Aviation Flight Schedules
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Transcript of Aviation Flight Schedules
ARESEARCH WORK
ON
THE EFFECTS OF WEATHER HAZARDS ON AVIATION FLIGHT SCHEDULES AND
OPERATIONSBY
AKANDE SAMUEL OLUMIDECentre for Space Research and Applications
FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, AKUREONDO STATE, [email protected]
+234-7032320763
INTRODUCTIONAviation plays a major role in today’s social and
economic scenarios. It offers a quick, reliable and safe way of taking
people to their destination, for business reasons, holidays or family visits.
Even after a century of flight, weather is still the factor most likely to result in accidents with fatalities.
An increasing demand for air travel is the first challenge to the future of air transport.
FLIGHT DELAYS A flight delay is a delay in which an airline
flight takes off and/or lands later than its scheduled time. A flight is considered delayed when it is 15 minutes later than its scheduled time. (Hauke et al, 2001)
Occasional delays are part of air travel today. Much as we dislike delays, they are yet unavoidable, even in the well-run airlines.
CAUSES Maintenance problems Crew problems Aircraft cleaning Baggage loading Fueling Extreme weather Congestion in air traffic Security issues
STATEMENT OF PROBLEMAviation weather hazards do not only unleash its impact on
aircrafts in flights but also affects those packed at the Aerodromes.
Therefore, a good knowledge of this subject matter becomes very important to Aircraft operators, pilots and flight crew members
Should the safety of lives and properties be ensured and risks reduced to the barest minimum.
JUSTIFICATION The great increase in air traffic has led to a large increase in the
demand for airport capacity. Also, the months of May to October are months of the rainy
season, characterized by severe thunderstorms and line squalls and its attendant turbulence, microbursts and lighting.
AIM AND OBJECTIVESAIMTo examine the various weather hazards that affect
the effective flight operation in the aviation industry.
OBJECTIVESo study the weather approach to problems of flight
delays and cancellation. To analyse the weather parameters that likely affects
the smooth flight operations. To see if by human efforts, air crashes due to natural
(weather) hazards such as thunderstorms, wind shear, precipitation can be mitigated.
STUDY AREA The study area for this report is the Murtala
Mohammed International Airport , Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria. It lies between latitude 6021I11II N and longitude 3023I44II E. It is the busiest airport in Nigeria.
It is the major airport serving the city of Lagos, Southwestern Nigeria and the entire nation, with an average of 300 aircraft movements a day. It caters for more than 5 million a year.
Lagos state is a coastal state bounded to the south by the Atlantic Ocean and the other sides by neighboring states.
YearTotal Passengers
% Increase
freight (tons)
Total Aircraft Movements
2003 3362464 51826 62439
2004 3576189 6 89496 67208
2005 3817338 6.3 63807 70893
2006 3848757 0.8 83598 74650
2007 4162424 7.5 81537
2008 5136920 23.4 77472
2009 5644572 9.9 84588
2010 6273454 11.1 96919
2011 6748290 7.6 105215
LITERATURE REVIEW• Flight delay is a complex phenomenon, because it can be
due to problems at the origin airport, at the destination airport, or during airborne.
• Flight schedules are often subjected to irregularity. Due to the tight connection among airlines resources, delays could dramatically propagate over time and space unless the proper recovery actions are taken. (Wu, 2005).
• In addition, there are general arrival and departure delays. This usually indicates that arrival traffic is doing airborne holding or departing traffic is experiencing longer than normal taxi times or holding at the gate. These could be due to a number of reasons, including thunderstorms in the area, a high departure demand, or a runway change. (Aisling and Kenneth, 1999).
WEATHER HAZARDS ON FLIGHT OPERATIONSREDUCED (POOR) VISIBILITY
Fog It forms over land usually under clear
skies and light winds typically after midnight and peaks early in the morning. After sunrise, the fog begins to burn off from the edges over land.
Precipitation Rain can reduce visibility; however,
the restriction is seldom less than one mile other than in the heaviest showers beneath cumulonimbus clouds. Drizzle, because of the greater number of drops in each volume of air, is usually more effective than rain at reducing the visibility, especially when accompanied by fog.
Wind Shear Wind shear is a change in wind direction and/or
wind speed over the distance between two points.
If the points are in a vertical direction then it is called vertical shear, if they are in a horizontal direction than it is called horizontal shear.
In the aviation world, the major concern is how abruptly the change occurs.
Depending on the aircraft type, it may take a significant time to correct the situation, placing the aircraft in peril, particularly during takeoff and landing.
Turbulence Turbulence is the direct result of wind shear. The
stronger the shear the greater the tendency for the laminar flow of the air to break down into eddies resulting in turbulence.
CONSEQUENCES OF WEATHER HAZARDS
DATA AND METHODOLOGYDATA USED
The data collected for the use of the study is known as Daily Flight Schedule Report.
This data was collected from flight operations data unit of AIR NIGERIA AIRWAYS, ikeja, Lagos State. The data ranges between May-October 2011 and May-October 2012.
