Guidebook for Advancing Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) at Airports (2015)

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18 Stakeholders in ACDM This chapter describes advantages of ACDM and outlines the role of the airport operator. It also outlines the roles and actions of certain airport stakeholders within the scope of ACDM. ACDM is a process to identify problems and build solutions through consensus planning, information sharing, and any needed information technology tools. While this Guidebook will concentrate on surface traffic management, other airport operational issues are also relevant. Figure 5 presents the FAA Surface Office’s depiction of the pivotal role of airports. The airport operator plays a critical role in developing and implementing ACDM programs. The airport may be the ACDM initiator and lead the effort, it may have a lead partnership role with a major user of the airport, or it may be the facilitator or collaborator as part of the effort. For instance, the PANYNJ assumed the lead role in New York. They initiated and coordinated regular meetings with all airport operators and the FAA, described the objectives, sought input, developed communication, collaborated on the development of procedures and metrics, con- tracted for a departure allocation system and operational people to staff system usage, and in general, facilitated all collaboration. At other airports in Atlanta, Memphis, and Dallas/Fort Worth, the airport has partnered with the major carrier and/or a research activity for ACDM- like operations. San Francisco International Airport asked the FAA and received the Airport Surface Surveillance Capability (ASSC) viewer data to help mitigate impact of a runway closure. They will then replicate the PANYNJ effort for the display and usage of this data to allocate departure operations. The airport’s role may also be determined by the density and complexity of operations at the airport. While many of the operational issues such as safety and mitigating environmental impacts are the same, there are some distinct differences. For example, concerns may vary depending on the levels of congestion experienced at different airports. • Highly Congested Airport – Controlling departure queue length to reduce delays while aircraft engines are running – Degree of control needed in the Non-Movement Area with multiple vehicle operations from many different vendors – Airport staffed ramp towers or ramp control functions to control congested ramp traffic sequencing • Uncongested Airport – Flight diversions from a congested airport – Airport passenger services provision (food, CBP, etc.) for late flights after normal operating hours – Service provision focus around a single large predominant operator C H A P T E R 3 Role of the Airport and Other CDM AIRPORTFAA OPERATORS

Role of the Airport and Other CDM 19 Determining applications for the ACDM process might be puzzling to airport operations with little or no ACDM experience. Table 5 is presented to assist airports and their stakeholders in determining whether conditions exist that could be addressed by ACDM applications. During airport interviews conducted in preparing this Guidebook, suboptimal conditions existed at some airports for the issues outlined herein. Whatever the role, the airport is a key player because it provides the operational platform for all the activities. Once a potential need has been established, then the benefit-cost guidance Figure 5. FAA Surface Office view of surface efficiency (FAA 2014b). Potential Problem Conditions for Potential Application Departure metering How frequently does the airport expect to have more than 7 aircraft queued for departure at a single runway? De-icing coordination Does aircraft de-ice capacity sometimes restrict the departure rate? Diversion coordination Is the airport a frequent diversion receiver? Is there a potential for those diversions to exceed some element of airport capacity? Is the airport notified in a timely manner of flight diversions? Customs staffing Are customs clearing times highly variable due to timing of international arrivals? Irregular Operations (IROPS) coordination Are all the mechanisms in place to respond to, and to prevent, tarmac rule violations? Real-time departure scheduling How often are flights metered over shared departure fixes or into nearby TBFM arrival streams with delays? Terminal service Do late departures frequently arrive after normal operating hours? Could vendors capture additional revenue from adjusting hours in those cases? Safety Is taxi conformance monitoring an issue for the airport operator? Passenger movement information Could airlines/airport make use of the TSA boarding pass scans? Service vehicle monitoring Is there a significant amount of surface vehicle traffic? Do these vehicles interfere with flight operations? Passenger facilities Are passenger facilities (food, curbside, restrooms, etc.) frequently overloaded? Table 5. Determining need for ACDM.

