Western Australia Route Review - Route Structure Proposal 3
Following further internal review of the second route structure proposal, and the SID/STAR package required to support it, concerns arose regarding some aspects of the total package and its ability to deliver the sought-after safety and operational benefits for industry. Whilst the proposal showed some genuine improvements compared to current practice, as mentioned earlier, the amount of off-track vectoring required for sequencing on the three inbound routes and the restrictions on climb inside the terminal area, in the busy south east departure corridor, warranted further consideration. The proposal was reassessed by staff experienced in the traffic segregation techniques used in the busy Sydney basin area. The results identified significant further improvements to the proposal by merging a fully segregated (jet/prop - inbound and outbound) route structure with the general principles of the current runway 21/24 traffic management plan. This provides separate major corridors, rather than combined routes, for inbound aircraft whilst still maintaining separate major corridors for outbound traffic. Segregating jet and prop traffic on separate routes will dramatically reduce the need for vectoring for sequencing, potential climb restrictions and allow full and effective implementation of the flow to gate methodology. For industry this will translate into an even greater level of standardisation in tracking and procedures for both arriving and departing aircraft, compared to the second proposal. For ATC this revised proposal will further increase safety margins to enable foreseeable traffic growth and significantly assist in improving the level and consistency of service provision, particularly in the arrival and sequencing phase of flight. Work will progress quickly to adjust the SID/STAR package to support the revised proposal and present this for industry feedback. Enroute and TCU simulator validation of the revised proposal are scheduled for early November and are expected to confirm the anticipated safety and systemic benefits. Some minor fine tuning may follow industry feedback and ATC trials however given the extensive development and review process undertaken it is not expected to uncover any further need for major change to this third proposal. The graphic accessed from the link below provides more detail on the structure being used as the basis for simulator validation. |
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