Increased Air Traffic
In recent years, the airspace industry has experienced a rapid increase in air traffic. This growth has seen an increment number of people at airports all over the world. Many travelers prefer air transport to other means of transport because it is fast and convenient. Air tickets have become cheaper and this enables travelers on a budget to book a flight without financial constraints. In order to sustain the growing demands of travelers, many airports are forced to construct new airports or increase their infrastructure. This paper will analyze the effects of capacity on National airspace, FAA's plan on ATC systems, impacts of equipment capacity on National Airspace System availability, and recommendation to expand the capacity of airspace.
Capacity has various impacts on the structure of airspace. First, delayed flights. Increased planes in the air, caused by an increased number of passenger lead to delayed flights in an airport. This delay is caused by a large number of planes, which exceed the limit airspace can control at a go. Hence, departing trains have to wait for others to arrive before departing. Statistics show that in 2010, approximately 18% of flights in America and 24% in Europe were delayed by 15 minutes, (Sunil et al, 2016). Second, delays caused by capacity increases the chances of encountering bad weather, and some passengers may fall sick. Also, delay increases congestion in the air space which is not safe.
Federation Aviation Administration (FAA) in cooperation with the airspace users has started programs to study changes in Air traffic Control System (ATC) procedures and travel regulations. Making changes in ATC steps, for instance, airport plans would pose a profound impact on the requirements of ATC (Hecht et al, 2000). Planning for modernization of facilities and equipment is important, and supporting the required research.
Unscheduled equipment outages occur as a result of maintenance activities. Theses outrages pose great impacts to the National Airspace System (NAS) daily. First, equipment outrages lead to reduced airport throughput. This means that the airport network is affected which interferes with data transfer and communication (Jackson & Green, 1998). Also, outrage can lead to flight delays or cancellation. Communication gadgets' failure may lead to delayed flight as attends cannot call out the call out the names of passengers, and also, the flight crew.
In order to expand the capacity of national airspace, stakeholders will need to move and implement new Air Traffic Management (ATM) technologies, while focusing on improving data sharing to collectively adjust airspace instead of using segmented approach (Booker, 2003). The government and other ruling bodies must enforce this with regulatory approaches, or risk losing the economic benefits associated with the aviation industry. Also, dealing with airspace problem will help prevent significant environmental damage caused by planes.
In conclusion, the number of airplane passengers has tremendously increased. People travel around the world using flights because it is the fastest means of transport. However, the number of passengers traveling daily requires that airports work extra hard to provide safety and comfort to passengers. This means that more planes have to fly. The Airspace structure is limited, and cannot accommodate many planes at once. Hence, airplanes have to wait for other planes to land, thus causing delay. Therefore, the stakeholders and the government should expand the airspace capacity to meet the passengers' demand.
References
Brooker, P. (2003). Controller workload, airspace capacity and future systems.
Hecht, M., Handal, J., Demarco, F. (2000). "An Analytical Model for Predicting the Impact of Maintenance
Resource Allocation on National Airspace System Availability", Transportation Research Board Conference Record, January.
Jackson, J. W., & Green, S. M. (1998). Control applications and challenges in air traffic management.
In Proceedings of the 1998 American Control Conference. ACC (IEEE Cat. No. 98CH36207) (Vol. 3)
Sunil, E., Ellerbroek, J., Hoekstra, J., Vidosavljevic, A., Arntzen, M., Bussink, F., & Nieuwenhuisen, D.
(2016). Analysis of airspace structure and capacity for decentralized separation using fast-time simulations. Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 38-51.