20 Guidebook for Advancing Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) at Airports provided in Chapter 6 may be applied to estimate the economic value of a potential ACDM application. ACDM Advantages and Efficiencies There are many potential advantages and efficiencies to be realized through CDM-enabled programs, both to the airport operator as well as to its customers. While many ACDM benefits are realized by other parties, there are many advantages for the airport operator as well. A few of these are listed herein. These, and others, are discussed in more detail in Chapter 6, including descriptions of how to conduct a thorough comparison of these against the potential costs of undertaking ACDM action. • Brand enhancement—A more efficient airport may generate more passengers and additional flights, both of which generate airport revenue. This brand enhancement was noted as of particular importance in several airport interviews conducted under this project’s research. • Real-time diversion notification—If airports are afforded access to FAA/Industry CDM infor- mation, real-time notice of airline diversions can be gained through the Aggregate Demand List (ADL) or Diversion Recovery CDM pages. Thus, airports have immediate notification of actual flight diversions and more time to plan for these operations. • Environmental benefits from the reduced emissions—Shorter taxi queues result in less fuel burned and decreased emissions, as well as potential noise reduction. • Improved operational data—Data is available from several sources to completely analyze the entire surface movement history of a flight for post-event analysis, thus identifying possible changes to increase efficiency and safety. • Scheduling and service improvements—With real-time estimated arrival times, airports could forecast well in advance demand for passenger services, CBP, baggage, food services, etc. The status and number of late flights could be relayed to airport concessionaires. • Construction mitigation planning—History has shown that the planned mitigation for a number of construction projects has been altered and improved by collaborative inclusion of the operator preferences. One of the primary future ACDM applications at congested airports, departure metering, enables many operational improvements beneficial to many stakeholders in runway departure queue efficiency. This yields the following results: • A reduced number of aircraft waiting in the active Movement Area for departure with engines running reduces fuel burn. • Controlled departure times are determined while at the gate and thus eliminate “penalty box” waiting for a controlled departure time. Some congested airports may not be able to utilize this attribute due to gate availability issues for succeeding flights. • Controlling the sequence of flights in departure queues enhances the capture of all potential runway capacity to account for divergent headings; airspace constraints (e.g., Miles in Trail); and optimized sequence with respect to aircraft wake vortex category. • Reduced congestion and workload for the ground controller enhances efficiency and safety. At relatively uncongested airports, one of the prime considerations is departure readiness prediction to enable more efficient operations to merge into major traffic flows or streams. For example, smaller airports generated many short-range flights into congested airports. The con- gested airport arrival traffic is time-based metered by the FAA. Time-based metering results in each flight being assigned a metering time to provide a smooth constant flow of arrival traffic. Short-range flights are the last to call for metering times, and thus metering time availability is limited, which results in the departure being held on the origin taxiway for its metering time.

