RCAA ON-LINE LIBRARY
Purpose and Need
Issues in Brief: The stated purpose of the third-runway project is to allow arriving airplanes to fly closer together upon arrival during peak travel times in bad weather, thus reducing arrival delays — IF there is a huge increase in the number of flights into Sea-Tac some time in the future.
The Port's air-traffic projections have not held up & its analysis of why flights are delayed is fatally flawed. Most outside experts — including the analysts at FAA national headquarters – believe that for the foreseeable future, the existing airport can handle the traffic without undue delays. Sea-Tac is NOT recognized as an airport with significant delay problems. There are many causes of delay, most of which will not be affected by more runways at Sea-Tac.
This topic is discussed in the environmental impact statements issued by the Port, in comments on those EISes, and in expert comments provided to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers & other agencies over the years.
Some people seem to believe that another runway will bring more aircraft, more travellers, & more business to the area, but the Port has repeatedly stated that building a third runway will result in NO increase in the number of planes using Sea-Tac.
See Economics for discussions of cost-benefits analysis for the third-runway project.
Documents:
Federal Aviation Administration.
2001 Airport Capacity Benchmark Report [Acrobat - 4.19MB, 195 pages]
Report shows no delay problem at Sea-Tac Airport
and does not forecast a problem anytime soon.
Gerald Bogan, Presentation on Weather & the
LDA landing technology to the Puget Sound Regional Council Expert
Arbitration Panel. [Acrobat 36 KB - 16 pages]
For RCAA. March 1995. (Shows
that "needs" claimed by the Port of Seattle for a 3rd runway
based on false weather assumptions.)
Testimony of Dr. Stephen Hockaday before the
Subcommittee on Aviation of the House of Representatives Committee
on Transportation and Infrastructure. [Acrobat - 24 KB, 7 pages]
Dr. Hockaday, an authority on separation of landing
aircraft in instrument weather conditions, points out that the Port's figure
of 44% poor weather does not match the FAA definition of poor weather and
is incorrectly calculated. According to Hockaday, IFR conditions only occur
7.9% of the year, and as little as 3% percent of the time during peak demand
when the third runway would be used. LDA technology could inexpensively
be used. He criticizes the third runway crossing active runways to reach
the terminal as a source of congestion and safety problems. Finally, he
points out that conflicts between Boeing Field and the third runway would
eliminate most of the benefits of the third runway.
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