Airports Planning & Management (Introduction)
17. PCAA regulatory framework endeavors to provide consistency and compliance with the Annexes of the Chicago Convention within its domestic legislation i.e. Civil Aviation Ordinance, 1960 and Civil Aviation Rules, 1994. This framework ensures sound PCAA regulations conformity to the ICAO Requirements.
Outline
· Airports in the United States / Pakistan —an overview
· Ownership of airports
· Measures of activities at airports
· The national administrative structure of airports
· The rules that govern airport management
· Pakistan as ICAO contracting state.
· Civil Aviation Authority
· Civil Aviation Legislation
Introduction
1. It is often said that managing an airport is like being mayor of a city. Similar to a city, an airport is comprised of a huge variety of facilities, systems, users, workers, rules, and regulations. Just as cities thrive on trade and commerce with other cities so are the airports.
In this chapter, the airport system in the United States and Pakistan will be introduced and the ownership of these airports works. After understanding the measure to gauge activities at airport and national administrative structure of airports in Pakistan and USA, we would dwell upon the rules which govern the airport management. Finally, Civil Aviation Authority and its legislation would be discussed.
Airports in the United States / Pakistan —an overview
2. The United States has the greatest number of airports in the world. More than half the world’s airports and more than two-thirds of the world’s 400 busiest airports are located in the United States. There are approximately 5,400 airports that are open for use to the general public. Of these, approximately 4,150 are equipped with at least one paved and lighted runway.
3. Pakistan has total of 148 airports. Main airport are 27 which have scheduled service on commercial airlines additionally 20 airports are otherwise used by other agencies. There are 7 airports which are public as well as military besides 3 Private airports and 18 Military Airbases in Pakistan. 91 airports of Pakistan are with paved runways of which 14 have runways longer than 3,047 meters. The remaining 48 airports have unpaved runways including one airport with a runway longer than 3,047 meters. Pakistan also has eighteen heliports.
Ownership of Airports
4. Of the 5,400 public-use airports in the United States, approximately 4,200 are publicly owned, either by the local municipality, county, state, or by an “authority” made up of municipal, county, and/or state officials. The remaining 1,200 are privately owned, either by individuals, corporations, or private airport management companies. Airports in Pakistan are own by the federal government except three private and few military as well as civil usages are there.
Measures of Activities at Airports
5. Airports are often described by their levels of activity. The activity, services, and investment levels vary greatly among the nation’s airports. The most common measures used to describe the level of activity at an airport are the number of passengers served, the amount of cargo carried, and the number of operations performed at the airport.
a. Measuring passenger activity. The number of passengers served at an airport is typically used to measure the level of activity at airports which predominately serve commercial passengers traveling on the world’s air carriers. Measuring passenger activity provides airport management with information that will allow for the proper planning and management for facilities used by passengers, including passenger terminals, parking garages, gate areas, and concessions.
i. Enplanements. The term enplanements (or enplaned passengers) is used to describe the number of passengers that board an aircraft at an airport. Annual enplanements are often used to measure the amount of airport activity, and even evaluate the amount of funding to be provided for improvement projects.
ii. Deplanements. The term deplanements (or deplaned passengers) is used to describe the number of passengers that deplane an aircraft at an airport.
iii. Total Passengers, The term total passengers is used to describe the number of passengers that either board or deplane an aircraft at an airport.
b. Measure of cargo Activity. Cargo activity is typically used to measure the level of activity at airports that handle freight and mail. Airports located near major seaports, railroad hubs, and large metropolitan areas, as well as airports served by the nation’s cargo carriers (such as FedEx and UPS) accommodate thousands of tons of cargo annually.
c. Measure of Aircraft Operation Activity. The number of aircraft operations is used as a measure of activity at all airports, but is the primary measure of activity at general aviation airports. An aircraft operation is defined as a takeoff or a landing. When an aircraft makes a landing and then immediately takes off again, it is known as a “touch and go” and is counted as two operations. This activity is common at many general aviation airports where there is a significant amount of flight training.
i. Local Operations. When an aircraft takes off and lands at an airport without landing at any other airport, the aircraft is said to be performing local operations.
