Analyses of the impact of the reduced vertical separation minimum (RVSM) implementation on airport system infrastructures with basic runway configurations

The reduced vertical separation minimum (RVSM) implementation reduces the 2000-ft vertical separation minima (VSM) applied between FL290 and FL410 to the 1000 feet. Thus, the RVSM implementation increases the airspace capacity between FL 290 and FL410 by almost double with the six additional flight levels.; The objective of this research is to analyze the effects of the RVSM implementation on the airside of three basic airport system infrastructures. The goal is to develop an understanding of the changes in the airside-system capacity and delay aggregation of a major airport system due to the RVSM implementation. The hypothesis is that the imbalance between increases in the airspace capacity and the limited airfield capacity, would aggravate congestion and delays, especially at most major airports and during peak hours of operations. In this research, simulation models are used to test this hypothesis. The airport systems with dual-lane, intersecting, and independent-parallel runway configurations are selected for our study. Bangkok, LaGuardia, and John F. Kennedy International airports are used to represent these airport systems, respectively. The analyses use the full-day hourly traffic of the peak months as flight inputs and are conducted for both good and poor weather conditions.; The results from our analyses confirm that the RVSM implementation creates a bottleneck on the airside of all three airport systems, especially on the airfield where the capacity is limited. Although the bottleneck of the airside occurs mostly on the airfield, the impacts of the RVSM implementation on the airport systems with different geometries of runway configuration are various. Severe congestion in the airside of the dual-lane-runway airport system occurs mostly on the airfield. The congestion in the airside of the airport systems with intersecting and independent-parallel runway configurations is severe not only on the airfield, but also in the airspace. When the results are compared among the three airport systems, not surprisingly, it is found that the airside system performance of the airport system with independent-parallel runway configuration is the best among the three airport systems. However, the results show that none of these airport systems is able to accommodate the potential increase of air traffic due to the RVSM implementation. Therefore, we strongly believe that the expansion of the airfield of the airport system will be needed to accommodate the RVSM implementation in the long run. The simulations provide insight into where these improvements should be made. The methodology developed in this thesis to explore the factors that contribute to delay with the RVSM implementation is generally applicable to other airport systems.