VOL. 126 | NO. 208 | Tuesday, October 25, 2011
By Bill Dries
Updated 1:58PMTo some, the easy measurement between the past and the future of Memphis International Airport is the 168-foot difference between the circa-1977 control tower and the new control tower dedicated last week at the airport.
MEM has become a testing ground for NextGen in part because of Delta?s presence.
(Photo: Kyle Kurlick)
Look fast because the iconic moment will begin to pass in about two weeks when demolition work begins on the old tower, which is in the shadow of the new tower.
But control towers are much more than tall structures with an unparalleled view that jets whiz by on their way in and out of town.
Michael W. Baker, the Federal Aviation Administration?s Memphis air traffic manager, looks at them as starting points planned to look ahead to airport needs over the next 20 years.
?This one has given us the ability to say what is the master plan for the airport through 2028,? Baker said of the new control tower for which planning began in 2008. ?We?re positioned to go all the way through to that and still have expansion capabilities that continue to adapt and adjust as aviation needs change.?
John Kasarda, the father of the aerotropolis concept embraced by airport and civic leaders locally, has summed up the change in airline passengers as a change in which air travel is moving from ?elite travel to mass transit.?
Meanwhile, airlines are making their own adjustments to schedules as a reaction to fuel prices that began spiking last year. Some of the changes are permanent ones in capacity beyond the seasonal dropping and adding of flights that are a normal part of airline operations.
Delta Air Lines Inc. has bet heavily on the philosophy of cutting capacity to eliminate as many unfilled seats as possible.
Memphis International Airport has felt one side of the double-edged sword with a loss in its regional air service.
The cuts amounted to 20 percent of Delta?s flight capacity in Memphis.
The smaller regional jets were among the first flights Delta looked at as it planned the cuts that took effect throughout its system in late August. More will follow in January.
And the system of scheduling and routing those flights is changing under a system called NextGen. NextGen is a change in philosophy made possible by a change in technology used by controllers in the new tower and other towers around the world.
Memphis became a testing ground for NextGen technology because of the airport?s status as a FedEx super hub and a Delta passenger hub ? a unique combination in aviation that should test what is a combination of new ways of scheduling flights on new routes as well as existing routes backed up by new technology that makes those changes possible.
FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said the goal is at least a 25 percent reduction in delays by 2025 with NextGen.
Weather delays over more than a day have had an impact on quarterly earnings reports for both FedEx and Delta.
Babbitt, a former pilot for the old Eastern Airlines, said large storms, hurricanes and volcanic eruptions likely will still cause delays that can?t be avoided no matter how advanced the air routing technology and radar becomes.
But the weather conditions that are less severe but crop up on a more frequent basis causing delays can be worked through with NextGen.
?Routine low ceilings with a fully operational NextGen system ? we really should have no difference between whether it is beautiful VFR (visual flight rules) and 200-foot ceilings and a half mile visibility,? Babbitt said. ?Traffic will flow the same.?
Since 2009, Memphis International has been the testing ground for the concept of giving a jet a precise departure slot and keeping the jet at the gate until then. It?s called Collaborative Departure Queue Management. That expanded in 2010 to a NextGen-funded program called N-Control, which also used Memphis to demonstrate the goal of lower fuel consumption and carbon emissions during heavy traffic periods.
Source: http://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2011/oct/25/nextgen-technology-changes-jet-traffic/
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