Sauid- Take a right at the runway

(MENAFN- Arab News) Like with everything else runways also need refurbishing and repair. Perhaps the most unglamorous aspect of aviation these strips of ribbon are the most important element in aviation and the least written about. After all how much can you say about strips of reinforced macadam and tar and concrete and whatever else goes into making them?
With modern aircraft and giant cargo and passenger planes touching down the need for maintaining proper runways now calls for a new discipline. One that is a science in itself.
One of the biggest impacts on runways and their capabilities has come from the advent of the A380. Concerns that it might be a problem on weaker surfaces but also because of its wake vortex which slows down takeoffs and landings.
Improving productivity naturally would necessitate better management of departure and arrival particularly the sequencing of flights and the allocation of space and time through careful descent or climbing planning and control. On the ground movement in the airport area and apron should also be carefully managed.
Systems resources need to be utilized efficiently particularly at peak traffic. This means maximizing runway throughput minimising taxi time delays balancing runway loads and minimising the environmental impact by limiting engine emissions during taxiing and noise regulations.
And that means a continuous process of management.
Busy airports in metropolitan areas serving as hubs for the hinterland face tremendous pressures. Geographical constraints severely limit their expansion plans so the only option is to improve productivity by managing resources more efficiently to permit greater throughput of aircraft operating from the available infrastructural facilities. The benefits achieved on the airport surface are greater than in other flight segments. Such gains in efficiency lead to increased capacity and improved safety.
The ATC network should also work toward enhancing the predictability of departure operations and decreasing the probability and degree of plan violation. There should also be better communication between the ATC and aircraft waiting to take-off or land so that the time interval between successive take-offs and landings from runways can be minimised thereby increasing throughput.
While technological improvements have indeed taken place in ATC-pilot communications surface operations at airports have seen very little significant change over the past fifty years. This is ironical because the airport surface has the largest concentration of automation and surveillance systems. Whatever piecemeal technological changes have taken place have been introduced in an ad hoc manner without proper systems integration.
This lacuna in integration and sharing of information between various systems within the airport environment is the single most important obstacle in improving efficiency particularly when one considers the fact that the traffic flow on or near the airport can impact the entire airspace system.
Current systems provide information to limited users. Improvements in all areas of operations can be gained through joint decision-making. So what are the possible solutions in sight? As we have seen a technology is usually only part of the solution. It requires coordinated application procedures and training and this can be possible only when there is close collaboration between service providers and airlines in research development and use of technology. This requires a systems approach which again means sharing of information across systems in a holistic way.
One of the problem areas is that surface automation has not kept pace with other system improvements. As a result the consequent delays on the surface caused by out-of-sync operations can lead to system wide disruptions. Another aspect is the added pressure from safety environmental and security concerns in today's world.
During landing and take-off aircraft are closer to each other than at any other phase of their flight paths. If visibility around an airport is low operations could enter the high-risk category. In such a scenario information sharing becomes crucial to safe operation.
Safety is also linked to more efficient and foolproof security systems that can identify and track authorised and unauthorised personnel and vehicles in the runway areas. Such systems would include intruder alerting alarms that could signal any unauthorised entry. And any information and tracking of unwanted objects or personnel in restricted areas needs to be shared between ATM and security organisations so that it can be made easily available system wide at the press of a few buttons.
Improving productivity by improving the efficiency of runway operations would mean better use of existing runways taxiways and ramp areas. Aircraft should spend less time running their engines while waiting to take-off or land. This would result in less consumption of fuel and less noise around airports. These are factors that would help improve the bottom line of airlines improve public approval and lead to fewer operational errors.
Another area for sharing of information is the state of the weather. Traffic flows need to be adjusted in anticipation of significant weather events if efficiency is to be improved. Surface management systems need predictive weather information.
In conclusion since surface operations are part of the larger airport environment airports need to plan for greater systems integration. Such integration could improve the operations at gates runways or taxiways thereby augmenting capacity. Integration of terminal and area automation systems provides better information for traffic managers. In the final analysis airport operations are the key to overall system efficiency.