‘RIGHT-TURN’ DEPARTURE HAS REDUCED DELAYS

Departure delays attributable to McCarran International Airport have dropped since the Federal Aviation Administration reinstated the “right-turn” departure in March 2007. The Review-Journal ran a story on April 6 that suggested the opposite (“Delays increase with new flight plan”).

The story was based on information that consultants working for the city of Las Vegas provided to the newspaper. The consultants appeared to have used the wrong categories from an FAA report in an attempt to show which delays were due to conditions in and around McCarran.

The data that the article cited appear to include delays that were caused by conditions elsewhere (i.e., when a Las Vegas departure is delayed because of a snowstorm in Chicago or by congestion in high-altitude airspace hundreds of miles from McCarran).

The correct data category shows only those delays that are due to runway conditions and traffic demand at McCarran. The delays that have been reduced are those that result in a long line of aircraft sitting and waiting to depart, and were the specific delays that FAA intended to reduce by implementing the right turn.

The consultants also appear to have included in their findings delays that occurred when we were departing aircraft to the east, and therefore were unable to use the right-turn procedure. We use the right-turn procedure only when we use a runway configuration that requires aircraft to initially depart to the west, which is about 70 percent of the time.

When the correct data are used, it clearly shows that departure delays due to conditions at McCarran dropped during the 12 months after we reinstated the right-turn departure compared to the previous 12 months. These delays decreased because the new procedure allows about 30 percent of the departures to use a new and separate departure path, rather than shoehorning all departing aircraft into one path. The data indicate that the procedure increased departure rates by as much as 36 percent during the busiest periods.

Del R. Meadows

LAS VEGAS

Ian Gregor

LOS ANGELES

Mr. Meadows is the FAA’s Las Vegas District air traffic manager. Mr. Gregor is the FAA’s Western-Pacific Region communications manager.