ii. Itinerant Operation. An itinerant operation is a flight that takes off from one airport and lands at another.
iii. Based Aircraft. Another, albeit, indirect measure of airport activity is identified by the number of aircraft “based” at the airport. A based aircraft is an aircraft that is registered as a “resident” of the airport. Typically, the owner of such an aircraft will pay a monthly or annual fee to park the aircraft at the airport, either outside in a designated aircraft parking area or in an indoor hangar facility. The number of based aircraft is used to indirectly measure activity primarily at smaller airports where private “general” aviation is dominant. At airports that primarily handle the air carriers, relatively few aircraft are actually based.
d. Operations and based aircraft are measures of activity that influence the planning and management primarily of the airside of airports, such as the planning and management of runways, taxiways, navigational aids, gates, and aircraft parking areas. In general, airport management measure the activity levels of their airports on the basis of all levels of passenger, cargo, operations, and based aircraft activity; virtually all airports, especially the largest airports in the nation, accommodate passengers and cargo, as well as air carrier and private aircraft operations.
The national administrative structure of airports
6. USA. All civil-use airports, large and small, in one way or another, utilize the United States’ Civil Aviation System. The civil aviation system is an integral part of the United States’ transportation infrastructure. The administration that oversees civil aviation is the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
7. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA’s primary mission is to oversee the safety of civil aviation. The FAA is responsible for the rating and certification of pilots and for the certification of airports, particularly those serving commercial air carriers. The FAA operates the nation’s air traffic control system, including most air traffic control towers found at airports, and owns, installs, and maintains visual and electronic navigational aids found on and around airports. In addition, the FAA administers the majority of the rules that govern civil aviation and airport operations, as well as plays a large role in the funding of airports for improvement and expansion.
8. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems USA. Since 1970, the Federal Aviation Administration has recognized a subset of the 5,400 public-use airports in the United States as being vital to serving the public needs for air transportation, either directly or indirectly, and may be made eligible for federal funding to maintain their facilities. The National Airport System Plan (NASP) was the first such plan, which recognized approximately 3,200 such airports. In addition, the NASP categorized these airports on the basis of each airport’s number of annual enplanements and the type of service provided. The NASP categorized airports as being “commercial service airports” if the airport enplaned at least 2,500 passengers annually on commercial air carriers or charter aircraft. Commercial service airports were subcategorized as “air carrier” airports and “commuter” airports, depending on the type of service dominant at a given airport. Airports that enplaned less than 2,500 passengers annually were classified as “general aviation airports.”
9. National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS). In 1983, the final year of the NASP, a total of 780 commercial service airports (635 air carrier airports and 145 commuter airports) and 2,423 general aviation airports were recognized under the NASP. With the passage of the Airport and Airway Act of 1982, the FAA was charged with preparing a new version of the NASP, to be called the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS). The NPIAS revised the method of classifying airports, primarily to reflect the extreme growth in annual enplanements that a relative few of the largest airports were experiencing at the time. As of 2002, a total of 3,364 airports in the United States were included in the NPIAS. The categories of airports listed in the NPIAS are; primary commercial service airports, commercial service airports, general aviation airports and reliever airports.
a. Commercial service airports are those airports that accommodate scheduled air carrier service, provided by the world’s certificated air carriers.
b. Primary commercial service airports are categorized in the NPIAS as those public-use airports enplaning at least 10,000 passengers annually Because of this wide range of size within the primary commercial service airport category, the NPIAS subcategorizes these airports into “hub” classifications. It should be noted that the term “hub” used by the FAA in the NPIAS is very different than the term used by the airline industry. Whereas the airline industry uses the term “hub” as an airport where the majority of an airline’s passengers will transfer between flights to reach their ultimate destinations, the FAA defines hub strictly by the number of annual enplaned passengers to use the airport. Furthermore, if there is more than one airport in a standard metropolitan statistical area (SMSA), the total number of enplaned passengers of the airports within the SMSA is used to determine the airport’s “hub” classification. The hub classifications used by the FAA in the NPIAS are: Large hubs, Medium hubs, Small hubs, and Nonhubs.
