Chapter 1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Contents

Page

Aviation Growth Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Airport Capacity Alternatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Air Traffic Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Funding Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Response to Future Growth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Chapter 1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
.

The National Airspace System includes about

6,500 public-use airports connected by a network of air routes defined by navigational aids.
Aircraft operating along these routes and in terminal areas near airports are monitored and controlled by a system of ground-based surveillance
and communications equipmentthe air traffic
control (ATC) systemoperated by the Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA).
In 1980, the 435 airports with FAA towers
handled some 180,000 takeoffs and landings per
day, or roughly 66 million per year, of which 74
percent are general aviation flights and 4 percent
are military. The remaining 22 percent of operations are commercial flights (air carrier, commuter, and air taxi) and are heavily concentrated in a few large airports. The 66 top airports
handle 77 percent of commercial operations and
88 percent of passenger enplanements; the 10
largest handle 33 percent of operations and 47
percent of passengers.
This concentration of air traffic at a few large
hubs creates congestion and delay, which in turn
increases airline operating costs and, ultimately,
the cost of air travel for the public. As air traffic
and fuel prices increase, the cost of these delays

will be magnified. General aviation users of major hubs also feel the effects of delay in the form
of access restrictions imposed during peak hours
to deal with airport congestion.
Concern about these problems, and about the
feasibility and cost of the proposed solutions,
prompted the House Committee on Appropriations (Subcommittee on Transportation) to request that OTA undertake an assessment of airport and terminal area capacity and related ATC
issues. The Senate Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation endorsed the request of the House Committee on Appropriations, which directed OTA to concentrate on
four major topics:
scenarios of future growth in air transportation;
alternative ways to increase airport and terminal area capacity;
technological and economic alternatives to
the ATC system modifications proposed by
FAA; and
alternatives to the present ATC process.

OTAs major findings are presented below.

AVIATION GROWTH SCENARIOS

FAA expects air traffic to increase considerably over the next 10 to 20 years, and with it the
demand for ATC services. Its plans for modernizing and expanding the National Airspace System are predicated on accommodating continued rapid growth. A key assumption in FAAs
Aviation Forecasts has been that there will be no
constraints on future growth and that new facilities and equipment will be deployed where and
when needed to meet demand. FAA forecasts
have consistently exceeded actual demand in
the past, however, with lo-year projections of
growth as much as 50 percent higher than actually occurred. This raises questions about the
usefulness of FAA forecasts as a basis for long-

term planning and about how quickly FAA

needs to proceed with capacity-related improvements in its 1982 National Airspace System Plan
(NASP).
Most other aviation forecasts generally support FAAs projections, but some do not. This is
not surprising in light of the uncertainty about
the factors that may affect future traffic growth.
The Air Transport Association and a major aerospace firm have suggested that the U.S. airline
industry may already be approaching its mature
size, which would mean that air carrier operations may level off or even decline by the end of
the century. Airline deregulation has destabil3

Airport

and Air Traffic Control System

ized market structure and airline profitability,

leading to questions about the ability of the industry to finance badly needed new equipment.
There are questions about the future price and
availability of aviation fuel and about the longterm impacts of the Professional Air Traffic
Controllers Organization walkout.
There is also uncertainty about the future distribution of operations among user groups and
among airports. FAA expects general aviation
users to account for 75 percent of the increase in
demand, but there are large uncertainties about
the continued growth of the general aviation

fleet. One such uncertainty is the future price

and availability of the aviation gasoline used by
small personal aircraft. As for air carriers, market forces and the restrictions imposed following
the strike have already resulted in a redistribution of operations away from congested hubs to
second-tier airports that have excess capacity.
This new trend, in combination with improved
facilities for general aviation traffic at reliever
airports, could make it possible to accommodate
some increases in aggregated operations within
existing system capacity.

AIRPORT CAPACITY ALTERNATIVES

At any given airport, delay occurs when demand for terminal airspace or runways approaches the capacity to handle aircraft safely.
Some delay is normal and inevitable, especially
during peak traffic hours or when capacity is
reduced because of adverse weather. At some
major airports, however, the level of demand is
now such that delay is chronic and severe. These
delays inconvenience passengers, increase airline
operating costs, and waste over a hundred million gallons of fuel each year.
One way to deal with delay is to increase the
capacity of hub areas, either by adding runways
to an existing airport or by building a new airport to relieve other, overcrowded airports.
Large amounts of land are required, however,
and there are strong community objections to
airport noise. These factors have made major
airport construction and expansion rare in the
past decade. In addition, building new runways
or airports requires years of planning (and, in
some cases, litigation) before it can be implemented. At some airports, however, independent stub runways for propeller aircraft could
increase effective capacity and minimize landuse and noise problems.

A more immediate way to alleviate delay is to

manage traffic so that demand fits within existing capacity. This could be done through
economic measures, such as differential pricing
schemes to help divert traffic from peak to offpeak hours, or perhaps from congested to underutilized airports. Administrative measures, such
as hourly quotas or user restrictions, could induce a similar reallocation of demand.
Improved ATC technology could also help
ease airport congestion. Automated terminalarea metering and spacing, to smooth and expedite the flow of traffic, and the Microwave
Landing System, to permit more flexible use of
crowded airspace close to the airport, might permit existing capacity to accommodate more operations. The magnitude of the potential benefits
varies widely with local conditions, runway
configuration, and traffic mix.
There is no single best way to increase capacity or reduce delay. A variety of measures
economic, administrative, and technological
will be needed and the optimum solution for any
given airport will be determined largely by local
conditions.