The meteorological data used were collected from the Nigeria Meteorological Agency, Ikeja office, Lagos.
METHODOLOGY The Histograms were plotted for the
data from the divisions in Aircraft operations. This is to show the frequent occurrence of factors responsible for the problems of flight operations.
Also, line graphs, showing the relationship between some weather parameters(rainfall, windspeed, and thunderstorm) that also contributes to problems of flight operations.
The monthly means of these parameters were used for the analysis for the period of my stay on Industrial Training (May-October).
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
14.29
9.89
4.4
2.23.3
0
3.32.2
0
9.8910.99
12.0910.99
13.19
3.3
Graph of Percentage Delays from Divisions in Aircraft Operations (MAY)
2011
2012
Divisions in Aircraft Operations
Perc
enta
ge o
f Del
ays
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
1816.16
6.06
8.08
0
2.023.03
4.04 4.04
0
5.05
10.1
15.15
8.08
14.14
4.04
Graph of Percentage Delays from Divisions in Aircraft Operations (JUNE)
20112012
Divisions in Aircraft Operations
Perc
enta
ge o
f Del
ays
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
7.69
13.19
8.79
1.10 0
7.69
0 0
5.49
10.99
18.68
13.19
9.89
3.3
Graph of Percentage Delays from Divisions in Aircraft Operations (JULY)
2011
2012
Divisions in Aircraft Operations
Perc
enta
ge o
f Del
ays
02468
101214161820
7.94
10.32
6.35
01.59
0
2.38
01.59
5.56
13.49
18.25
15.8714.29
2.38
Graph of Percentage Delays from Divisions in Aircraft Operations(AUGUST)
20112012
Divisions in Aircraft Operations
Perc
enta
ge o
f Del
ays
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
9.2
15.7
6.4
3.49
0 0
6.98
1.74 1.50
14.53
9.65
11.63
8.14
11.05
Graph of Percentage Delays from Divisions in Aircraft Operations (SEPT)
20112012
Divisions in Aircraft Operations
Perc
enta
ge o
f Del
ays
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
14.29
10.39
2.163.46
2.6
0
1.73
5.196.49 6.49
11.69
9.96
12.99
6.935.63
Graph of Percentage Delays from Divisions in Aircraft Operations (OCT.)
2011
2012
Divisions in Aircraft Operations
Perc
enta
ge o
f Del
ays
MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT110
120
130
140
150
160
170
180
190
200
210
14
14.5
15
15.5
16
16.5
17
17.5
18
18.5
19
Line Graph of Variation between Thunderstorm and Rainfall (2011)
RR Th
RAIN
FALL
(mm
)
MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT120
130
140
150
160
170
180
190
200
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Line Graph of Variation between Thunderstorm and Rainfall (2012)
RRTh
RAIN
FALL
(mm
)
MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT2.7
2.75
2.8
2.85
2.9
2.95
3
3.05
3.1
3.15
14
14.5
15
15.5
16
16.5
17
17.5
18
18.5
19
Line Graph of Variation between Thunderstorm and Windspeed (2011)
WindTh
WIN
D SP
EED
(m/s
)
MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT2.5
2.6
2.7
2.8
2.9
3
3.1
14.5
15.5
16.5
17.5
18.5
19.5
20.5
21.5
Line Graph of Variation between Thunderstorm and Windspeed (2012)
WindTh
WIN
D S
PEED
(m/s
)
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The graphs 1-6 which shows the number of delays with their
respective delay reasons, there were some delay reasons that had low number of delays while some has a high number of delays.
The months of July and August, 2012 recorded the highest percentage delays due to weather with amounting to 18.68% and 18.25% respectively.
Thus, there was an upward trend in the percentage which implies that there were delays and flight operation problems due to bad weather.
The Graphs 7-10 show the weather effects on delays caused by thunderstorms, wind speed and rainfall which are the weather variables considered.
These then show that in most cases, an increase in thunderstorm occurrence leads to an increase in the rainfall occurrence (as well as rainfall amount). Also, an increase in the win speed also corresponds to an increase in the thunderstorms
CONCLUSIONFrom May to October, the percentage and the numbers
of delays due to weather hazards show that the issue of delays due to weather hazards is to be taken with utmost seriousness.
In conclusion, weather hazards are one of the significant factors of flight operations, therefore pilots and aviation managers needs to have the knowledge of weather hazards integrated into flight operational guidelines.
RECOMMENDATION
NIMET should be issuing a comprehensive daily weather report before the daily flight scheduled are been planned.
The Government should embark on projects to improve weather study and acquire weather equipment that would ensure that pilots are kept abreast of weather information at any time.
The Government should provide the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) the installation of MeteoSat Second Generation (MSG) ground receiver; installation of thunderstorm detectors; construction of Weather Forecasting and Climate research Centre.
Also the construction as procurement and installation of Doppler Weather Radars (DWR); installation of low-level wind shear alert system (LLWAS) at the two wings of the airports; procurement and installation of Upper Air sounding equipment.
THANKYOU