Role of the Airport and Other CDM 21 If accurate flight departure readiness predictions could be made 30–60 minutes in advance, metering time requests could be made earlier, which could result in delay absorption at the gate before passengers board the aircraft, and in some cases, can reduce the amount of delay required. Other ACDM applications may also help to enhance future airport planning and develop- ment efforts, which usually result in construction activity. Some of the most beneficial ACDM- type activities have helped to mitigate construction impact in New York, Atlanta, Memphis, and other locations. In New York, departures were metered to control runway queues, and in Atlanta and Memphis, construction vehicle traffic across active taxiways or ramps was controlled and metered to ensure safety around taxiing aircraft. Any ACDM effort will inevitably involve data sharing. If the appropriate data are shared in such a way as to allow straightforward means of access in specific locations (e.g., an airport-operated ramp tower), operational performance should be improved. Using the San Francisco Interna- tional Airport major runway construction in 2014 as an example, the FAA in collaboration with many stakeholders provided an ACDM-type data sharing feed via the System Wide Information Management (SWIM) system to aid in situational awareness and controlling departure queues. As with the FAA/Industry CDM program, the FAA did not provide the software to display the data; it only provided the data. Additionally, ACDM data sharing results in post-operational analysis. Having a better under- standing and record of both typical and unusual operational trends will enable better planning. Better planning will result in improved operational predictability. Finally, several airports and airlines operate or contract ramp control towers. These facilities were originally established to better control the vehicle and aircraft movement activities in the Non-Movement Area. But their scope and responsibility has expanded to include, in some cases, major portions of the airport surface, including staging departures in a more efficient sequence, i.e., United Airlines Ramp Tower at Newark Liberty Airport. The gate-to-gate concept long advocated by EUROCONTROL and the similar concept envisioned by the FAA TFDM program will certainly utilize both ramp towers and operational control centers to effect these concepts. Airport Operator Role in ACDM Airport operators are in a unique position to foster, support, or lead ACDM implementation efforts because they have established relationships with every party operating at the facility. In broad terms, their primary role is to lead, partner/co-sponsor, or support the establishment of various ACDM-related activities and to act as the liaison to coordinate ACDM activities between the various operators, vendors, and other involved parties. If the airport operator is not directly involved, then application of ACDM concepts will struggle. In coordinating these efforts, they must ensure that all relevant parties are able to participate and thus have their perspective included. This does not imply that airport operators must, or should, control all aspects of an ACDM-related program since much of the value of these programs is derived from their collab- orative nature. However, since airport operators are the most connected parties, they have the greatest ability and more potential avenues by which to enable participation, which will breed success. Thus, ACDM is not a one-size-fits-all proposition, and not all airports will benefit in an equal manner from their involvement. During airport interviews in preparation of this Guidebook, a wide range of operational problems were encountered both at highly congested and less- congested airports. Some airports had long departure queues, other airports were concerned about a potential for runway incursions from a large number of aircraft towing operations, other airports have the likely potential for diversions from a busy airport, and others had major

22 Guidebook for Advancing Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) at Airports airport construction projects. ACDM knowledge, however, is important to all airport operators because at some point, issues may arise that can be solved or improved using ACDM processes. Perhaps the underlying principle to success in ACDM for the airport operator is to meet with the program participants regularly, frequently, and productively. Current ACDM experience has indicated that frequent meetings are the most critical component for a successful program. As the lead/co-lead/partner/facilitator/coordinator, the airport operator must ensure that these meetings take place and have the inclusion that breeds success. In 2010, when the PANYNJ was considering the establishment of the ground departure metering function to mitigate impact of runway reconstruction in an ACDM process, they inquired of European ACDM participants for best practices. The first response received by the PANYNJ was “to meet, meet again, and meet some more.” The inclusion in the ACDM concept is not immediately realized or accepted by all parties, and frequent meetings will help to facilitate this realization. Some congested airports, at which significant departure queuing exists, will want to establish departure metering programs to control the size of these queues through FAA programs or other means. While several approaches for implementing these systems currently exist, the airport oper- ator lies at the center of each, given their implicit, and in some cases, explicit control over the Non- Movement Areas of the airport. In many of these concepts, and the one system currently used in practice in the United States, the airport operator is responsible for providing the DRC functions. This includes installation of the automation that collects operator readiness data and distributes the assigned metering times for departing the aircraft parking area. They also coordinate between all flight operators to ensure that the system is operating effectively and efficiently, obtaining this feedback through regular and frequent meetings. It should be noted that airports performing the DRC function might be the exception rather than the rule because it is expected that the FAA ATCT will usually perform this function. But the FAA TFDM program recognizes the importance of this DRC function, and, while it will be an FAA function at many airports, the FAA is establish- ing criteria for the DRC to be an airport or major airline function at other locations. As stated, inclusion of all participants, no matter how small the role, is key. A checklist of potential ACDM participants is provided herein. It is unlikely that any individual airport would have every one of