i. Large hubs are those airports that account for at least 1 percent of the total annual passenger enplanements in the United States. In 2002, there were 31 large hub airports in the NPIAS. These 31 large hub airports accounted for 70 percent of all passenger enplanements in the United States.
ii. Medium hubs are those airports that account for at least 0.25 percent but less than 1 percent of the total annual passenger enplanements. In 2002, there were 37 airports classified as medium hubs.
iii. Small hubs are defined as those airports accommodating greater than 0.05 percent but less than 0.25 percent of annual U.S. enplanements. Seventy-four NPIAS airports were categorized as small hubs.
iii. Nonhubs. Nonhubs are those airports that enplane at least 10,000 annual enplanements but less than 0.05 percent of the annual total U.S. enplanements. In 2002, 280 primary commercial service airports fell into the nonhub category.
iv. Nonprimary Commercial Service Airports. Airports that handle at least 2,500 but less than 10,000 annual enplanements are categorized as nonprimary commercial service airports, or simply commercial service airports. In 2002, there were 124 nonprimary commercial service airports included in the NPIAS.
c. General aviation airports. Those airports with fewer than 2,500 annual enplaned passengers and those used exclusively by private business aircraft not providing commercial air carrier passenger service are categorized as general aviation (GA) airports. Similar to commercial service airports, general aviation airports vary widely in their characteristics. Many general aviation airports are small facilities, with typically a single runway long enough to accommodate only small aircraft, and are limited in their facilities. These small airports primarily serve as a base for a few aircraft.
i. Reliever airports comprise a special category of general aviation airports. Reliever airports, generally located within a relatively short distance (less than 50 miles) of primary commercial service airports, are specifically designated by the NPIAS as “general aviation-type airports that provide relief to congested major airports.” To be classified as a reliever airport, the airport must have at least 50 aircraft based at the airport or handle at least 25,000 itinerant operations or 35,000 local operations annually, either currently or within the last 2 years. Reliever airports are located within an SMSA with a population of at least 500,000 or where passenger enplanements at the nearest commercial service airport exceed 250,000 annually. As the name suggests, reliever airports are intended to encourage general aviation traffic to use the facility rather than the busier commercial service airport, which may be experiencing delays, by providing facilities of similar quality and convenience to those available at the commercial service airports.
The Rules that Govern Airport Management
10. USA. All airports included in the NPIAS are subject to a variety of Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR). FAR’s are found in Title 14 of the United States Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) (14 CFR—Aeronautics and Space).
a. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) The 14 CFR series is made up of over 100 chapters, known as parts, each of which provide regulatory mandates that govern various elements of the civil aviation system, including regulations for pilots, general aviation and commercial flight operations, and, of course, airport operations and management. Within airport management, regulations regarding airport operations, environmental policies, financial policies, administrative policies, airport planning, and other issues of direct concern to airports are covered.
b. Transportation Security Regulations In addition to the 14 CFR series, regulations regarding the security of airport and other civil aviation operations are published under Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations (49 CFR—Transportation) and are known as Transportation Security Regulations (TSRs).
c. Advisory circulars (ACs) To assist airport management and other aviation operations in understanding and applying procedures dictated by federal regulations, the FAA makes available a series of advisory circulars (ACs) associated with each regulation and policies. The advisory circulars specific to airports are compiled into the 150 Series of Advisory Circulars. There are over 100 current and historical advisory circulars in the 150 series available to airport management. Those advisory circulars of particular general interest to airport management are referenced throughout this text.
Pakistan as ICAO Contracting State
11. The day of 7th December has significance, as it coincides with the date of creation of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in 1944 as a result of the famous Chicago Convention. Incidentally, the United Nations have declared 7th December as the International Civil Aviation day and celebrated as such every year all over the World.
When Pakistan ratified the Convention on International Civil Aviation (the Chicago Convention) on 6th Nov, 1947 and joined the club of ICAO Contracting state, the state aviation regulations and other Program within regulatory framework and activities had to ensure the discharge of the State‘s obligations under the Chicago Convention.
