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Case
Study: Springfield-Branson Regional Airport
In
1999 the Springfield-Branson Regional Airport (SGF) retained
ACSG to investigate the feasibility of using an LOI to
fund the reconstruction of their primary runway. As a result
of
extensive
engineering testing and analysis of alternatives, it was
determined that the runway required a full length and
full depth reconstruction.
Due to the length and intersection location of the crosswind
runway, this project would have essentially closed the
airport to all commercial service for most of a construction
season.
Project phasing and around the clock construction would
have had little mitigating impact on the situation.
It was determined that extending the crosswind runway, prior
to reconstructing the primary runway, was the only way to
avoid this situation. It was also determined that funding
the estimated
$34 million project could only be accomplished through the
issuance of an LOI. As noted above, reconstruction of the
primary runway
at a small hub airport is exempt from conducting a BCA, however,
due to the major costs involved in the “temporary” additional
components of this project, the BCA became the key component
of the LOI application.
During the BCA analysis, ACSG determined that merely extending
the crosswind runway was insufficient to significantly mitigate
the negative impact on commercial traffic caused by closing
the primary runway for several months. FAA headquarters indicated
that this LOI application would be the first submitted which
identified the alternative to approval being the closing
of an
air carrier airport for an extended period. This fact, however,
in no way reduced the application or BCA requirements.
To most fully mitigate the impact of closing the primary
runway, ACSG was able to prove a benefit vs. cost ratio,
which included
construction of new partial parallel taxiways to both runways,
on the side of the runways opposite the existing taxiway
system. Installation of an ILS on the crosswind runway was
also included.
As a practical matter, the newly extended crosswind runway
would become the primary runway, and the newly reconstructed
primary
the crosswind runway. Over the years, the original crosswind
runway actually began providing slightly better wind coverage,
especially during IFR operations.
A key component of the application included a new determination
of the “critical aircraft” and the site-specific
requirements of that aircraft. Determining that the B-727 operated
by UPS was the “critical aircraft” was very straightforward.
Because of the unusual nature of this project, FAA required a
10-year analysis of wind and temperature trends, as well as,
IFR/VFR historical weather patterns for the same period. This
does not extend too far beyond normal requirements, however,
justifying aircraft operating requirements does. We were not
able to use the normal Advisory Circular for determining runway
length requirements. ACSG was required to use the actual aircraft
configuration, typical payloads and stage lengths of the UPS
specific operation, and the performance requirements for the
type of engines mounted on the aircraft. UPS had elected to replace
their B-727 engines with Rolls Royce Tay engines rather than
installing “hush kits” on the Pratt and Whitney’s,
and the FAA had not yet published the operating parameters
for this combination. Resolving this issue involved extensive
coordination
with UPS flight operations managers and the FAA Office of
Aircraft Certification.
Developing the BCA required a determination of the actual
costs, which would be incurred, by all parties, if SGF closed
to commercial
traffic for over 4 months. The first difficult component
of this analysis involved estimates of the number of passengers
who would
be totally lost, i.e. cancel trips and not fly at all. Next
the value of lost time for passengers driving to Kansas City
or St.
Louis was determined. These figures had to be categorized
between
leisure and business travelers, as the DOT accepted value
of time is different. Finally, ACSG was able to ascertain
the
most sensitive proprietary information from the carriers:
per passenger
yield for SGF from the airlines and monthly net profit at
SGF from the cargo carriers. This information was consolidated
in such a manner that the numbers for no single carrier could
be
identified and made available to FAA as backup data, outside
of the LOI application, within FAA rules for handling proprietary
airline information and preventing its disclosure to any
outside
party.
Initial review and completion of the application, especially
the BCA portion, required several coordination trips, by
ACSG, to meet with FAA personnel in Washington. The final
application
document, the size of a typical airport master plan, was
submitted in February 2000. That following November, Missouri’s
United States Senators announced the approval of $30.1 million
in AIP
funds, to be allocated over a period of 5 years, for the
project. Conditioned upon the approval of the LOI, SGF issued
$35 million
in bonds backed primarily by the LOI, allowing them to immediately
begin construction on both runways, as opposed to waiting
for the annual LOI grants.
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