security inside and outside of the airport, air traffic control (increased number of flights per day, increased traffic density), and environmental concerns.

Airport Expansion 3 City Airport Expansion and Its Effects Many factors are involved in the expansion of a city airport. Both intrinsic and extrinsic effects are involved and it is important to understand these occurrences in order to anticipate the role they will play in the overall operation. An airport manager is just one of the keys in helping the airport being run as smooth as possible. It is the job of the airport manager to tie all of the operations together and to be a director of all that an airport encompasses. This paper discusses three different areas of concern and how an airport manger could counteract these problems: 1. Security. How will the operation change for larger airport grounds? How will the operations change in order to prepare for more passengers per day, including international passengers? 2. Air Traffic Control. What effects do an increased number of daily flights have on a watch schedule? Will more runways and taxiways need to be built? 3. Environmental Concerns. If the total land area of an airport increases how will it affect the surrounding areas, including forests, waterways, farms, and populated areas? Security Security is one of the primary concerns when discussing the operation of an airport. The objective of a solid security department is to create and provide for an environment that in hopes will not need security, but is prepared in case an event requiring security personnel is needed. As the size of the airport increases so will

Airport Expansion 4 the number of patrolling airport security vehicles have to be increased. The fence lines would have to be elongated to provide a boundary for the airport. More signs and postings keeping general pedestrians and other people from entering the airport would need to be increased. For operations inside of the airport, a certain number of security guards for the size of the airport for the number of annual passengers are statistics that would need to be discussed. The number of security screening personnel would also need to be increased due to the fact that there would be higher number of passengers in which the airport will accommodate. In discussing international operations, a more than adequate customs department would need to be implemented. Setting up checkpoint areas, as well as passport checking areas, and having enough to accommodate for a high number of passengers is important. Emergency signs and general airport information would need to be provided in different languages in order to accommodate for the multilingual operations. In addition, the customs department would need to employ personnel who are multi-lingual. This would ensure that if an emergency situation occurred the security personnel would be able to communicate safety information to most of the airport patrons. The for the pick up/ drop off area outside of the airport structure security personnel would need to be accurately placed in order to maintain order. Directing traffic and making sure cars are in their proper lanes is essential for helping arriving and departing and vehicle traffic in maintaining a smooth traffic flow. Having the ability to close incoming and outgoing vehicle traffic is another good addition to the security department. Air Traffic Control

Airport Expansion 5 Air traffic control is responsible for providing a safe and efficient flow of air traffic flying in and out of the nations busiest airports, smaller airports, and within the National Airspace System. For an airport to go from a smaller, national airport to a international airport with diverse operations is a large step. Flights coming in from overseas usually require larger aircraft in order to carry more passengers. Larger aircraft mean more people, which also means more cargo. These category of aircraft require more airspace in order to maneuver, and their on deck speed is slower than other aircraft. They create more turbulence in the atmosphere, disrupting other aircraft and holding patterns. All of these factors combined create a more complex air traffic control environment. An airport tower might have to look at increasing the size of the tower in light of increased operations. More air traffic controllers would need to be hired in order to space out the work. The workload would greatly increase, and therefore the number of controllers would need to be increased in order to thin out the work. In addition to getting more controllers, the airport structure itself would need to be inspected to ensure it is capable of providing for the types of aircraft the airport would be accommodating. An airport surface used to operating mainly Cessna Citation aircraft would need to be inspected to see if is could accommodate a fleet of Boeing 767s, and even larger aircraft. The length and width of the runway may have to be widened and elongated. More taxiways may need to be added in order to provide more efficient operations for an increased number of aircraft. The size of the ramp areas might have to be increased in order to accommodate for parking more aircraft.

Airport Expansion 6 Environmental Concerns As an airport increases the size of its operations and expands its land area, many environmental concerns also increase. What is located on the areas just outside of the airport fence? A forest? An ocean? A densely populated city? Someones home? A forest might be one of the easiest types of land to consume, but what if it is a protected forest? The forest is a natural habitat that owns its own ecosystem, and this ecosystem affects the entire city. Its important to understand what building an airport in this area means. Trying to avoid these areas as much as possible is the correct thinking. Finding an area that is less occupied by humans and has the less negative impact on the environment is a daunting task. If expanding the airport means moving into ones private land you would have to look into buying that land. You cannot move into land in which you do not own. Possibly the largest impact on the environment by aviation is emissions. Bringing international aviation traffic into the picture would mean more flights into the region, and more emissions. As an airport manager it would be difficult to regulate these type of emissions. Limiting the number of operations to a certain amount of operations per day, urging aircraft companies to invest in more fuel efficient aircraft are just some of the things one can do to minimize the effect of emissions on the environment. Another environmental concern is noise. Certain noise abatement procedures would have to be placed. Arrival and departure patterns would need to be created in a way that they do not directly fly over densely populated areas. Modifying the hours of operation would also be another way to regulate noise.

Airport Expansion 7 Many procedures are involved in the expansion of an airport and its operations. Security would be affected in such a way that more personnel would be required to run day-to-day operations. A smarter security department would have to be hired in order to keep order in diverse operations. Air traffic control would be affected by having an increased number of daily operations. More people would be hired in order to supplement the new operations. The airport facilities, including the runway and the gate areas would need to be expanded and the adequacy would need to be checked in order to compensate for larger and an increased number of aircraft. Environmental issues such as impact on local populated areas, protected forests, and private land would have to be inspected. All of these issues together and more need to be considered if an airport is to be expanded.