Airspace Capacity Challenges

Airspace capacity challenges currently facing the aviation industry today.

The National Airspace System (NAS) makes up the space in which aircraft activity takes place. Every day, more than forty-five thousand flights take place across the thirty million square miles of the United States National Airspace. The NAS consists of both controlled and uncontrolled space both over land and over the ocean. It includes numerous resources for pilots such as air navigation facilities, aeronautical supplemental charts, regulations, procedures, and services (Federal Aviation Administration, 2022). Although the NAS is vast, there is a capacity for the maximum number of aircraft allowed accommodation given a certain period of time or given certain conditions (SKYbrary Aviation Safety, Capacity management, 2022). As of recently, an increase in commercial air traffic has led to airspace capacity challenges.

What is the current Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) plan for Air Traffic Control (ATC) systems?

The current ATC system is a complex service that comprises aerodrome control services, approach control services, and area control services. Air traffic controllers provide clearances, and aircraft separation, and prevent collisions or danger between any aircraft. They utilize surveillance equipment such as primary and secondary service radar, automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast systems, and precision approach radar to ensure that the NAS remains a safe environment for all aircraft and all pilots. Within the current FAA ATC system, there are three main types of controllers that contribute different but equally important roles. There are tower controllers who provide ATC service within the vicinity of an aerodrome, which is essentially a maneuvering area of an aircraft. Secondly, there are area controllers who provide services to aircraft while they are en-route. Finally, there is an approach controller who provides ATC services for departing and arriving aircraft at airports. The approach controller is the connecting link between both the tower controller and the area controller. Overall, the current ATC system has proven effective in preventing, recognizing, evaluating, and maintaining the safety of all aircraft operating in the NAS (SKYbrary Aviation, How air traffic control works, 2022).

What impact of equipment capacity on NAS availability?

As mentioned previously in this study, the NAS accommodates nearly forty-five thousand flights daily. This is able to be done through the balance of demand versus capacity. Most aircraft contain a piece of equipment called a Mode C transponder which allows ATC to track an aircraft's altitude. This equipment is critical for ATC to keep the NAS a safe place while also allowing for thousands of flights to take place simultaneously. Without this piece of equipment, ATC would not be able to hold proper surveillance over aircraft and the NAS would be a chaotic environment. When there is a demand increase in the NAS environment, this is controlled by traffic restrictions such as the rerouting of flights or holding delays for departing traffic. When there is a capacity increase in the NAS environment, there is a need to impose even more restrictions which can cause further traffic delays. When this occurs, ATC will increase the capacity of the NAS through the utilization of different procedures to better optimize the departures and arrivals at airports (SKYbrary Aviation Safety, Capacity management, 2022). In the future, there is a predicted increase in commercial air traffic which will require measures to increase or better organize the NAS. By the year twenty-thirty-five, there will be an estimated seven point two billion commercial air travelers which will require a lot of compensation from ATC and the NAS (Honeywell Aerospace, 2022).

The FAA is already working towards the future of the NAS and how to enhance it. There are many measures that can be taken to increase the capacity of the NAS. Through a system called Next Generation Air Transport System (NextGen), the FAA hopes to improve the safety of aircraft flight paths, integrate new technologies and procedures, and ensure the safety of commercial aviation as well as general aviation. The FAA’s goal with NextGen is to transition to trajectory based operations which will make ATC’s job of balancing capacity and demand and minimizing disruptions easier for both the ATC controllers and the pilots. Through time-based management and performance-based navigation, the FAA hopes to implement this system slowly at a rate that does not interrupt current operations (FAA, 2022). Some proposed recommendations to increase the capacity of the NAS include the redesign of airspace routes so that ATC controllers are able to keep air traffic separated without as much of hassle or stress whether this be through one-way air routes, transfer points, or even implementing designated points for aircraft entry and exits. Next, airports can add new runways, more taxiways, or even rapid exit taxiways which can maintain proper separation between arriving and departing aircraft (SKYbrary Aviation Safety, Capacity management, 2022).

References

FAA. (2022). National Airspace System. National Airspace System | Federal Aviation Administration. https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/nas

Honeywell Aerospace. (2022). Four things to know about new airspace challenges and opportunities. Home.https://aerospace.honeywell.com/us/en/about-us/blogs/four-things-to-know-about-new-airspace-challenges

SKYbrary Aviation Safety. (2022). Capacity management. SKYbrary Aviation Safety. https://skybrary.aero/articles/capacity-management

SKYbrary Aviation Safety. (n.d.). How air traffic control works. SKYbrary Aviation Safety. https://www.skybrary.aero/articles/how-air-traffic-control-works