Excess Flying Time In the National Airspace System

摘要

Air Traffic Management (ATM) in the United States is performed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Air Traffic Management controls airspace and airport resources, and promotes safe, expeditious movement of air traffic. A basic question that is often raised is how much inefficiency exists in today's ATM system. Why is it that identical aircraft, leaving the same airport and arriving at the same destination, can take dramatically different amounts of time? The answers to these questions may be useful for making funding decisions to enhance efficiency. In this article, we develop and apply a new method to assess the inefficiency of airborne aircraft. We examine sets of flights, select the minimum flying time in each set, and define the excess flying time of each flight as the amount exceeding the minimum flying time. Excess flying time is a rough measure of inefficiency in that it provides an approximate upper bound on potential benefits achievable through its elimination. For the data examined, we found an average excess flying time of 5.5 to 7.5 minutes per flight, depending on weather conditions and how much of the airborne portion of the flight we included. Assuming an average cost of $45.30 per minute of flying time [GRA Incorporated, 2004], potential savings on a national scale quickly add up to substantial amounts of money.