LHR: A Model of Efficiency - WSJ Article
From today's Wall Street Journal:
THE MIDDLE SEAT
By SCOTT MCCARTNEY
U.K.'s Heathrow Goes to Extremes
To Ensure Not a Second Is Wasted
LONDON -- If you want to experience the epitome of the polite but oh-so-firm British attitude, spend some time in the control tower at London's Heathrow Airport.
Heathrow is an aviation miracle. It is the busiest international airport in the world, a vital global crossroads. And yet it has but two functioning runways, and is packed into a plot three miles long and one mile wide. New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, by comparison, has more runways, more land -- and fewer flights. Heathrow handled 60% more takeoffs and landings than JFK last year.
The Federal Aviation Administration and others in the U.S. talk about U.S. airports being at capacity, but Heathrow shows just how efficient air traffic flow can be. Since it has been so overcrowded for so many years, controllers and pilots work hard to make sure no second is squandered.
Most years, new slots are squeezed into an already frantic schedule. But lately growth at Heathrow has been locked in a holding pattern. No new slots were added last winter, this summer or in next winter's schedule, according to Steve James, air-traffic services general manager at Heathrow for Britain's National Air Traffic Services Ltd.
That's bad news for the many airlines, particularly several U.S. carriers, that don't have landing rights and slots at Heathrow. The tiny airport has become the biggest single factor in international alliance competition, and the key focal point of a new round of aviation treaty negotiations between the U.S. and Europe.
AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and its partner, British Airways PLC, are constrained in their alliance because American and British Air are so dominant together at a key airport -- one not readily capable of expanding capacity to take in new U.S. trans-Atlantic competitors. Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines and others want access to Heathrow -- today, only American and United have that. But when regulators insisted that American and British Airways give up slots to allow new competition, in exchange for permission to cooperate on scheduling and pricing between the U.S. and the U.K., the two airlines decided the price was too high.
Looking for a long-term solution to Heathrow's capacity problem, airport operator BAA PLC is trying to build a new runway, but that will take many more years. For now, capacity is determined by how small controllers and pilots can shrink a "Heathrow minute."
A Heathrow minute, not to be confused with a "New York minute," is the time between the clearance to take off and wheels up. As soon as a controller sees daylight under the front wheel of a jet, the next plane is told to begin its roll. Each day, controllers politely bark at pilots who dawdle even the slightest before pushing throttles forward, or hitting brakes hard. So important are these seconds that the Heathrow tower is staffed with 10 controllers, plus a supervisor. There are four controllers just handling ground movements around the tiny airport, and each runway has its own controller devoted solely to watching for that glimmer of light underneath a wheel.
A reaction-time delay of just seven seconds for pilots can knock out, on average, one takeoff or landing every hour. Since Heathrow's peak day stretches over 17 hours, that's 17 fewer flights a day.
"Controllers here are quite ruthless, and for good reason," Mr. James says.
They're sticklers, too. Long ago when Pan American Airways and Trans World Airlines were the only U.S. carriers with rights to serve Heathrow, pilots knew the prim-and-proper procedures expected there. But when United and American bought the rights from Pan Am and TWA, it took some time for new pilots to learn the ropes, controllers say. Controllers here insist that a long list of instructions is read back over the radio precisely. In the U.S., while rules state the same, airline pilots nevertheless often just acknowledge instructions with, "Roger."
"We'd make them repeat it every time," Mr. James says. "They learned."
Alas, pilot reaction times have gotten a bit slower lately, and Heathrow plans a campaign to educate airline pilots on the importance of getting in position and being ready to go the instant orders are given, and in getting off a runway as soon as possible after landing.
Once off the runway, the airport is no less congested. Taxiways are incredibly tight, though the flow of planes is aided by a unique lighting system than allows controllers to light a path for planes -- just follow the newly illuminated green lines. If controllers don't want the plane to take a certain turn, a bar of red lights can be lit to block the path.
What's more, the airport had one of the first ground radar systems to track planes on a radarscope when they were on the ground. "It was pinched off a ship years ago," Mr. James says. In November 2002, Heathrow got its first-in-the-world modern ground-radar tracking system that picks up planes as soon as they push back from the gate. Those gates, by the way, have a utilization rate of 99%. Small delays can quickly cascade into gridlock.
In hopes of adding to capacity, the British are doing extensive research on wake vortex effects on planes -- vortices of wind, like small tornadoes, that can upset smaller planes that fly into them -- as are their counterparts here at the FAA. If controllers can fine-tune regulations governing how much distance is needed between planes, they may be able to squeeze in more flights. Work is underway right now in Britain to see if the large wide-body grouping of planes, all of which get the same separation, can be sliced a bit finer. If a Boeing 747 jumbo jet isn't affected by the wake of a smaller Boeing 767, controllers may be able to routinely have 747s follow 767s a bit closer, and get more planes into the airport each day.
"I have to get that through the safety regulators, but it could add another movement per hour here," Mr. James said.
One interesting threat to such capacity increases, by the way, is the new Airbus A380 super-jumbo jet. Already, taxiways are being widened at Heathrow to accommodate the 555-passenger whale, which is scheduled to enter service in 2006. Airbus has said that the A380 wake vortex will be no bigger or more powerful than a 747's wake. But since a plane's wake vortex is in part determined by weight, some in aviation are skeptical. If the A380 turns out to have a larger wake vortex, forcing greater separation at airports like Heathrow, then any capacity advantage to having more than 500 people on a single plane could disappear.
"If we have to add even one mile [separation], then whatever gain is lost," said Mr. James.
In any environment where capacity is constrained, whether it be airports or classrooms or hospitals or factories, you have to make the most of what you have. Heathrow does that, and shows that there's a lot more capacity than you might think in the existing runways of the U.S., without pouring more concrete.