Aircraft routing and related decisions in the Northern New Jersey and New York metropolitan area affect the quality of life of millions of residents. In addition, Newark International Airport has an enormous impact on the region’s economy, particularly on employment and future economic development in the region. Over 18,000 people are employed at the airport. According to the PANYNJ, Newark International Airport contributes $11.3 billion in economic activity to the New Jersey – New York metropolitan region, including over $3.3 billion in wages from some 110,000 jobs derived from airport activity. This economic activity is growing with Continental Airlines preparing to spend at least $700 million to expand its Newark facilities and the PANYNJ planning to spend another $500 million. The expected expansion and modernization which includes a $25 million FAA control tower could add over 1,000 construction jobs at Newark. In addition, good aviation service continues to be a key factor contributing to business and job growth in the region.

Window of Opportunity

Clearly, the FAA National Airspace Redesign initiative has the potential to provide the critical path for future improvements in aircraft operations and reduced noise impacts in the New York and New Jersey area. Also, rapid developments in software and technology (coupled with possible operational improvements) present significant windows of opportunity for resolution of issues related to aircraft noise, safety, and economics – issues that previously have appeared to be intractable.

As the FAA moves forward, it is essential that aircraft routing changes or decisions to maintain the status quo be reached through a fair and open process, weighing economic, environmental and quality of life considerations with operational and business considerations. The evidence is significant that the software and modeling packages described in this report make such an open process practical at a reasonable cost.

Need for Interim Action

Reconfiguration of the national airspace is a formidable task and time-lines to complete the work are not yet clear. It is not unreasonable to estimate that the national airspace reconfiguration could take up to five or six years to implement fully. Because of this potential time lapse, the Study Team recommends that interim measures for noise relief (which do not severely restrict capacity) be examined, tested, and implemented while awaiting completion of the full airspace redesign. The following are some of the measures that could be implemented while awaiting completion of the redesign:

• Accelerating implementation of state-of-the-art technology and systems in both groundside and airside operations, particularly at Newark International Airport

• Accelerating and adequately funding recruitment and training programs to staff full-performance air controllers at the authorized level for Newark
  
• Negotiating increased flexibility from the Department of Defense (DOD) for civil aircraft flights
  
• Initiating an optimization study to facilitate maximum utilization of airport facilities, particularly runways
  
• Experimenting with an array of departure and arrival profiles including, but not limited to higher altitude, unrestricted climbs, and ocean routing flights
  
• Giving serious consideration to a pricing plan at Newark International Airport that reflects the difference between propeller and jet aircraft operations.

The Study Team has found no single silver bullet to resolve the problem of aircraft noise. However, a matrix of actions discussed in this report have the potential not only to reduce aircraft noise, but to improve operations, management, equipment and concurrently, the quality of life for airport neighbors. The NJIT Study Team is hopeful that our work will provide helpful guidance to stakeholders as the National Airspace Redesign is launched.

Principles, Tools, Resources and Methodologies Essential to an Aircraft Routing Plan and the Evaluation of Routing Plans

The following elements are essential for the formulation and evaluation of aircraft routing plans. Inclusion of these items would facilitate a fair evaluation of routing plans in terms of aircraft operations, allocation of costs, and community noise impact.

Safety: Safety must not be compromised. To even be considered, all alternative routing plans must be essentially equal in terms of safety. Capacity limitations or other variables may be adjusted to ensure safety. Thus, safety must not be a variable in routing discussions.

Operations: Effects on aircraft operations, costs and flight delays should be considered. Costs can be expressed on an annual basis and a per-ticket basis. Optimization of runway operations is directly related to flight delays and should be part of the routing algorithms.

Noise descriptors: Day-night sound level and its relation to other noise descriptors should be explained. The study area should include day-night noise level contour plots.

Noise impact: Noise impact should be calculated for the entire study area. The value of quiet, or conversely, the cost of noise, is more difficult to quantify than the added cost of aircraft fuel utilized due to arrival or departure delays. However, full and fair weighting requires dollar impact values as well as descriptive measures of all considerations. A noise impact study should include but not be limited to:

• Population in each DNL contour band
• Total impacted population (DNL45 or greater)
• Total real estate value in each DNL contour band
• Value change in each DNL contour band

Physiological and psychological effects of aircraft noise: The airspace redesign project should include information and analysis on speech interference, sleep interference, and other quality of life effects caused by aircraft noise

Stakeholder equity: An impartial study demands an assessment of the equity of all stakeholders. The airlines and PANYNJ have an enormous investment in air travel to and from Newark. This investment, along with operating costs, must be reflected in airline ticket prices and facilities charges. The general public has a major stake in air travel, particularly through indirect subsidies and reliance on air travel for business and private necessities. Residents in neighborhoods bordering the airport have their life savings invested in their homes that are impacted by airport operations. State agencies, such as New Jersey Transit, the New Jersey Turnpike and the New Jersey Department of Transportation, have billions of dollars invested in the intermodal transportation network of which Newark International Airport is a key element.

The interests of all stakeholders must be represented at the table as the FAA launches the redesign of the New Jersey and New York airspace.

Subsidies to air travel: The decision to travel or not to travel is often affected by price. The effect of subsidies on the number of daily operations should be estimated. The value of the contribution of direct and indirect subsidies to air travel should be determined on a per-ticket basis and as an annual total for large and small aircraft. This information will aid in developing a routing plan that distributes costs, benefits, and burdens on all parties in a fair manner. NJIT Study Team makes no recommendation for or against subsidies to air travel.

Policy, law, and shared responsibility: Relevant laws, regulations, and policies must be considered in developing and evaluating routing plans. A valid study must examine the effect of current laws, regulations, and policies on the task of giving appropriate and fair consideration to environmental issues (including noise impact) with the need for adequate efficient air service. If an optimum balance is not possible under existing laws, regulations and policies, then changes should be recommended.

Methods of noise modeling, software, and modeling assumptions should be described: Computer simulations are used in airspace and airport modeling to evaluate capacity and operations. The optimization of landbased operations is critical. The reconfiguration of airspace should not focus only on air operations.

Existing operations and future demand are used as inputs to these models in support of the decision making process. The primary issue in the modeling process is safety. As noted above, safety cannot be compromised. Airport and airspace efficiency is secondary. NJIT Study Team reviewed modeling software currently used by various stakeholders and endorsed by the FAA. The Study Team also reviewed software that is being tested on behalf of or by the FAA for potential use.

Four software packages are described in this report: SIMMOD, the Integrated Noise Model (INM), Airspace Design Evaluation and Planning Tools (ADEPT) which contains the Noise Impact Routing Systems (NIRS), and the Total Airspace and Airport Modeller (TAAM). Larger entities such as the FAA and airlines use TAAM. The other software is more appropriate for smaller groups, such as private consultants and citizen groups. The complexity of TAAM requires much more training than that required for SIMMOD or ADEPT. TAAM and SIMMOD data may be manipulated for use as input to INM to evaluate aircraft noise.

NJIT Study Team found all of the reviewed software packages to be effective and reliable with two important assumptions – that the operators are well trained and that the input data is scientifically defensible. Pending the beta testing of NIRS and the FAA’s decision regarding future uses, INM is the software of choice for current aircraft noise studies.