Shortfall Analysis of Departure Throughput During Convective Weather in Complex Airport Regions

This study identified the pool of potential additional departures that could be achieved during convective weather days by providing traffic managers with enhanced information not available today, and by improving the information exchange with aircraft and airport operators. To quantify the shortfall of departures, historical data from the 2019 convective season at the three major airports in New York was evaluated. Route Availability Planning Tool (RAPT) data were used as a starting point for the quantification. RAPT is a real-time decision support tool used by controllers to identify departure routes out of busy terminal areas clear of convective weather so they can be used more efficiently. Additional effort was necessary to improve the fidelity of RAPT data and to include downstream sector capacity information (which is not currently captured by RAPT) into the analysis. An estimated total of 952 potential additional departure opportunities were identified for the entire convective weather season of 2019 for the three major New York airports. Over seventy days impacted by convective weather, an average of 13.6 potential additional departure opportunities were identified per weather day (~ 4.5 per airport). Benefits against this pool may be realizable by providing controllers, pilots and airline operators with training and additional information in the future which is not available today. The methodology presented in this paper can be adapted to other regions where convective weather impacts departure operations.