THE AIRPORT AND AIRPORT
SYSTEM
Airports in the U.S.----Overview
• U.S. has by far the greatest number of airports in
the world.
• More than half of the world’s airports and more
than two-thirds of the world’s 400 busiest airports
are located in the U.S.
• There are more than 19,000 civil landing areas in
the U.S., including heliports, seaplane bases and
“fixed-wing” landing facilities.
• Most of those landing facilities are privately
owned and for private use only.
Airports in the U.S.----Overview
• There are approximately 5,400 airports are
open for use to the general public.
• approximately 4,150 airports are equipped
with at least one paved and lighted runway.
• approximately 4,200 airports are publicly
owned, either by local municipal, country or
state.
• The remaining 1,200 are privately owned.
Airports in the U.S.----Overview
Airports in the U.S.----Overview
• Many airports in the U.S. were originally
owned by the federal government,
specifically the military. And they are now
used together by the military and civil
aircraft. These airports are called as “jointuse civil-military airports”.
Airport Level of activity
• The most common measures used to
describe the level of activity at an airport
are:
– The number of passengers served.
– The number of cargo carried.
– The number of operation performed.
– Also, WLU, remember this one?
Airport Level of activity
• There are some special terms you students shall
learn:
– Enplanements (or enplaned passengers):
the numbers of passengers that board an aircraft at an
airport.
– Deplanements:
the numbers of passengers that deplane an aircraft at an
airport.
– Total passengers:
the numbers of passengers that either board or deplane
an aircraft at an airport.
Airport Level of activity
• There are some special terms you students shall
learn:
– Transfer passengers:
the numbers of passengers that transfer flights at an
airport.
– Aircraft operations:
the numbers of takeoffs and landings at an airport.
– Based aircraft:
the aircraft is registered as a “resident” of the airport.
Airport Level of activity
• The purpose of measurements :
– The number of passengers served:
provide airport management with information that will allow for
the proper planning for facilities and space used by passengers.
– The number of cargo carried:
provide airport management with information that will allow for
the proper planning for facilities and space used by freight.
– The number of operation performed:
provide airport management with information that will allow for
the proper planning for airside, such as runways, taxiways.
Navigational aids, gates and aircraft parking areas.
– WLU:
Measure the over all performance of airports with an uniform unit.
The U.S. administrative structure
• The civil aviation system is an integral part of the
national transportation infrastructure. This vital
infrastructure is administrated by the U.S
Department Of Transportation (DOT).
• There are many divisions under DOT
administrating various models of transportations.
One of the administrations that oversees civil
aviation is the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA).
The FAA
• The mission and responsibilities of FAA:
– Oversees the safety of civil aviation.
– Rating and certification of pilots and air traffic
controllers.
– Certification of airports.
– Operates the nation’s Air Traffic Control system.
– Installs and maintains navigational aids.
– Administers the Rules that govern civil aviation and
airport operations.
Categories of airports in the U.S.
•
•
•
•
Primary Commercial service airports.
Commercial service airports.
General aviation airports.
Reliever airports.
Categories of airports in the U.S.
• Commercial service airports:
Airports that accommodate scheduled air carrier
service, provided by the world’s certificated air
carriers.
The goal of commercial service airports is to
provide for the safe and efficient movements of
cargo and passengers between population centers.
There were total 546 commercial service airports
through out the U.S, in 2002.
Categories of airports in the U.S.
• Primary commercial service airports:
Those commercial service airports enplaning at
least 10,000 passengers annually in the U.S.
In 2002, there were 422 airports (less than 3% of
nation’s total airports) categorized as Primary
commercial service airports.
• Airline’s “hub and spoke” routing strategy were
used in some few extra large airports that
contribute to major part of nation’s passengers.
Categories of airports in the U.S.
• General aviation airports:
Airports with fewer than 2,500 annual
enplaned passengers and those used
exclusively by private business aircraft not
providing commercial air carrier passengers.
2558 airports in the U.S. are categorized as
general aviation airports.
Categories of airports in the U.S.
• Reliever airports:
General aviation-type airports located
within 50 miles of primary commercial
service airports, provide relief to the
congested major airports.
Reliever airports are intended to encourage
general aviation traffic to use their facility
rather than the busier major airports which
may experiencing delay.
The airport organization chart of U.S. airports.
Airport management as a career
• Today, an airport manager must be primarily a skilled and
experienced executive with a broad background in all
facets of aviation and management in general.
• An airport manager is part landlord and part business
executive.
