Emily Beaton, The MITRE Corporation
James DeArmon, The MITRE Corporation
Craig Wanke, The MITRE Corporation
Shane Miller, The MITRE Corporation
The New York area represents a unique situation in the continental
U.S.—a geographic concentration of runways creates an exceptionally
high demand for transition airspace resources. This has impacts on airline
operations in terms of delays, predictability, and flexibility of operations
in ways that affect profitability. Demand is increasing yearly, but
the capacity of the physical resources has not kept pace with this growth.
This paper examines a number of attributes that characterize the region,
and then assesses some of the impacts on airline operations associated
with these attributes. The MITRE Corporation's Center for Advanced
Aviation System Development studied the problems of New York airspace
as part of an Internal Research and Development effort. Data and analyses
are abstracted from this research (DeArmon, 2000).
We found that Federal Aviation Administration airspace planners and
managers have responded to the congested northeast situation by using
fine-tuned narrow sectorization to accommodate arrival and departure
flows specific to the busy commercial airports Newark International,
New York-Kennedy, New York-LaGuardia, and Philadelphia International.
However, this very tight allocation of airspace creates a "brittle"
system. Small changes in conditions often result in major impacts on
the airlines such as airborne holding and ground stops for departure
flights. Also, airlines have less chance for flexibility in planning,
being granted fewer user preferences in routes and route amendments.