Civil Aviation Authority
12. Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority is a Public sector autonomous body working under the Federal Government of Pakistan through the Ministry of Defence. It was established on 7th December, 1982 as an autonomous body. Prior to its creation, a Civil Aviation Department in the Ministry of Defence used to manage the civil aviation related activities.
All kinds of Civil Aviation related activities are performed by CAA including the regulatory, air traffic services, airport management, infrastructure and commercial development at the airports, etc.
Administrative Structure of Civil Aviation
13. The administrative structure of civil aviation is as shown below
Civil Aviation Legislation
14. The Primary Civil Aviation Legislation is the Civil Aviation Ordinance, 1960 and Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority Ordinance, 1982, which is supplemented by provisions of Civil Aviation Rules 1994 being a secondary legislation.
15. Parliament of Pakistan has empowered Ministry of Defence (Federal Government) to issue and implement secondary civil aviation legislation. The secondary civil aviation legislation is known as Civil Aviation Rules, 1994 (CARs). PCAA under the provision of Civil Aviation Rules (CARs) issues Regulations, which includes Air Navigation Orders, Airworthiness Notices, Air Safety Circulars, Aeronautical Information Publications and Aeronautical Information Circulars etc.
16. PCAA provides air navigation services and aerodromes operations in all major civil airports of Pakistan except some small aerodromes which are appropriately licensed under CAR 94.These small aerodromes are owned by private corporations / companies / personnel like Sialkot International Airport (owned by M/S. SIAL).Few military airfields are managed under joint user airfield policy for civil air transport.
List of Airports in Pakistan
Airport names shown in bold indicate the 27 Pakistani airports those have scheduled service on commercial airlines.
Airport Name | Usage | |||
Civil Airports | ||||
BHV | Public | |||
CJL | Public | |||
OPDB | DBA | Public | ||
DEA | Public | |||
DSK | Public | |||
LYP | Public | |||
GIL | Public | |||
GJT | Private | |||
GWD | Public | |||
OPKD | HDD | Public | ||
ISB | Benazir Bhutto International Airport / Chaklala Airbase | Public / Military | ||
KCF | Private | |||
KHI | Public | |||
LHE | Public | |||
MJD | Public | |||
MUX | Public | |||
WNS | Public | |||
PJG | Public | |||
PEW | Public | |||
UET | Public | |||
RYK | Public | |||
OPST | SKT | Public | ||
OPSA | RZS | Private | ||
KDU | Public / Military | |||
SKZ | Public | |||
TUK | Public | |||
PZH | Public |
There are 20 airports which are otherwise used by other agencies.
Airport Name | Usage | |||
Civil Airports | ||||
OPAB | AAW | Public | ||
BNP | Public | |||
OP19 | Public | |||
OPCL | CHB | Public | ||
New Islamabad International Airport (under construction) | Public | |||
Islamkot International Airport (under construction) | Public | |||
OPJA | JAG | Jacobabad Airport / Jacobabad Airbase | Public / Military | |
JIW | Public | |||
KDD | Public | |||
OPLH | Public | |||
OPMA | XJM | Public / Military | ||
MFG | Public | |||
ORW | Public | |||
PAJ | Public | |||
PSI | Public / Military | |||
RAZ | Public | |||
SDT | Public | |||
OPSN | SYW | Public | ||
OPSB | SBQ | Public | ||
OPMP | MPD | Public | ||
OPSU | SUL | Public | ||
OPTA | TLB | Public |
There are 7 airports which are public as well as military.
Airport Name | Usage | |||
Civil Airports | ||||
ISB | Benazir Bhutto International Airport / Chaklala Airbase | Public / Military | ||
OPJA | JAG | Jacobabad Airport / Jacobabad Airbase | Public / Military | |
OPMA | XJM | Public / Military | ||
PSI | Public / Military | |||
PEW | Public/Military | |||
UET | Public/Military | |||
KDU | Public / Military |
There are 3 Private airports in Pakistan.
Airport Name | Usage | |||
Civil Airports | ||||
GJT | Private | |||
| OPKW | KCF | Private | ||
OPSA | RZS | Private |