– As a landlord, the safe condition and operation of the
airport is the manager’s greatest responsibility.
– As a business executive, the manager is in charge of
public relations, financial, planning, making profit,
coordination of airlines, concession to serve the tenants
and flying public.
Airport management as a career
• The major requirement for the job of airport
manager is business and administrative ability;
this means the ability to make decisions, to
coordinate details, to direct the work of others, and
to work smoothly with many kind of people.
• Courses in college like engineering, management,
accounting, finance, economics, business and
aviation law, are good for preparation for stepping
into this career.
The airport public relations
• There are several principals underlying the public relation
process:
– Every airport and every company has public relations,
whether or not it does anything about them.
– Public goodwill is the greatest assets that can be enjoyed by
any airport, and public opinion is the most powerful force.
– The basic ingredient of good relations for airports is integrity.
– Policies and programs that are not in the public interest have
no chance of final success.
– Airport public relations can never be some kind of program
used only to respond to a negative situation.
– Airport public relations go far beyond just press relations
and publicity.
Airport and its public
• Basically, every airport has 4 “publics”:
–
–
–
–
The external business publics
The external general publics
The internal business publics
The internal employee publics
Public relation objectives
• The primary objectives of airport relations are:
– Establishing the airport in the minds of the external
public as a facility that is dedicate to serving the public
interest.
– Communicating with the external public with the goal
of establishing and building goodwill.
– Answering general and environmental complaints on an
individual basis.
– Establishing good working relationships with internal
business publics whose interests are similar to airport
management.
– Promoting program designed to enhance employee
morale.
The historical review
• The birth of aviation:1903~1913
– December 17, 1903, The Wright brothers succeeded in
achieving flight with a fixed-wing, heavier than air
vehicle at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
– In the 10 years following the Wright brothers’ first
flight, the aviation world evolved in a very slow and
hesitant manner. Not to mention of building the landing
facilities.
– By 1912, there were only 20 landing strips all over the
country.
The historical review
• Word War 1:1914-1918
– The outbreak of World War I in 1914 opened up initial
opportunities for fixed-wing aircraft to serve in a
military capacity.
– As a result, the U.S. military built 67 airports for the
war effort. These predominantly grass fields provided
facilities to base, fuel, and maintain aircraft, as well as
provide sufficient room for takeoff and landin.
– After the war, 25 of these military airfields remained
operational, and the rest were decommissioned.
The historical review
• Early airmail service: 1919-1925
– After the end of World War I in 1918, many of the
aircraft and airmen that had served in the military
turned their talents towards civil uses. One of the first
civil applications of aviation was that of providing air
transportation for the U.S. mail.
– Communities suddenly became aware of the
importance of having an aerial connection to the rest of
the country, and as a result, municipalities began
constructing and operating local airports. By 1920,
there were 145 municipally owned airports. A
nationwide airport system was beginning to form.
Domestic airmail service grew considerably between
1918 and 1925.
The historical review
The historical review
The historical review
• The air commerce act: 1926-1938
– Airports were encouraged to be built for commerce
purpose during this period of time.
• Airport growth: WWII and the postwar
period.
– For the war purpose, the U.S. government spent a lot of
money to construct airports.
– After the war, the airline business that carrying
passengers began to bloom.
The historical review
The historical review
• Airport modernization: the early jet age
– Following the development of Jet aircraft, the formal
airports are no longer suitable, the U.S. started a plan to
modernize the airports with longer runway and bigger
terminals in 1955.
– In 1956, a Trans World Airlines Super Constellation
and a United Airlines Douglas DC-7 collided in midair
over the Grand Canyon, killing 128 people. As a result
of this high-profile accident, the public outcry for
reform leading to a safer air traffic management system
became louder and clearer.
The historical review
• The form of DOT: 1967
– The Department Of Transportation was established.
– The act also create a new sub-department called
“National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)”
which is in charge of :
• (1) determining the cause or probable cause of transportation
accidents and reporting the fact, conditions, and circumstances
relating to such accidents; and
• (2) reviewing on appeal the suspension, amendment,
modification, revocation, or denial of any certificate or license
issued by the secretary or by an administrator.
The historical review
• The airline deregulation act: 1976~1978
– The deregulation act signaled an end to the 40-year
history of economic regulation of the airline industry.
– Airline deregulation has had a profound effect on the
nation's airports. Once air carriers were permitted to
change route strategies without approval, many lessprofitable markets were dropped, confirming the fears
of deregulation that air service to smaller communities
would suffer. Service to some smaller cities continued
under the Essential Air Service (EAS) provisions of
the Deregulation Act, provisions which provided
subsidies to the last remaining carrier in a market so as
to prevent selected cities from losing air service
altogether.
