Airport planning

Unit 3

AIRPORT PLANNING
Airport master plan refers the planners idealized concept of
the form and structure of the ultimate development of the
airport.
Master planning can apply to the construction of new airports
as well as to significant expansion of existing airport .

Deals with financial implications and fiscal strategies.

The objectives of the master plan according to FAA are :

To provide graphical representation of the ultimate

development of the airport and of the anticipated land uses

adjacent to the airport
To establish a schedule of priorities and phasing for various
improvements proposed in the plan
To describe the various concepts and alternatives which were

considered in the establishment of the proposed plan.

The structure recommended by FAA :

Phase 1: Airport Requirements

Phase 2 :Site Selection

Phase 3:airport Plans

Phase 4 : Financial Plan

Phase 1: Airport Requirements
New facilities with respect to the anticipated and the status of
existing facilities in the context of anticipated environmental
implications .

Phase 2 :Site Selection

Includes Study of Airspace Requirements

Environment
Development
Access
Availability of Utilities
Land Costs & Availability
Site Development Cost
Political Implications

Phase 3:Airport Plans

i)

Airport layout plan

ii) Land use plan :

iii) Terminal area plans
iv) Airport access plans
Phase 4 : financial plan
i)

Schedules of proposed development

ii) Estimates of devolvement costs

iii) Economic feasibility analysis

iv) Financial feasibility analysis

ICAO Recommendations For Master Plan

Master planning process involves the following steps :

Planning method
Forecasting for planning purposes
Site evaluation and selection
Airport configuration
Aircraft apron
Passenger area
Passenger building
Departure
Arrival
Cargo
Landside roads and vehicle parks
Other buildings and facilities
Access

REGIONAL PLANNING
Regional plan should include the following information:
Approximate location of the airport in national map
Classification of airports

Location of air strips

Routes of air travel

Data collected:
Population
Topographical and geographical features
Air traffic characteristics
development of new airport
The scientific approach to improving existing airport , the
following steps :
Traffic forecast
Determination of the capacity of existing airport
Improvement of airport capacity
Planning of a new airport

Step 1 :
The most important item in an airport planning is to estimate

the future volume of air traffic.

Peak hour volumes of passengers, cargo and mail are required
for proper allocation of space in the terminal building and for
determining the size of building
Peak hour aircraft movements assist in the design of runways,

taxiways and loading aprons .

Following data is collected for the traffic forecast:

i)

Area to be served

ii) Origin and destination of residents and non- residents of the

area
iii) Population growth in the area

iv) Economic character of area:

income level per capita

Types of business activities and the labour employed

Trends in existing local air traffic

Trends in national air traffic

Population growth and economic standards of adjacent areas

Step 2 :
Ascertain the existing airport can handle the amount
anticipated air traffic
i)

Suitability of approaches for the type of airports

ii) Capacity of runways and taxiways to handle the peak hour

traffic
iii) Adequacy of terminal building of handling passengers and
cargo
iv) Adequacy of aprons and servicing facilities

 Step 3 :
If the existing airport is inadequate to handle the

anticipated traffic, the possible method for improving the

capacity of the present airport should be investigated .
The improvement can be done in following ways :

Runway extensions , new or parallel runways and high

speed exit taxiways

Rearranging or increasing the size of terminal building or

loading apron

Improving the traffic control devices

Data required before site selection:

Peak hourly volume of air traffic to be handled

The present and future ,types of aircrafts which may use the
airport.
Facilities to be provided for passengers, baggage and cargo ,
for landing and take off and servicing of aircrafts should be
determined.

Airport site selection

i) Regional plan
ii) Airport use
iii) Proximity to the other airports
iv) Ground accessibility
v) Topography
vi) Obstructions
vii) Visibility
viii) Wind
ix) Noise nuisance
x) Grading, drainage and soil characteristics
xi) Future development
xii) Availability of utilities from town
xiii) Economic considerations

Surveys for site seletion

Traffic survey
Meteorological survey
Topographical survey

Soil survey
Drainage survey
Material survey

Drawings to be Prepared
Topographical plan contours, locations of trees, streams,
building, roads, property lines .
Obstruction map- safe approach zone &turning zones for
aircraft
Drainage plan

Airport master plan

Estimation of future air traffic

i)

Annual passenger volume

ii) Annual volume of aircrafts

iii) Peak day and peak day volume of passengers and aircrafts
iv) Air cargo
v)

Air mail

vi) General aviation

The End
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