AIRPORT PLANNING AND DESIGN (LECTURE 1)

Study of Planning, Design and Operations of Airport is termed as Airport Engineering. All these
elements need to be cost effective and provide safe transfer of goods and passengers.
ICAO

Safety is the overriding requirement in aviation. Standardisation is one of the means to achieve
it. In the case of airports, it is standardisation of facilities, ground equipment and procedures.
The only justification for differences is to match the types of aircraft that may be expected to
use the airports. It is, of course, necessary for the standards to be appropriate and to be agreed
by the aviation community.

International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) adopted Annex 14-Aerodromes to the Convention
on 29th May 1951. Annex 14 provides the required set of standards for aerodromes used by
international air transport. The Annex contains information for planning, designing andoperating
airports.

Airport Demand

Aviation activity is primarily dependent on

The population and population density of the city or region being served.
The economic character of the city
The proximity of the airport to other airports
Whether the airport acts as a hub for air transport routes.

Annual passenger enplanements and aircraft operations are directly related to city size; however
two cities approx. equal in population may have significantly different airports need due to
difference in the social and economic character of the city.
Industrial cities tend to generate much less aviation activity than centres of government,
education and finance

Airport Demand Estimation

A variety of approach used to forecast aviation demand

The judgement of the forecaster

Predictions of knowledgeable persons from airline companies or the aircraft

manufacturing industry.
The Foresight exercise used a refined version of expert judgement called the
Delphi technique, where a panel of experts has their judgements returned to them
together with those of the other experts, so that they can adjust their views prior
to the final collation of the results.

National forecasts

Analytical models that relate air travel to some combinations of variables such as air
fares, travel time, city population, and social economic characteristic of a city. See next
slide for more explanation.

Site Selection Criteria

Convenience to users
Availability of Land and Land cost
Design and Layout of Airport
Airspace Obstruction
Engineering Factors
Social and Environmental Factors
Availability of Users
Atmospheric Conditions
Hazards due to Birds
Coordination with other Airports

Convenience to Users

Ideally an airport should be located near the centre of the cities, but problem of air
obstruction and land cost rule out this possibility.
Amount of airport use is sensitive to the ratio of the ground travel time to total journey time.
Travel time is more important measure of convenience, thus a relatively remote potential
airport site should not be ruled out if it is conveniently located near a major highway or other
surface transportation facility.

Availability of Land and Land Cost

The amount of land required will depend on the length and number of runways, lateral
clearances, and areas required for buildings, aprons, automobile parking and circulation, and
so forth.
In general, for new airports in large cities around 10,000 acres (4050 hectares) of land is
required. Basic utility airports (small airports) may require less than 40 hectares.
It is important that sufficient land be acquired for future expansion. Failure to do so could
mean that a convenient airport site need to shut due to limitations in airport operations from
an unexpandable runway or inadequate space for aircraft or passenger handling

Design and Layout of the Airport

In considering alternate potential airport sites, the basic layout and design essentially should
be constant. (this is necessary for passenger convenience)
Runways should be oriented in order to take advantage of prevailing winds.

Air Space and Obstruction

Adjacent airports must be located so that traffic using one in

with traffic using the others. An airspace analysis should
be made to ensure that this requirement is met.
Physical objects such as towers, poles, buildings, mountain
ranges and so on must not penetrate navigable airspace

no way interferes

Engineering Factors

An airport site should have fairly level topography and be free of

mountains,
hills and so on.
Terrain should have adequate slope for drainage
Areas that require extensive rock excavation should be avoided so as sites containing peat,
muck, and otherwise undesirable foundation materials.
Adequate supply of aggregates and other construction materials should be located within
vicinity.

Social and Environmental Factors

A special saying: Airports are not good neighbours.

Most difficult social problem associated with airport location is that of Noise. This has been
more worsen with the use of Jet Aircraft.
In selecting airport site, proximity to residential areas, schools, and churches should be
avoided, and the runways should be oriented so that these land uses do not fall in the
immediate approach-departure paths.
Library 35db, office 60-65 db, normal traffic 70-80db, airplane take off 120db

Availability of Utilities

Any facility that is a public place are always dependent on utilities.

The airport site should be accessible to water, electrical services, telephones, gas lines, and
so on. Those utilities should be of proper type and size.

Atmospheric Condition

Peculiar atmospheric conditions such as fog, smoke, snow, or glare may rule out the use of
some potential airport sites.
Several flights in the recent years have been delayed due to volcanic ash. The volcanic ash
may fail the jet engines if the aircraft is flown in the plumes of volcanic ash. The volcanic ash
can choke the engine of the aircraft due to the presence of sand, glass and rock particles
present in the dense clouds of volcanic ash.

Hazards due to Birds

Aircrafts impact with birds ad bird ingestion into turbine engines have caused numerous air
disasters.
Airports should not be situated near bird habitats or natural preserves and feeding grounds.
At certain potential sites, special works such as filling of ponds and closing of dumps may be
required to ensure that birds will not present a hazard to aircraft flights.

Coordination with Other Airports

Studies of aviation activity in heavily populated metropolitan areas indicate that more than one
major airport will be required in order to meet future air travel needs.

Where two or more large cities are closely spaced (e.g. Baltimore and Washington D.C.)
individual airport requirements must be determined in relation to the needs of the entire
metropolitan area, and each airport must be considered as a part of a total system.