Infrastructure

Deterministic Models for Degraded Airside Capacity and Delays

Jasenka Rakas
Schonfeld, Paul
2004

This paper presents deterministic models for estimating airspace and airport capacity and delays during equipment outages. The National Airspace System (NAS) is very complex and consists of almost 48,000 reportable facilities and services that support air traffic control with very diverse functions and technologies. To better understand NAS performance and develop a methodology for estimating degraded capacity, previous studies about equipment outages and about airspace and airport performance are first reviewed. A deterministic aircraft separation model is used to estimate degraded...

Procedural and Operational Consequences of Navigational Equipment Outages: Exploration of Airport Performance

Jasenka Rakas
Yin, Huifang
Mark Hansen
2005

This paper explores the impact of unscheduled navigational and surveillance equipment outages on airport performance during visual flight rules and instrument flight rules at San Francisco International Airport and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The following most common unscheduled short outages, which occurred during January 2000–December 2002, are analyzed in detail: very high frequency omnidirectional range (VOR), approach lighting system type 2 (ALSF-2), the secondary radar Mode S, and air traffic control radio beacon system (ATCRBS). We explore the air...

Trends in Aircraft Sizing and Fleet Mix

Jasenka Rakas
2007

This paper analyzes current trends in aircraft characteristics and fleet mix and the implications of these trends on airport design. The airline industry is continuously exploring new ways of efficiently and economically operating their fleets in order to overcome the economic and financial pressures of a competitive operating environment. In response to these challenges, airlines are introducing aircraft into their fleets with lower fuel consumption and geometric characteristics to improve aircraft performance and efficiency. In the near future, the efficiency of gate operations and other...

Estimating Infrastructure Condition from a Biased Sample

Gupta, Gautam
Jasenka Rakas
Mark Hansen
2009

In this paper, we address the problem of making inferences about a population of infrastructure facilities from a subset that is a biased sample. We consider the case in which the sample is biased toward facilities in worse condition or requiring more expensive repair. Two methods are developed that incorporate a model of the process through which the sample is selected. One of the methods is based on well-known truncated distributions, whereas the other assumes that the bias operates continuously. The methods are applied to a class of facilities under the Federal Aviation...

Greener Transportation Infrastructure: Theoretical Concepts for the Environmental Evaluation of Airports

Fann, Jean-Christophe
Jasenka Rakas
2011

The presented methodology has two fundamental goals: first, to foster greener design practices among airport managers, planners, and designers, and second, to establish a dynamic dialogue between all airport stakeholders, while overcoming the shortcomings of traditional environmental impact assessments and thus ensuring capacity enhancement. The innovative aspects of the methodology are the combination of a flexible implementation strategy, the use of Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) with cost and utility functions, and a structured definition of environmental sustainability...

Airport Availability Modelling: A Different Perspective

Jasenka Rakas
Hecht, Myron
2007

This study proposes a systems-level approach to airport and runway availability assessments and prediction, and addresses the problem of the aging or continuously degrading aviation infrastructure. Although the availability block diagrams are often used in the availability assessment of aerospace and electronic systems, their application to the airport availability problem on a system level, developed in this study, is novel. The proposed methodology is intended for short-term and long-term planning of the Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) equipment acquisition, and...

Modeling the Impact of Equipment Outages on National Airspace System Operations

Jasenka Rakas
Yin, Huifang
2012

This study is part of a larger effort initiated by the FAA’s System Capacity Office, Capacity Initiative Division, toward developing a methodology for assessing airport performance and establishing airport efficiency metrics for runway and airport utilization.

Models for the National Airspace System Infrastructure Performance

Jasenka Rakas
Jirajaruporn, Wanjira
Mark Hansen
2012

This paper develops a methodology for selecting optimal maintenance policies for the National Airspace System (NAS) infrastructure facilities. The NAS is one of the largest, the most complex, technologically advanced and integrated civil infrastructure systems, consisting of over 48,00 complex facilities and services that are in various stage of approaching physical or technical obsolescence.

NextGen, the Next Generation Air Transportation System: Transforming Air Traffic Control from Ground-Based and Human-Centric to Satellite-Based and Airplane-Centric

Dunlay Jr, William J.
Jasenka Rakas
2011

The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) is a congressionally mandated initiative to modernize the U.S. air traffic control system through satellite-based technologies that can increase the precision of aircraft flight paths, radar displays, and operating times, improving capacity, efficiency, predictability, flexibility, environmental effects, and safety. Several critical milestones have been achieved, but the long time frame for implementation raises challenges.

Economic Impact of a Lightning Strike–Induced Outage of Air Traffic Control Tower: Case Study of Baltimore–Washington International Airport

Ding, Wenzhe
Jasenka Rakas
2015

This research investigates how lightning strike–induced outages of airport infrastructure and facilities affect airport performance from an economic perspective, using Baltimore (Maryland)–Washington (D.C.) Thurgood Marshall International (BWI) Airport as a case study. On September 12, 2013, lightning struck within 300 m of the air traffic control (ATC) tower at BWI, causing injury and ATC tower and airport closures. The study findings reveal that the economic losses of the outage-related delays from that single event were almost five times higher than the ATC tower refurbishment that was...