Environment
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- E-Change Program
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- Management of Aircraft on the Ground
- Predicting and Managing Delays
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- Computer Simulation
- Airspace Management from Gate to Gate
- The Benefits of Gate to Gate Management
- How Air Traffic Management has Traditionally Worked
- Some Causes for Airport Delays
- The Brisbane Green Project
- The Challenge of Growth
- What is RNP?
- Environmental Savings from the Brisbane Green Project
- Sequencing Efficiency
Some Causes for Airport Delays
The increase in demand for air travel can sometimes mean increased delays.
Delays are caused by a combination of factors. Here are just a few:
- Aircraft are significantly affected by weather. Modern aviation and navigation systems in aircraft and on the ground have improved this situation. Nevertheless weather still impacts airport and aircraft operations.
- Air movements concentrate at certain times of day which causes congestion. Curfews compound this problem. The airline companies respond to consumer demand and provide most flights when required. The highest demand for flights is typically at the beginning and end of the day. This puts pressure on the available airport capacity in a similar fashion as road traffic puts pressure on available road space.
- Delays can be caused by emergencies, failure of machinery and equipment, and closures of runways due to maintenance and construction.
- Many different types of aircraft share large airports which can have very different requirements. Sydney Airport, for example, is a busy airport where congestion problems are exacerbated by large numbers of smaller aircraft mixing with heavy jet traffic.
Delays can have a compounding affect: a delay in an aircraft departing Canberra to Sydney can affect a number of other Sydney arrivals and departures, which in turn may affect arrivals and departures at other locations.
Delays can be expensive to airlines and the aviation community. One recent report from 2007 estimates the costs due to ground and air delays were $78.6 million. Not surprisingly much effort is made to minimise them.