Empirical Assessment of the End-Around Taxiway’s Operational Benefits at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Using ASDE-X Data

摘要

At the present time, only a few airfields in the world have an End-Around Taxiway (EAT).Since December 2008, an EAT serves Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport’s (DFW) runways17L, 17C, and 17R, with the purpose of reducing the number of runway crossings and thereforeimproving safety and capacity.This paper describes the results of the research project (funded by the FAA andperformed by the authors) to assess the safety impacts of DFW’s EAT in terms of reduction innumber of runway crossings. In addition, this paper empirically defines the enhancement indeparture and arrival throughput achieved after the construction of the EAT. These assessmentsare based on data from DFW’s Surface Detection Equipment – Model X (ASDE-X) database.This study has found that the EAT has improved runway safety, increased capacity andreduced departure delay at DFW, although for several reasons its usage is essentially limited torunway 17L arrivals. The EAT has eliminated on average 51% crossings on runway 17C dailyand over 83% percent of runway 17L arrivals use the EAT or cross runway 17C using low-risktaxiways. In fact, the EAT has nearly eliminated all mid-runway 17C crossings due to 17Larrivals.The EAT has exceeded the expected enhancements of departure and arrival capacity.Compared to pre-EAT operations, the ASDE-X data reveals that both departure and arrivaldemand have increased at DFW. However, EAT operation has allowed the daily mean arrivaland departure maximum throughput rates to increase by 40% and 25%, respectively, while themean daily maximum departure delay has decreased by 38%.