G. Solomos, The MITRE Corporation
D. Knorr, Federal Aviation Administration
M. Blucher, The MITRE Corporation
J. DeArmon, The MITRE Corporation
G. Dorfman, The MITRE Corporation
H. Yi, The MITRE Corporation
For a system to be managed, it must be measured. The National Airspace
System (NAS), the collection of airspace and airport resources in and
under the control of the United States (U.S.), is a very complex system
which presents great challenges of measurement and management. One key
measure of en route airspace efficiency is flying time, i.e., the amount
of time it takes for an aircraft to travel through en route airspace
on its flight from origin to destination airport. A number of factors
influence flying time, the most obvious being the winds. Other important
factors are: traffic congestion, air traffic management (ATM) interventions,
route structure, industry strategies, and weather.
In this paper, we calculate en route flying time in the aggregate and
compare a subset of data for the years 2001 and 2002. We account for
aircraft equipment type and adjusted flying time for wind effects. In
addition, we have selected for analysis a sample of only good weather
days (15 in each of the 2 years).
The results show that 2002 has slightly shorter flying times than 2001,
on the order of 20–25 seconds shorter. Although we did not investigate
the causes for the change, we conjecture that the lower levels of traffic
after the Fall of 2001 are causing less congestion and less delay. New
automation and procedural initiatives may also be contributing to the
improvement.