these participants due to local variations in operations, procedures, and regu- lations or would need to include each in any given ACDM activity. As a result, use this list as a starting point for parties to consider for inclusion in ACDM discussions and planning. A work- sheet is also provided in Appendix B. 1. Flight Operators a. Passenger airlines with scheduled service, including both mainline and regional operators b. Other passenger carriers, if they have regional presence but no mainline operations—for example, if United only serves the airport through United Express operated by SkyWest, it may still be helpful to include United mainline personnel c. Passenger airlines with regular charter service d. Cargo airlines with scheduled service e. Other cargo carriers, if they have regional but no mainline presence f. Cargo airlines with regular ad hoc service g. Military representatives from appropriate branches h. Recreational general aviation representatives i. Business jet operators with regular service j. Flight training providers k. Local/state government operators, including law enforcement and Medivac l. Unmanned aircraft systems operators 2. Airside Service Providers a. Fixed based operators (FBOs) b. Fueling contractors

Role of the Airport and Other CDM 23 c. De-ice contractors d. Catering providers 3. Ramp Service Providers a. Contract aircraft maintenance providers b. Aircraft manufacturers c. Snow removal providers 4. Official Services a. Local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies b. Private security contractors c. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) d. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) e. Environmental/wildlife agencies f. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Weather Service (NWS) 5. Services Commonly Provided by Airport Operators a. Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) b. Facilities Maintenance c. Planning d. Engineering e. Operations f. Administration (Finance, Contracts, Marketing, Business Development) 6. Operational Control a. Ramp Control Tower b. Local ATCT, including military equivalent c. Local Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facility, including military equivalent d. Local Air Route Traffic Control Center e. Adjacent spaceport or range operators 7. Landside Service Providers a. Commercial ground transportation—taxi, shuttle, limousine, bus, etc. b. Public transit—rail, bus, etc. c. Food service d. Retail e. Airport hotel f. Janitorial g. Rental cars—on and off airport h. Parking lots—on and off airport, both airport- and privately operated 8. Community Stakeholders a. Local government authorities b. Local environmental organizations c. Community Part 150 regulations d. Information programs for surrounding communities Role of Airport Stakeholders Scheduled Passenger Carriers and CDM Flight Operators Scheduled passenger carriers play a significant operational role at many airports. As such, they are an important participant to be included and sometimes lead or co-lead an ACDM effort. Further- more, they provide the interface to the largest contingent of airport customers—passengers. Thus, facilitating smoother operations for these carriers may go the furthest in helping to enhance the airport’s brand with this important contingent. Additionally, CDM flight operators have the great- est access to real-time operational information and also have been participating in CDM related

24 Guidebook for Advancing Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) at Airports activities for years. This segment can be a valuable source of expertise to an airport by providing examples seen at other airports such as: • Lessons learned from other CDM projects • Construction mitigation techniques used at other airports • Sources, uses, and integration of aircraft movement data • Source and generator of needed real-time operational data For example, to reduce taxi queue length in a departure metering program, departure readi- ness predictions prior to push-back is a key ingredient. Other examples are initiating ramp push backs timing to influence taxiway sequencing to promote the most efficient departure sequence to mitigate wake vortex separation requirements, and initiating ramp push-back timing to trans- parently promote airline business case departure preferences. Scheduled passenger carriers and participating business aviation operations at an FBO play a critical role in providing data on the expected readiness of each of their flights. Flight readiness allows for better planning and control of departure taxi queues. To enable flight readiness predictions, the FAA/Industry CDM community has agreed that in 2015 CDM participants will furnish an EOBT, making flight departure readiness prediction information available for CDM participants. For the locations with complex and busy ramp areas, the EOBT message could be taken into consideration in assigning a TMAT for which the flight is expected by ATC to enter the Movement Area. These ramps have considerable vehicle traffic, and for ATC to enact control times from gates may not be feasible, so the TMAT time was established to promote conformance. While departure metering may not be a direct airport function, departure readiness will be influenced by airport and airport vendor activi- ties, e.g., catering, de-icing, aircraft towing, gate management, ramp tower instructions, and construction. A sample checklist for each scheduled passenger carrier and flight operator is provided in Table 6. This list is intended to be exhaustive; it is unlikely that any individual operator would require each of these issues due to local variations in operations, procedures, and regulations. It may be useful for the airport operator to consider these issues in framing participant inter- actions and to provide to participants as a starting point for issues to be considered in their operation. Checklist Questions Does the proposed effort impact my operation in any way? What are the benefits of the proposed effort? What are the potential costs to the company of the proposed effort? Does the company participate in any similar ACDM programs at other airports? Is there any institutional wisdom that may inform the company’s participation in this effort as a result of previous ones? What demands will be placed on local staff to participate? What demands will be placed on other company staff to participate? If the company is required to communicate data, what effort is required to compute this data? Who will be responsible for this effort? Does the company possess any automation to support this task? What effort is involved in communicating these data elements? Are these communication means familiar to company personnel? Table 6. Scheduled airline and flight operator checklist.

