New and Emerging Activities
Aerodrome capacity and efficiency
The Council approved Amendment 13 to Annex 14 — Aerodromes, Volume I, which included, among other elements, a reduction in the taxiway centre line separation distances. The existing distances were derived before the advent of modern, new large aircraft; and scientific assessments, together with practical risk-based studies, had shown that these distances could be safely reduced with a positive impact on the capacity and efficiency of taxiing operations. The revisions retain the ICAO taxiway centre line separation methodology and will enable aerodromes to develop their facilities within their existing footprints and reduce the overall costs of doing future upgrades.
Work is currently in progress to review the various elements used in the aerodrome reference code methodology, such as the runway and taxiway widths and runway-to-taxiway separation distances, using a performance-based approach. These initiatives permit regulators and aerodrome operators to facilitate aeroplane accommodation, in particular for larger aeroplanes, and to avoid unnecessary oversizing of aerodrome infrastructures resulting in potential savings of billions of dollars on a global basis.
As growth in air traffic increases, aerodrome capacity is expected to be a significant constraining factor. Work is in progress to develop, on a global basis, a harmonized use of an aerodrome collaborative decision making (A-CDM) process between different partners in aviation to ensure a coordinated effort to increase capacity and efficiency at aerodromes. Following two years of development, an ICAO A-CDM manual, which will become Part III of the Manual on Collaborative Air Traffic Flow Management (Doc 9971), has been drafted and is planned for availability in 2017.
