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Why does Air Traffic Control Delay a Flight?

January 3, 2011 By 2 Comments

What exactly is an air traffic control or “flow” delay?

Airliner crosses in front of Air Traffic Control TowerEssentially an air traffic control delay is created any time that the FAA believes too many airplanes will occupy any segment of airspace that your flight may be flying through. The FAA has determined that an air traffic controller can work a certain number of flights per hour. If this number is exceeded, it starts to automatically re-route flights around that air traffic control sector until the level of airplanes reaches the controller’s ability once again. This is done either by holding the aircraft on the ground or in the air until the situation solves itself.

In addition, air traffic control delays are common at some of the country’s busiest airports where air traffic volume is continuously high. For example, Chicago-O’hare is arguably the busiest airport in the world measured by operations (takeoffs and landings). It frequently encounters periods of time where more airplanes are inbound to land from across the country than the airport can handle due to the number of runways and amount of airspace available. During these times, the FAA issues a ground stop for all airplanes inbound to O’hare which requires the airplanes to hold on the ground at their origin until a time exists where they can be fit into the traffic sequence. These delays run from a half hour or so all the way up to eight or more hours depending on the severity of the resource limitation.

The final reason for air traffic control delays is weather. When large thunderstorms build across the nation, air traffic must be routed around them both for passenger comfort and safety. Most large thunderstorms build to anywhere from 40,000 to 55,000 feet tall. The average commercial airliner can cruise no higher than 38-40,000 feet which limits the ability to fly over the top of the storm. These storms then create narrower corridors in which to flow the same number of aircraft across the country which means higher workloads for the controllers in those corridors. Ground holds or holding in the air may be issued so that enough space exists between airliners in the sky.

Questions or comments? Have an air traffic control delay experience to share? Please do so below…

Filed Under: Ask the Pilot, ATC Tagged With: , , , , ,

FAA Needs to Stop Whining and Start Acting

November 9, 2007 By Leave a Comment

For the second time in just a few months, a major air traffic control facility has lost all air-ground and ground-ground communications. This morning, an unidentified outage occurred at the Jacksonville Center facility in Jacksonville, Florida. Jacksonville Center handles the major traffic routes between Florida and further North up the east coast. It is the 7th busiest air traffic control center facility in the country.

Not long ago the Memphis Air Traffic Control Center lost all of its communications as well, blocking a major portion of US airspace and causing the delay and diversion of hundreds of flights bound for its airspace. This outage was caused by the cutting of a telephone line to the center facility.

These two outages are the face of a much larger problem that the FAA has chosen to ignore and not fix for the last few decades. The air traffic control system in this country is outdated, unreliable, and subject to complete failure from even the smallest of problems. Complete outages are rare, but it’s the every day problems that put lives at risk.

Almost daily, radio transmitters fail, lines go down, and failures occur. Often radio transmitters become so hard to understand that pilots have to report them to controllers to be fixed. In addition, pilots may radio air traffic control several times before they are heard. Air traffic control instructions are also frequently not heard due to weak transmissions and static.

To compliment the problem, air traffic control staffing is becoming an issue and more controllers are working longer hours. Fatigue is simply intolerable in a profession where thousands of lives can be at risk. Controllers may forget to give clearances or not notice discrepancies due to fatigue. In addition, one air traffic controller may only control a small number of aircraft at a time. This means that if staffing continues to be reduced, flight delays will escalate since fewer aircraft can be in the sky at any given time.

The solution that the FAA has been unwilling to accept is the addition of funding for hiring controllers and upgrading systems. Instead it has been pouring money into a “free flight” program by which aircraft would monitor each other for conflicts and the system would be operated off of satellites. There are some places where more automation is good, air traffic control is not one of them. Every day pilots and controllers make mistakes. It is the vigilance of both parties that has allowed the United States to have the safest air traffic control system in the country.

By removing the human link of observing flights across the country, the FAA risks significant safety deviations due to automation failure and human error on the flight deck. Computers fail, plain and simple. There is not a computer in the world that will not fail at some point because of an error the designer could not plan for. If the air traffic control system in turned into an airplane autonomous system, the possibility of failure is increased because of the increase in computer reliance. Also, the number of eyes watching the sky will be reduced, therefore lowering the possibility of conflict being resolved in time.

The FAA needs to take its funding and upgrade radar sites, radio sites, and controller equipment in air traffic control facilities. By sticking with what works, the FAA will continue to be able boast the safest skies in the world.

Filed Under: FAA Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,