Airports

Implications of Wind Changes and Cross Wind Hazard Exposures at California Airports for Regional Air Mobility

Jasenka Rakas
Hu, Yingjie
Lindbergh, Sarah
2024

California has a large number of public airports, including single-runway general aviation airports and small commercial airports. Because of anticipated changes in future temperature and precipitation in California (CA) and their effect on airports, our study raises a related question: will airports in CA experience any significant changes in wind direction and speed? This issue is especially important to address at single-runway airports where the occurrence of crosswinds exceed 10.5kn. Under such crosswind conditions, it is not safe for smaller/lighter aircraft to land and take-off....

Air Traffic Controller-Pilot Speech Analysis: A Bayesian Statistical Framework for Future Aviation Systems Safety

Vallioor, Vishali Kirthi
Jasenka Rakas
Krozel, Jimmy
Kostiuk, Peter F.
Mohen, Michael T.
2025

This study introduces a logistic regression-based stress level metric to (1) assess stress levels of Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) and pilots, and (2) detect off-nominal events using audio-derived features. With over 16,264 labeled ATC-pilot utterances and scalar and multi-dimensional speech attributes, it is demonstrated that a developed Stress Score metric can capture meaningful distinctions between the nominal and off-nominal utterances. The Beta distribution fit further captures the skewed nature of Stress Scores, indicating that the model follows a non-linear but quantifiable pattern...

Reducing Emissions through Monitoring and Predictive Modeling of Gate Operations of Idle Aircraft: A Case Study on San Francisco International Airport

Jasenka Rakas
Achatz Antonelli, Pietro
Walia, Chanan
Rouzbahani, Parham
Gikas, George
2025

The use of airport gate electrification infrastructure in the form of ground power (GP) and preconditioned air (PCA) systems can reduce energy and maintenance costs, emissions, and health risks by limiting the use of aircraft auxiliary power unit (APU) engines at the gate. However, their benefits can only be gained when they are actually being used; otherwise, pilots keep APUs on to fulfill their aircraft’s demands for electrical power and air conditioning. GP and PCA systems require a large initial infrastructure investment to increase energy efficiency, and they are installed with the...

A Data-Driven Method for Determining Hotspots in Airport Movement Areas

Davis, Jon
Makdisi, Sinan
Holman, Cal
Madrigal, Anahi
Zada, Mohammad
Jasenka Rakas
2025

As aviation demand continues to increase in the post-COVID-19 era, the risk of incidents and accidents in aircraft operations at airport airfields has increased. Large hub airports often contain multiple runways connected to the apron area using a complex system of taxiways. As a result, an increased risk of incidents has been appearing in certain parts of these complex taxiway systems, which are defined as airport taxiway hotspots. While a list of taxiway hotspots at U.S. airports exists to support and alleviate concerns for pilots and ground personnel, the methodology for determining...

Aircraft Surface Movement and Operation Monitoring Systems in General Aviation and Commercial Airports: A State-of-the-Art Review

Farhadmanesh, Mohammad
Rashidi, Abbas
Schonfeld, Paul
Jasenka Rakas
Marković, Nikola
2025

Airports are a critical component of the civil infrastructure system, serving as the main entry and exit points for both people and goods. Aircraft operations on airfields are monitored by personnel working at airport air traffic control (ATC) towers. These ground-based traffic controllers deliver advisory services and flight data documentation. Advances in surveillance systems by means of radio, image, and acoustic-based technologies have emerged to help airports monitor aircraft operations on airfields. These systems can provide personnel at control towers with additional information...

A Model for Selecting the Best Sustainable Airport Technology Alternatives

Tchivwila, Moïse Biampata
Jasenka Rakas
Hendrickson, Thomas P.
Nikolic, Milos
2025

Air transport is a continually expanding industry, a fact that has become even more evident with the recovery of the aviation industry post-COVID-19. This expansion amplified energy consumption at airports, which was already significantly high. Airport decision-makers are increasingly focusing on improving sustainability and addressing social, economic, and environmental criteria across airports worldwide. In this article, we propose a decision-making model for identifying a sustainable airport technology solution that minimizes the energy consumption of airport lighting while considering...

Free Trade in Airline Services: Assessing the Proposals to Liberalize the Canada – U.S. Air Transport Bilateral

Gillen, David W.
Mark Hansen
Ramos, Robson
1990

In this paper we examine the consequences of changes to the bilateral agreement which regulates air transport between Canada and the United States. A hubbing competition model based on an n-player non-cooperative game is used to simulate six alternative bilateral scenarios including the current positions of Canada and the U.S.. We find that changes to the bilateral does not have a significant effect on the total amount of traffic but it does effect the distribution of traffic between countries and among carriers and airports. For all scenarios up to cabotage both countries gain from the...

Hubbing and Rehubbing at JFK International Airport – The ALIGATOR Model

Mark Hansen
Kanafani, Adib
1989

This research, sponsored by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, involved the development and application of a model of International Gateway Competition, to be used for purposes of airport demand forecasting and airline strategy assessment. The model, named ALIGATER (AirLine International Gateway Traffic Estimator) simulates and finds Nash equilibrium states for competition between a set profit maximizing airlines. Inputs to the model include airline characteristics, including network type, gateway location, strength of feed to gateways, and aircraft characteristics; passenger...

Airline Hubbing and Airport Economics in the Pacific Market

Mark Hansen
Kanafani, Adib
1990

Transpacific hubbing over Tokyo's Narita airport, which is beset by severe capacity problems while serving a high proportion of nonlocal passengers, is explored from both a historical and an economic standpoint. Tokyo developed into Asia's dominant transpacific gateway because it was within range of the continental U.S. for the first generation of transcontinental jets. Its dominance continued after the introduction of the B747, while a more dispersed pattern of service developed on the U.S. side of the transpacific route system. Reasons for Tokyo's continuing dominance include its strong...

Practicability of Screening International Checked Baggage for U.S. Airlines

Gosling, Geoffrey D.
Mark Hansen
1990

On September 5, 1989, the Federal Aviation Administration announced its intention to impose a major new security requirement on U.S. airlines. In accordance with an implementation timetable to be developed at a later date, airlines would be required to screen all checked baggage on all international flights with an FAA-approved explosive detection system (EDS).