ABSTRACT
Congestion and delays at the airport are used to determine an airport’s performance indicator (PI). The airfield component and characteristic, in which the runway plays a prominent role, is a crucial driver of the projected activities at a given aerodrome. According to ICAO Annex 14 on Aerodromes, a runway is a rectangular space on a land aerodrome that is prepared for aircraft landing and take-off. The current state of the runways at Murtala Muhammed Airport was investigated, as well as the function the runway plays in assuring flight efficiency and reducing aircraft delays. The current aerodrome chart, which was obtained from the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), was used to better comprehend the various airfield components and their characteristics. The research question was developed to assess the necessity for an additional runway based on the current layout of the Murtala Muhammed airfield and its strategic position in Lagos state, Nigeria. This question was posed as a hypothetical statement and was put to the test. The hypotheses stipulateddefinedthe quantity of time for an aircraft to land and exit the runway, which determine the runway occupancy time in order to expedite landing for other arriving aircraft, with an emphasis on arrival delay, which includes approach and landing of an aircraft at the understudied aerodrome. As a result, our study quantified the predicted delay at Murtala Muhammed Airport and proposed a solution for how to best handle it.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The performance indicator (PI) of an airport is determined by the amount of traffic and delays at the airport. The airfield component and characteristic, of which the runway is a large part, is a crucial predictor of the projected operations at a given airport. A runway is defined as a rectangular space on a land aerodrome that is prepared for aircraft landing and taking off, according to ICAO Annex 14 on Aerodromes. The current state of the runways at Murtala Muhammed Airport, as well as the importance of the runway in assuring flight efficiency and reducing flight delays, were investigated in this study. The current aerodrome map obtained from the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) assisted in the understanding of the various airfield components and their characteristics in the study.
Delays can be caused by either man-made or natural factors. The former is caused by airmen (personnel involved in flight movement), and can include slow facilitation, technical or maintenance issues, airspace cognition, and movement breakdown, whereas the latter is caused by natural occurrences such as bad weather, natural disasters such as volcano eruptions, and tornadoes. As a result of these variables, goods and passengers will not arrive at their destinations on time. It increases weariness among airmen, passengers, and others, in addition to boosting the airline’s operational costs. As a result, ‘air traffic delay’ boils down to a loss of resources in all of its forms.
In the airline sector, on-time execution of airline schedules is a critical aspect in ensuring customer happiness, both current and new. Maintaining cost-effective operations is also important. To assure on-time readiness for each flight in the planned schedule, creative management of the various operation resources (aircraft, pilots, and flight attendants) is required. Flight schedules, on the other hand, are frequently disrupted by a variety of factors. Weather is responsible for roughly 75% of system delays, according to Rosenberger, Schaefer, Goldsman, Johnson, Kleywegt, and Nemhauser. Each controlled flight is assigned a controlled time of arrival or arrival slot at the regulated region or arrival airport in an air traffic flow management (ATFM) effort. As a result, it’s important to note that the ATFM technique uses a controlled flight system to mitigate flight delays by properly sequencing the flight strip.
Trip times (the total time it takes a flight to travel from origin to destination airport) and, as a result, the controlled time of departure (CTD) at the origin airport can be approximated with reasonable accuracy using filed flight plans and weather forecasts. The total delay allocated (D) is the control time of departure (CTD) minus the estimated (planned) time of departure (ETD).
Several studies on airport congestion have revealed a number of factors that cause aircraft delays. The following are examples of such factors:
Airport capacity constraints (including air transportation control activities), airline issues, reactionary delays, passengers and cargo, and weather and other unforeseen difficulties (e.g. strikes). Among all of these variables, Stormy weather also creates delays not only at inclement weather-affected airports, but also at airports with aircraft connecting from inclement weather-affected airports. Due to greater airplane separations during stormy weather, airport capacity is restricted. Instrument landing systems (ILS) are necessary for aircraft navigation under these conditions due to the weather, which is referred to as Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC). This is referred to as Visual Meteorological Conditions in clear weather (VMC). In addition, research have identified the stages of flight during which delays occur, as well as the underlying elements that cause delays. According to Mueller’s research, 84 percent of all delays occur on the ground (gate, taxi-out, taxi-in), with 76 percent occurring prior to departure (gate, taxi-out), Air traffic delays have become a big issue for both passengers and airlines. As much as we loathe delays, they are an unavoidable feature of air travel nowadays. Even well-run airlines cannot prevent them. Murtala Muhammed International Airport sees the most traffic in Nigeria. There have been a number of reports recently about aviation traffic delays at Murtala Muhammed airport. This delay often leads to an increase in airplane fuel consumption, which impacts passengers’ ability to arrive at their destination on time. In the majority of situations, the connecting flight is missed, and the airline operators have no choice except to transport their passengers back to their point of departure and refund their ticket fare.
