O'Hare has spent billions of dollars to create an east/west
runway configuration that avoids runway bisection but because the east west runways create a great deal of political opposition, particularly so for nighttime flights, the city has decided to shift the nighttime burden on the 6th ward.
For obvious safety reasons, a main and cross
runway configuration can never be as efficient as two parallel strips, hence Perth's desire to build a third runway east of the consolidated terminal building designated 03R/21L
Runway configuration and taxiway layout has inbuilt constraints and growth limitations.
The radius used for the VCOA evaluation varies based on altitude and airport
runway configuration, but is generally around three to five nautical miles.
The
runway configuration would allow three or four aircraft to operate at the same time, 24-hours-a-day in all weather conditions, it said.
Echoing concerns voiced by ALPA, Talent questioned whether the proposed staggered
runway configuration could safely produce anticipated capacity gains.
Matters under discussion are those of noise analysis, airport
runway configuration and flight tracks, legal procedures and requirements in environmental reviews.
The
runway configuration will be able to provide up to 50 operations per hour and the terminal will be capable of serving more than 300.000 passengers annually.
"But there is certainly a threat if Heathrow is less able to be the destination airport, if they change the
runway configuration to take more international airlines."
It estimates that a parallel east-west
runway configuration would deliver at least 10% higher capacity than a parallel north-south runway.
It is expected that the airport will eventually be able to handle up to 20 million passengers a year on the existing
runway configuration.
That's especially true when the
runway configuration isn't what we're used to.