Role of the Airport and Other CDM 25 Non-Terminal Services and Functions (Fixed Based Operators, Aircraft Industry, Military Areas, etc.) At present, general aviation, except for NBAA participants, and military are not direct FAA/ Industry CDM program participants and therefore will not initially participate in the EOBT message set in 2015. That does not mean that they are excluded from ACDM. To the contrary, ACDM will introduce and enhance their knowledge of programs like departure metering with their inclusion at meetings and frequently will generate volunteer activity to join the process. Operations in this area are diverse. For example, military procedures and operational needs are likely quite different from cargo carriers. Likewise, recreational general aviation operators may be quite different from corporate flight operators. Additionally, large aircraft industry oper- ations will have different needs. For example, an aircraft manufacturing plant that is located at an airport conducts a large number of movements each day involving aircraft towing opera- tions from one point on the airport to another. While their operation is responsible for a large percentage of this type of operation, their planning and experience may be very valuable to an operator that performs this function only occasionally. ACDM is all-inclusive. The airport is a community of flight operators, and the entire community should have a role in or can learn from shaping the ACDM effort. This inclusion is particularly important early on in the development of a program because operators in this category will have the least experience or knowledge con- cerning the ACDM process, and early inclusion will reduce the learning curve. Terminal Services A variety of stakeholders providing service operate in passenger terminals, and some of these may have an interest or a role in a given ACDM activity. This category of airport stakeholder may include essential security services like TSA, CBP, and law enforcement. Other stakehold- ers that provide terminal services would include those that provide passenger conveniences like food service and retail, along with those that provide airline functions like gate agents and lounges. Improved data sharing could potentially enhance all of these stakeholder functions. For example, if the passenger count from inbound international flights was correlated with a real-time estimated time of arrival, a highly accurate demand on CBP functions could then be forecast in advance. Another example is food and service vendors for late flights. If vendors had a process to receive predictions of real-time day-of-operations arrival and departure data, then they might tie their operating hours to this data. Thus service to passengers would be enhanced. Such parties should always be included when ACDM efforts have the potential to impact or alter their operations. It is important for the airport operator to consider, however, that these organizations will have different objectives and potentially significant constraints on their ability to modify operations in response to ACDM activities. However, as they provide essential contributions to the pas- senger experience, they are an excellent area in which the airport operator may try to improve the overall operation. Landside Services and Operations Landside operators, including parking providers, rental car operators, public transit, and other non-transportation functions, may also have a role to play in ACDM efforts. For example, improved data sharing mechanisms may help these service providers to identify schedule dis- ruptions earlier and provide much-needed services outside of their normal operating schedules. Many of the same considerations were described in the previous section; much of the benefit to be realized by and through these parties relates to schedule and modifications thereto.