Air Traffic Monitoring - Assignment Example

AIR TRAFFIC MONITORING AT LAGUADIA AIRPORT Using the information available at flightaware.com, this monitoring session began at 17:18 EST on Tuesday, January 18, 2011, monitoring LaGuadia airport in New York, NY, abbreviated KLGA. At this time, LaGuadia airport was experiencing an inbound delay averaging two hours and twenty-one minutes due to low cloud cover. There were three runways in use: 04/22, 13/31, and H1, all of which were listed as having “good” conditions. Eleven flights were en-route and scheduled for arrival between 17:12 and 17:25 EST; the first of these, a flight between Raleigh-Durham and LaGuadia, was scheduled to depart Raleigh-Durham at 12:56 EST but left at 16:11 EST, and was scheduled to arrive at KLGA at 14:30 EST and in fact landed at 17:06 EST.

This is in contrast to the seven-day average for this flight of departure time at 13:34 EST and arrival time at 14:32 EST. Similar delays in departure time from point of origin and arrival time were experienced by the other incoming flights. At the time of this monitoring, KLGA was performing approximately twenty-eight arrivals per hour. Departures from LaGuadia were also experiencing significant delays due to weather and delayed incoming planes. For example, a flight from KLGA to Port Columbus International scheduled to depart at 15:35 EST did not leave the airport until 17:10 EST.

At the time of this monitoring, KLGA was performing approximately thirty-one departures per hour. Flights leaving KLGA were subject to low instrument flight rules, due to visibility under one mile and/or a cloud ceiling under 500 feet. Wind direction was 40 degrees and was measured between 17 and 21 knots on the day of monitoring. Flights had been under low instrument flight rules since 6:49 EST, prior to which they were under instrument flight rules, with visibility of 1-3 miles and/or a cloud ceiling between 500 and 1000 feet.

On January 18, the cloud cover was consistently listed as “overcast”, with a cloud ceiling varying between 400 and 1500 ft and visibility between 1 and 3 sm. Though LIFR were left in effect, between 14:57 and 15:51 EST, visibility was recorded at 2 sm with a cloud cover of 1000 ft, which would fall under the IFR regulations. Three other airports within twenty miles, John F Kennedy, Teterboro, and Newark Liberty International, were also making use of instrument approaches.