Originally Posted by
AirNoServicesAustralia
Damn the Sth Africans keep their movement figures close to their chest, so it took me about 20 minutes of Googling to dig them up. I guess they don't want to let out to the rest of the world how quiet their airspace is.
Sydney, even with a nighttime curfew in place, had for the month of March 2006, 24,438 total aircraft movements, whilst Joburg for the same month had 17,562 total aircraft movements (and that was their busiest month ever). Just to add to that, Bankstown, Sydney's second airport (mainly for light aircraft and the like) had a whopping 28,048 total movements for the month.
So sorry ATC Groove but I think you better rethink this whole idea of Joburg being ****loads busier than Sydney as it's not, in fact it is more on a par with Melbourne movement figures. Cheers.
Aaah. You have to look at what is being presented is it billed movements, runway movements or sector movements?
Meaning in SA we only charge for the arrivals (landings) and this is generally the "movement" count that is presented. As I have it the rest of the world (bar one or two ANSP's) count actual runway throughput (takeoffs and landings) as well as the sector throughput.
Eg.
In SA:
Depart from airport A to airport B = 1 movement at airport A (Dep) and 1 at airport B (landing).
Actual is 1 at airport A and 1 at sector D and E and F before landing at Airport B. A total of 6. Seems as if other ANSP's have been adding all the movements to their total count as it should be while SA has only been presenting the arrivals and departures. (ANSA can shed more light I'm sure on how they count theirs).
Touch and Go is counted as 1 movement only GF flights as 1 movement only. As the charge is for a landing only.
When you look at the runway throughput, some of the regional airports in SA have figures of 10000 plus runway movements in a month (as high as 14500). Might not seem so much at first but they are only open for 12 hours a day and only have 1 frequency with 1 controller on duty at a time all while working non radar approach without a co-ord. Busiest hours frequently approach 100 movements in an hour.