Airport Planning

Background

•Past

–Initially airport planning was carried out to meet the local aviation needs of the community.
–Air travel demand was limited, there was less noise on roads and in air and to have an airport closer to home was a matter of pride.
–There were lesser of accidents and people were less concerned about the happenings.

•Present

–Now days, in the web of metropolitan life, concerned pride has vanished as people want to live in peaceful environment.
–They want to avail the facilities closer to the door steps and at the same time do not want to pay the price of progress.
–Land is getting costly and huge land required for an airport (10 x 25) miles area for a large airport) has made selection of site for a new airport difficult.
–The requirements are often conflicting and interdependent. This has made airport planning a costly, complex and highly technical work.

Airport Planning Problems

•Securing sufficient air space for access to air. It may not be much of a problem for us except closer to restricted areas.
•Securing sufficient land for ground operations within airport boundaries.
•Securing adequate ground access to the airport which will increase with increase in air travel demand
•Passengers are interested from door to door travel time and service where as due to technical and cost compulsions airports are generally located away from city centre. It's incorporation in metropolitan life is a problem.
•Obstruction due to industrial/ residential developments closer to airport because of initially cheap land and suitable access hampers the planning.

•Radical development in nature of air transport has increased unfavorable community reaction. Bigger size aircrafts have increased aircraft approach and runway requirements and aggravated noise problem.

Airport Planning Studies

•Government lays down the National Transport Policy to which Aviation Policy forms a part. Planning is a carried out at different levels to meet the policy needs. Plans are prepared which are interlinked and are based on different studies conducted at the planning level. Lower the level more will be the details and more specific will be the plan.

•Planning remains a continuous process, i.e. a plan is continuously assessed and modified based upon different types of studies. These studies which relate to facility, traffic, market, economics and environment planning etc are performed, evaluated and analyzed at different levels. In relation to airports there are three levels of planning and related planning studies.

•System planning level.
•Master planning level.
•Project planning level.

Airport System Plan

It represents the overall aviation facilities required to meet the immediate and future needs of a metropolitan area, region or country. In our context, System Plan recommends new airports and facilities, timing and estimated cost of within the policy framework.

Airport Master Plan

A plan for construction of new airport or significant expansion of existing facilities in relation to other modes of transport and identified in Airport System Plan.


Airport Project Plan

Detailed plan of a specific development planned in immediate future for an airport; focusing on a specific element of Airport Master Plan.It includes engineering and architectural designs, assessing environmental effects, financial plan and schedule of construction.