The historical review
• The airline deregulation act: 1976~1978
– Perhaps the most profound impact of airline
deregulation was the proliferation of a hub and spoke
routing strategy by most of the largest air carriers.
– Under a hub and spoke routing strategy, air carriers
arranged flight schedules and routes so that a large
number of aircraft would arrive from outlying spoke
airports, over a short period of time into a hub facility,
where passengers would deplane to transfer to aircraft
bound for their final destinations.
– This routing strategy afforded air carriers the ability to
serve more markets with a given fleet of aircraft and
crew.
•
The
historical
review
The aviation security act: 1990
– In 1988, two independent deadly incidents involving sabotage of commercial
aircraft introduced two new threats to the security of civil aviation.
– On December 7, 1988, a disgruntled former employee of Pacific Southwest
Airlines boarded a PSA BAE 146-200 aircraft bound for San Francisco from Los
Angeles, killed the flight crew and crashed the aircraft, killing a total of 43 people.
The success of the killer's intentions was attributed in part by his ability to access
the aircraft with a lethal weapon, despite existing security screening measures at
Los Angeles International Airport.
– On December 21, Pan American Airlines Flight 103, a Boeing 747, exploded over
Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all on board. The ensuing investigation revealed the
cause of the explosion was a bomb disguised in a radio/cassette player that was
stowed in checked luggage on the aircraft. The bomb was originally loaded onto an
Air Malta Aircraft in Malta and eventually transferred onto flight 103 from another
Pan American aircraft in London. The "passenger" associated with the explosive
did not board Pan Am 103. His only intention was to perform this act of terrorism.
– As a result of these incidents, President George H. Bush established the President's
Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism to assess the overall effectiveness
of the U.S. Civil Aviation Security System.
The historical review
• From peacetime to terror: the 21st century
– Between the hours of 8:00 and 9:00 on the Tuesday morning of
September 11, 2001, four commercial airliners, departing from
three major U.S. airports, were hijacked and subsequently used in
suicide attack missions to destroy major landmarks in New York
City and Washington D.C.
– The hijacking of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines
Flight 175, both Boeing 767 aircraft that departed Boston's Logan
International Airport, were flown by suicide hijackers into the two
110-story towers of New York's World Trade Center, causing the
eventual collapse of the two towers and surrounding buildings,
resulting in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people and causing billions
of dollars of structural damage to New York's financial district.
The historical review
• From peacetime to terror: the 21st century
– Hijacked American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 that departed
Washington D.C.'s Dulles International Airport, was flown into the
side of the Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Department of
Defense, killing nearly 300 people.
– The final aircraft to be hijacked, United Airlines Flight 93, a
Boeing 757 that departed Newark International Airport, apparently
targeted to attack a landmark in Washington, D.C., perhaps the
White House or the U.S. Capitol Building, crashed in an open field
in Shankesville, Pennsylvania, after passengers on board the
aircraft, receiving news of the attacks on the World Trade Center
while talking on their cellular phones, attempted to combat the
hijackers and recover the aircraft.
– The September 11, 2001, suicide hijackings marked the single
largest attack and resulting number of fatalities involving
commercial airlines in the history of aviation, and in fact marked
one of the deadliest days on United States soil in history.
What have you learned?
• What does “joint-use civil-military airports”
means? Are there any such kind of airports in
Taiwan?
• What are the most common measures used to
describe the level of activity at an airport?
• What are the main purposes of the measures?
What have you learned?
• Please describe the following terms:
– Enplanements
– Deplanements
– Total passengers
– Transfer passengers
– Aircraft operations
– Based aircraft
What have you learned?
• What are the categories of Airports in the U.S.?
• Why are public relations so important to an airport?
• How many kind of “Public relations” an airport
has to deal with?
• What are the primary objectives of dealing with
the airport public relations?
• What does “Hub and Spoke” strategy mean? What
does “Hub and Spoke” strategy affect the aviation
environment?
Students’ assignment
•911事件發生後，對全世界的民航業或環境造
成了哪些影響？同學可以經由上網、報章雜誌
找尋資料，最好也能發表自己的看法。
•請同學蒐集中正機場航空站的組織架構，與本
次上課介紹美國機場組織架構作比較。另外也
請同學蒐集我國民航局的組織架構與主要功能，
最好也能和美國FAA作一比較。