4 ms·
Airport capacity scales with number of planes. Major airports are often running at capacity already and can't handle more planes. Increasing airport capacity
by paulmd 9y ago
Airport capacity scales with number of planes. Major airports are often running at capacity already and can't handle more planes. Increasing airport capacity is a very non-trivial problem.
It's a tragedy-of-the-commons situation, like traffic congestion on a roadway.
- mschuster91 9y ago> Airport capacity scales with number of planes. There's another factor: these big-ass planes of A380 and alike produce a lot of wake turbulence - in fact, the A380 so much that it has its own strength category and its wake turbulences nearly shot another plane out of the sky (http://avherald.com/h?article=4a5e80f3 http://avherald.com/h?article=4a5e80f3). This means that an airport may dispatch more lighter planes in the same time than heavier planes.
- icebraining 9y agoThere's no tragedy of the commons; airport fees can and are raised, leading some companies to switch to nearby airports, like Ryanair is doing in Brussels (moving some flights to Charleroi). And as fees increase, so does the profit potential of building a new low-fees airport farther away.
- JshWright 9y agoThe other way to take pressure off airport capacity is to reduce use of the hub and spoke model. If you fly direct from Buffalo to Tampa, you don't need to take up a slot in Newark.