Airport Capacity and Delay Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Airport Capacity and Delay - Term Paper Example U.S.A’s aviation system is the most complex and the largest system in the globe. U.S’s airspace system contains 3364 airports, 14,934 air traffic controllers and 315 air traffic control facilities. U.S airports handle approximately 171,200 aircraft operations per annum, which include landings and takeoffs each day. From FY 2003 through FY 2O06, it has been estimated that there were about 250 million landings and takeoffs and this amounts to about 62.5 million airport operations per annum. . From FY 2003 through FY 2O06, there were about 1,306 reported runway incursions and however, it is a console to note that no fatalities have occurred from these collisions. (FAA 2007).Despite of this mammoth size and intricacy, commercial aviation is considered to be the safest form of transportation in U.S.A. Despite these complexities, U.S.A has witnessed only one commercial accident since 2002. This is mainly due to FAA strategic goals to minimise the rates of general and commerci al aviation related grave accidents, to minimize the peril of probable runway collisions, and to minimize cabin injuries created by turbulence. (GPO, 2006, p238). Though there has been a steady increase in air traffic in US in recent years, congestion-associated issue does not yet seem to be a pervasive issue for the country’s aviation administration. It is to be noted that majority of delay is caused not by congestion but by inclemental weather. According to FAA data, volume –associated delays amounted for less than fifteen percent of all delays in each of the four years just before 9/11 incident and volume related delays have in fact declined over the past decade. A further, weather associated delay is frequently accounted for over seventy -percent of all delays. However, according to US Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration (US DTFA), present delays seem to happen only at some major airports in US. Delay and capacity issues at U.S airports