At the beginning of its Master Plan, Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport had two pressing questions, did the airport need four simultaneous instrument flight rules (IFR) landing runways and would end-around taxiways be a cost effective improvement? During the alternatives analysis it was determined that quadruple IFR landing runways were not only part of the preferred alternative, but aircraft simulation analysis also proved that triple IFR landing runways would not reach the desired hourly capacity goals or annual delay reduction goals. Simulation analysis of the implementation plan showed that a fourth IFR arrival runway should be the first of two needed runways and that an end-around taxiway was needed even before the next runway can be constructed.
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