Efficient management of air traffic departing metro New York (NY) airports during convective weather is one of the most difficult problems, and largest sources of delay, in the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS). The high air traffic demand in a dense, limited-capacity, and very complex terminal and en route airspace environment, requires quick decisions and extensive coordination amongst multiple air traffic control (ATC) facilities in order to prevent rapid escalations in delay and potential airport surface gridlock. The Route Availability Planning Tool (RAPT) is an automated decision support tool that has been designed to help traffic managers better identify weather impacts on jet routes and increase NY departure route usage efficiency. RAPT uses deterministic precipitation and echo top forecasts, together with airspace usage and flight trajectory models, to indicate the status of NY departure routes as clear, partially-blocked, or completely blocked by weather as a function of aircraft departure time. RAPT is in operational use at all first tier FAA facilities that handle NY departures and at some airline dispatch centers.

In the summer of 2007, MIT Lincoln Laboratory and the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center personnel conducted a comprehensive field study of departure management decision making and RAPT operational performance in the NY airspace region. The data were gathered by simultaneous real time observations of FAA and airline operations facilities during nine days of convective weather directly affecting NY operations. Observation teams were dispatched to major FAA and airline facilities involved in New York departure management, including three control towers [Newark (EWR), LaGuardia (LGA), and John F. Kennedy (JFK) airports], the NY Terminal Radar Control (TRACON) facility, several Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs), including NY (ZNY), Cleveland (ZOB), Washington (ZDC), and Boston (ZBW), the Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC), and airline operations centers for Continental (at EWR) and Jet Blue Airlines.

Detailed field observation data, supplemented with post-event case study analyses, were used to determine the delay reduction, ATC productivity, and TFM decision coordination benefits attributed to RAPT usage. Specific RAPT applications that improved NY departure management decisions during thunderstorm events - ranging from increased departure route throughput, to improved route impact timing leading to more efficient reroute planning, to more timely decision coordination - will be presented.

An additional objective of the in-field RAPT usage observations was to develop a better understanding of NY departure management during convective weather, in an effort to improve RAPT features and support/refine ongoing user training. Observations of the multi-facility departure management decision chain during convective weather, the decision-making roles and responsibilities of Area Supervisors vs. the Traffic Management Unit of ZNY (a pivotal facility for efficient NY departure operations), and the needs and decisions required of airline ATC coordinators, all pertaining to RAPT usage and potential follow-on enhancements, will be described.

This work was sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration under Air Force Contract No. FA8721-05-C-0002. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the United States Government.