Ch. 1Executive Summary 5

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL

FAA is planning a program of technological
improvements intended to enable the National
Airspace System to handle a higher volume of
traffic with increased efficiency and safety. This
new technology will replace present equipment
some of which has been in use for over 40
yearswith a modern integrated system that
will be more reliable and productive. This
should allow new or improved forms of service
to be offered to airspace users. Operating costs
should be lower than with the current generation
of ATC equipment, but there would also be major capital cost requirements. Many of these improvements can be implemented during the next
10 years, but the full modernization program
will not be completed until the late 1990s.
Two technologies are at the heart of the new
generation of ATC: 1) advanced computers; and
2) a two-way digital data link between aircraft
and the ground. Advanced high-speed computers and new software will permit the ATC system to improve the overall management of traffic flow, as well as to formulate tactical measures
that will ensure conflict-free, expeditious, and
fuel-efficient flight paths for individual aircraft.
Replacement computers will be installed first in
en route ATC centers, then in terminal areas,
and finally in a central flow control facility that
will manage air traffic on a national basis. In addition to safety and capacity benefits, these computers will permit a level of automation in ATC
that will greatly reduce the workforce needed to
handle future traffic loads.
The improved data link between aircraft and
ground facilities will permit a rapid and extensive exchange of information and instructions
without relying exclusively on voice radio for
communicationfor example, transmittal of
clearances and weather information. FAA also
proposes to use this data link as the basis for the
Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System
(TCAS) which will provide aircraft with an
independent, airborne supplement to groundbased separation assurance.
In terminal areas, the use of the Microwave
Landing System (MLS) will provide more precise

and reliable guidance for landing in adverse

weather conditions. In combination with procedural changes, MLS could also lead to more
efficient use of airport capacity because it allows
aircraft to follow any of several curving or segmented approach paths to the runway, thereby
easing some of the constraint imposed by the
present Instrument Landing System (ILS), which
provides only straight-line guidance along a
single path.
In general, OTA finds that the ATC system
improvements proposed by FAA are technologically feasible and desirable with respect to safety, capacity, and productivity, although there
are alternatives that might be equally effective.
In most of the programs reviewed, detailed cost
and benefit information is not yet available,
making it difficult to judge the cost effectiveness
of the FAA proposals in relation to the possible
alternatives. For the same reason, it is not yet
fully clear whether the overall benefits will exceed the capital expenditures needed to effect the
improvements, how the benefits will be distributed among user groups, and how system cost
will be allocated. Further information will be
needed on implementation plans and specific
costs and benefits throughout the Congress consideration of the FAAs 1982 National Airspace
System Plan.

Funding Issues
Based on information available at the end of
1981, OTA estimates that the costs of airport
development grants-in-aid, modernization of
ATC facilities and equipment, and related research and development could average roughly
$1.5 billion per year over the next 10 years,
about 50 percent higher than the level of recent
years. Congress has several options to provide
funding for these programs. One would be to
cover these expenditures by general fund appropriations. This option, while it would afford
the Congress continuing close control of FAA
programs through the annual appropriations
process, might not provide the assured continuity of funding needed for undertaking a 10-year
program of the scope envisioned by FAA.

6 Airport and Air Traffic Control System

Alternative options involve reestablishing, in

one form or another, the Airport and Airways
Trust Fund which expired in October 1980. Possible approaches to reinstituting the trust fund
include: 1) a user tax structure and tax rates similar to those that existed before; 2) higher user tax
ratesraised either uniformly or selectively by
type of user; or 3) a different scheme of taxation
that would levy fees in proportion to benefits
received or costs imposed by each type of airspace user.
All of these options are controversial, and the
search for a solution is complicated by many
long-standing issues about the equity of user

charges and the appropriate distribution of trust

fund revenues. Other issues that could emerge in
the debate are how to use the present uncommitted balance in the trust fund (amounting to
about $3 billion) and whether to use trust fund
moneys to help meet operating and maintenance
costs. In the past, trust fund allocations derived
from user fees have covered only about 15 percent of these costs, and many feel that users
should pay a larger share of them. Others argue
that trust fund moneys should be reserved exclusively for capital improvements and R&D expenses,

RESPONSE TO FUTURE GROWTH

Basically, there are three forms of action that
can be taken to affect growth: regulatory, economic, and technological. Regulatory actions include measures imposed by the Government that
would restrict the use of airspace or the availability of ATC services according to user class or
types of activity. Economic measures are those
that would affect the cost of using the airspace
or that would allow the market forces of competitive pricing to determine access to facilities
and services that are in high demand. Technological responses include not only improved
forms of ground-based and avionic equipment

to increase the efficiency of airspace use, but

also increases in airport capacity through the
construction of new or improved landing facilities. All three approaches are likely to be used;
the issue is not which to adopt, but what combination and with what relative emphasis. Ultimately, the measures adopted to deal with
growth will reflect a more fundamental policy
decision: is growth to be accommodated wherever and whenever it occurs; or is it to be managed and directed so as to make the most effective use of existing resources, with the costs fairly borne by the beneficiaries.