As commercial and business jets throng the city’s limited airspace, New York City has become synonymous with delayed flights in the United States. In 2007, LaGuardia airport beat out Newark International (slightly more than 58 percent arrived on time) as the worst airport in the United States for arrivals, with only 58 percent of its aircraft arriving on time. They complete the top five list of the world’s worst airports for arrival delays. In fact, John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York’s busiest airport with 44 million passengers a year, was only a few minutes behind them, with more than 40% of its planes arriving late.
In New York, according to Robert Poole, founder of the Reason Foundation and a frequent adviser to the US government on transportation matters, airlines are to blame for the delays.
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Flight delays have indirect repercussions on the national economy, in addition to the direct costs imposed on the airline business and its consumers. Its contribution to inefficiency in the air transportation sector, in particular, raises the cost of doing business in other industries, making connected enterprises less productive.
Many commercial airports across the world have a long history of flight delays. Only 41% and 43% of all aircraft left on schedule at Sao Paolo’s Guarulhos and Congonhas International Airports, respectively, making them the third and fourth worst cities for departures. Sao Paolo is also one of the busiest airports in the world. At Congonhas, only 54% of flights arrived on time, while at Guarulhos, only 59% of flights arrived on time.
Of course, Brazil isn’t the only country with a bad track record when it comes to airline delays. In 2007, only 33% of flights at Beijing Capital International Airport got off on schedule, putting it second only to Brasilia on the list of worst departure airports. Cairo International, Africa’s second busiest airport after Johannesburg, saw only 47% of its aircraft take off the majority of the time, with an average wait time of 43 minutes. And at the enormous Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, which is the worst spot in Europe to catch a flight on time, only around half of commercial passenger planes left on time.
Arrival times are commonly used by airport authorities to track late aircraft, which are considered delayed if they arrive at their destination at least 15 minutes late. Pilots, according to traditional opinion,
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The goal of this project is to investigate the current airport infrastructures, their influence on airplane arrival delays at Murtala Muhammed Airport, and provide solutions to best manage these delays.
The following are the research’s goals:
1. Research the Murtala Muhammed Airport’s accessible airport infrastructure.
2. To create and evaluate hypothetical claims that relate available airport infrastructure to arrival delays (hypotheses).
3. Propose a viable remedy to the Murtala Muhammed Airport ArrivalDelay.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. Does the number of runways at Murtala Muhammed Airport influence flight efficiency and/or delay?
2. Is the total runway occupancy time at Murtala Muhammed airport primarily responsible for arrival delays?
RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
As a result, the following possibilities were proposed:
1. At Murtala Muhammed Airport, the number of runways impacts flight efficiency and delay.
2. The arrival delay at Murtala Muhammed airport is directly caused by the cumulative runway occupation time.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
According to the International Civil Aviation Organization, the study area is Nigerian airspace, which is referred to as Kano Flight Information Region (Kano FIR) (ICAO). Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Ikejain, Lagos, is the subject of the investigation. It’s also worth noting that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) divides Nigeria’s airspace into two sectors, the Northern and Southern sectors. All aerodromes in the southern sector are under the authority of Lagos airport (Murtala Mohammed airport), whereas all aerodromes in the northern sector are under the jurisdiction of Kano airport (Aminu Kano International airport). The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency has developed a visual representation of Nigerian Airspace (Kano FIR) (NAMA).
Enroute chart for Kano FIR (Figure 1.1).
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