Empirical Assessment of the End-Around Taxiway’s Operational Benefits at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Using ASDE-X Data

At the present time, only a few airfields in the world have an End-Around Taxiway (EAT). Since December 2008, an EAT serves Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport’s (DFW) runways 17L, 17C, and 17R, with the purpose of reducing the number of runway crossings and therefore improving safety and capacity. This paper describes the results of the research project (funded by the FAA and performed by the authors) to assess the safety impacts of DFW’s EAT in terms of reduction in number of runway crossings. In addition, this paper empirically defines the enhancement in departure and arrival throughput achieved after the construction of the EAT. These assessments are based on data from DFW’s Surface Detection Equipment – Model X (ASDE-X) database. This study has found that the EAT has improved runway safety, increased capacity and reduced departure delay at DFW, although for several reasons its usage is essentially limited to runway 17L arrivals. The EAT has eliminated on average 51% crossings on runway 17C daily and over 83% percent of runway 17L arrivals use the EAT or cross runway 17C using low-risk taxiways. In fact, the EAT has nearly eliminated all mid-runway 17C crossings due to 17L arrivals. The EAT has exceeded the expected enhancements of departure and arrival capacity. Compared to pre-EAT operations, the ASDE-X data reveals that both departure and arrival demand have increased at DFW. However, EAT operation has allowed the daily mean arrival and departure maximum throughput rates to increase by 40% and 25%, respectively, while the mean daily maximum departure delay has decreased by 38%.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AV070(X) Paper Review.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Massidda, Antonio
  • Mattingly, Stephen P
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2013-1-13 to 2013-1-17
• Date: 2013

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 13p
• Monograph Title: TRB 92nd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Airport operations; Airport runways; Arrivals and departures; Aviation safety; Empirical methods; Taxiways
• Identifier Terms: Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
• Uncontrolled Terms: Throughput
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01472308
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 13-5272
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 14 2013 9:27AM