David Field: December 2005 Archives

Sometimes the acronyms on which aviation depends make real sense. As they did the other day when the FAA showed off how the RNP function of RNAV works in the RW-the Required Navigation Performance that is part of Area Navigation in the Real World. The aviation agency showed how a high-end bizjet equipped with the proper avionics could make a hands-off precision approach through complex airspace that's surrounded by terrain and limited by no-fly security restrictions. The River Approach into  Reagan Washington National's north south Runway 19  is called that because it requires pilots to centre over the tortuous and twisting Potomac while avoiding such restricted area as the CIA, the White House and the monument-strewn National Mall-and some of the best-organised anti-noise communities in the nation.

With reporters on board, FAA pilots flew down the River on autopilot, not even touching their control yokes as the airplane banked to the left and right while swerving and descending under control of satellite-based navigation equipment and on-board Flight Management System computers. Instead of flying straight to line up with a runway, pilots stick to a tightly controlled path fed into the flight management system through the GPS.

Russ Chew, the FAA's chief operating officer, explained that RNP isn't so much a tool to increase airport capacity but an instrument to support airline scheduling: "airlines schedule to optimise, and weather is the major variable. With predictable, uniform approaches, in all weather, the airlines can schedule and sequence with reliability". And with the RNP, the FAA can 'deconflict' approaches to runways at nearby airports such as New York City's JFK International and LaGuardia-airports that are less than 20 miles apart and where a north-south JFK runway approach presents a conflict in certain weather with an east-west LaGuardia approach. By allowing planes fly curved approaches instead of long straight paths for miles until they're at the runway, RNP can avoid the conflict of intersecting approaches.

RNP's 'repeatability' - ensuring that aircraft fly exactly the same approach every time - lets the FAA design procedures to avoid noise-sensitive areas. FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey said in a hangar at National before the demo flight, "The environmental benefits are terrific too, because flying straight down the middle of the flight path means that people on the ground perceive less jet noise and experience fewer engine emissions".

On this bright and calm December day, it was an interesting sight to behold the pilots take their hands off the yokes of the FAA's new $25 million Bombardier Global 5000 as they watched their FMS keep the $25 million bizjet centered over the Potomac; indeed as we went by the CIA headquarters -on a high bluff near the river-they could have put their heads in their hands had they wished to make a point.

Alaska Airlines is the first carrier authorised by the FAA to use the RNP procedures at Reagan National. The airline pioneered the use of RNP procedures at Juneau and other airports in Alaska. Alaska's vice president for flight operations, Kevin Finan, said that even though the Seattle-based carrier only operates a single pair of frequencies into Reagan National, "we had developed plenty of other RNP approaches over the decade and we were eager to show the proud Eskimo (on each Alaska tailfin)." Finan said Alaska flies into airports using RNP procedures 6,000 times a year. Of those flights, 800, or about 13%, would otherwise have to be diverted, so the airline saves as much as $16 million. Alaska has flown along the required navigation performance path into Reagan National 10 times since late September. Under lower-tech procedures, three of those flights would have had to be diverted, at a cost of $5,000 to $10,000 for each diversion. Finan quipped, "RNP benefits Aunt Martha because she spends less time in a holding pattern waiting for the weather to improve".

As the plane made its way up the river to turn around for the approach, Nick Sabatini, associate FAA administrator for aviation safety, told reporters "You're going to see a proliferation of RNP approaches at those approaches that make the most sense". Sabatini said it costs the FAA just $20,000 to develop each new RNP approach plate. JetBlue Airways and American Airlines are in talks for FAA approval for the procedures, he said. The FAA has authorized RNP at Juneau; San Francisco; Portland, OR; Palm Springs, CA; and Hailey (Sun Valley), ID. One loss: at Palm Springs, a point on the approach over mountainous terrain had long been identified as MORON, but that name will be replaced when the new RNP is standard there, said FAA officials.

No mild-mannered Canadian, that Robert Milton, the former Yank who took Air Canada from near death to profits; as host of the latest Star Alliance chief executive board meeting in Montr饌l in early December, Robert, as Milton is called by all, has rallied at least one Star ally to his fight against rising airport fees that finance grand and grandiose terminal construction, the Taj Mahal syndrome as he calls it.

Robert came to the Star summit fresh from a meeting of IATA - which he chairs this year - to reveal plans for a possible alliance boycott of the most egregiously offending airports. He says: "Airlines are going to have to talk in unison, beyond what the head of IATA, Giovanni Bisignani calls 'shouting politely'." Bisignani has campaigned diplomatically on this for the last three years and in November moved to a near-confrontation with the Airports Council International.

Milton is moving further, saying a boycott would mean "airlines as a group determining that they really will not as a group fly to a destination. That was discussed today and I think there really is a willingness to go that far because some of what is being done is really absurd. Unless we begin to act with one voice, we will continue to see this sort of reckless expenditure by generally ungoverned bodies around the world" - namely the "private monopolies" that many airports have, in his view, become.

Air Canada tried in vain to limit the massive C$3.3 billion expansion of Toronto Pearson, which is now "the most expensive airport on the planet", he said.

Milton, president and chief executive of Air Canada parent ACE Holdings, had an ally by the next morning: United Airlines chief executive Glenn Tilton. Sitting next to Milton at a breakfast table with reporters, Tilton said: "You bet I'm part of Robert's hit squad. You might call it Milton and Tilton..." Tilton joined Milton in naming Caracas, Venezuela, as a possible target; there, unlike the nearly-completed Toronto, action might head off unreasonable plans and inequitable fees. Tilton says: "There are a lot of airports on the hit list."

So far it's been almost a love fest, the battle over Love Field in Dallas and the limits that the 1979 Wright Amendment put on flights to and from the close-in airport to protect the then-new DFW International airport. In its Set Love Free, Wright is Wrong campaign, Southwest has used its characteristic humour and trinkets: Set Love Free adorns the fanny packs, tote bags, sun caps and other paraphernalia that it sells (at low prices) on its Set Love Free website. The hub, with the backing of much of the business establishment of the Dallas/Fort Worth 'metroplex', has fought back with a serious staid website. Keep DFW Strong, its website, has drawn in community groups, even injecting that third rail of US politics, race and ethnicity, with testimonials for Latin (Hispanic American) groups. The argument is ideal for the Southwest public persona of the plucky underdog: "Aw, shucks, we just wanna to fly from our lil' ole' airport to wherever we want. Let big ole American fly from DFW wherever it wants. Fair's fair." Which is inarguably logical as far as it goes. And the counter-argument - "Gosh, you can just go on over to DFW and you can fly anywhere you want" - does not make the test of airline logic.

Now though the empire has struck back with truly Texas-sized trinkets: real airliners. The 800-pound gorilla of DFW, American Airlines, has moved to start flights from Love Field, a move that defies airline logic every bit as much as would a move by Southwest to operate at DFW as well as Love. The reality of course is that both are network carriers, and that neither benefits itself by splitting a node of its network. American admits as much when it says that adding Love flights was hardly its first choice but was an unavoidable response. American acted after the Southwest campaign gathered enough momentum to win another exception, this time a last-minute amendment that added Missouri to the list of states that are allowed nonstop Love service. That pointed a dagger at American's minihub at St. Louis, the last remnant of its 2001 takeover of the thrice bankrupt TWA. Adding love flights was the lesser of two unpalatable choices, American is saying. So this is no longer a Love fest, but perhaps that is the way the airline business is meant to be: airlines compete with each other, sometimes with sharp elbows, and so do airports.