AIRPORT FACILITY Chapter Three REQUIREMENTS To properly plan for the future of cost-effective and efficient means for Salina Regional Airport (SLN), it is implementing proposed facility necessary to translate forecast aviation development. demand into the specific types and quantities of facilities that can PLANNING HORIZONS adequately serve the identified demand. This chapter uses the results An updated set of aviation demand of the forecasts presented in Chapter forecasts for Salina Regional Airport Two, as well as established planning has been established. These activity criteria, to determine the airside (i.e., forecasts include commercial runways, taxiways, navigational aids, passenger enplanements, annual marking and lighting) and landside operations, based aircraft, fleet mix, (i.e., hangars, aircraft parking apron, and peaking characteristics. With this and automobile parking) facility information, specific components of requirements. the airfield and landside system can be evaluated to determine their capacity The objective of this effort is to identify to accommodate future demand. the adequacy of existing airport facilities and outline what new Cost-effective, efficient, and orderly facilities may be needed, and when development of an airport should rely these may be needed to accommodate more upon actual demand at an forecast demands. Having established airport than on a time-based forecast these facility requirements, figure. In order to develop a master alternatives for providing these plan that is demand-based rather than facilities will be evaluated in the next time-based, a series of planning chapter. Analysis in Chapter Four - horizon milestones have been Alternatives will determine the most established that take into consideration 3-1 the reasonable range of aviation demand width, strength, and length must increase projections. The planning horizons are later. Such decisions should be supported the Short Term (approximately years 1- by the aviation demand forecasts and co- 5), the Intermediate Term (years 6-10), ordinated with the FAA and shown on the and the Long Term (years 11-20). Airport Layout Plan (ALP). It is important to consider that the actual AC 150/5300-13A was published on Sep- activity at the airport may be higher or tember 28, 2012. It is intended to replace lower than what the annualized forecast AC 150/5300-13, Airport Design, which portrays. By planning according to activi- was dated September 29, 1989. The lat- ty milestones, the resultant plan can ac- ter was subject to 18 published changes commodate unexpected shifts or changes over 23 years. in the area’s aviation demand. It is im- portant for the plan to accommodate The previous Airport Design AC estab- these changes so that airport officials can lished the design standards based primar- respond to unexpected changes in a time- ily on the Airport Reference Code (ARC). ly fashion. Paragraph 4 defined the ARC as “a coding system used to relate airport design crite- The most important reason for utilizing ria to the operational and physical charac- milestones is it allows airport manage- teristics of the airplanes intended to oper- ment the flexibility to make decisions and ate at the airport.” develop facilities according to need gen- erated by actual demand levels. The de- In the current AC, the definition of the mand-based schedule provides flexibility Airport Reference Code is found in Para- in development, as development sched- graph 102.i. and reads, “An airport desig- ules can be slowed or expedited accord- nation that signifies the airport’s highest ing to demand at any given time over the Runway Design Code (RDC), minus the planning period. The resultant plan pro- third (visibility) component of the RDC. vides airport officials with a financially The ARC is used for planning and design responsible and needs-based program. only and does not limit the aircraft that may be able to operate safely on the air- port.” DESIGN STANDARDS The current Airport Design AC introduces not only the Runway Design Code (RDC), The FAA publishes Advisory Circular (AC) but also the Runway Reference Code 150/5300-13A, Airport Design, to guide (RRC). The RDC is defined in Paragraph airport planning. The AC provides guid- 102.mmm as, “A code signifying the design ance on various design elements of an standards to which the runway is to be airport intended to maintain or improve built.” Paragraph 105.c. indicates that the safety at airports. The design standards Aircraft Approach Category (AAC), the include airport elements such as runways, Airplane Design Group (ADG), and the taxiways, safety areas, and separation dis- approach visibility minimums combine to tances. According to the AC, “airport form the RDC of a particular runway. planning should consider both the present These provide the information needed to and potential aviation needs and demand determine certain design standards that associated with the airport.” Considera- apply. tion should be given to planning runway and taxiway locations that will meet fu- The RRC is defined as, “A code signifying ture separation requirements even if the the current operational capabilities of a 3-2 runway and associated parallel taxiway.” are used to plan separation distances be- Like the RDC, the RRC is composed of the tween facilities. These future standards same three components: the AAC, ADG, must be considered now to ensure that and runway visibility minimums. The short term development does not pre- RDC, however, is based upon planned de- clude the long range potential needs of velopment with no operational compo- the airport. nent, while the RRC describes the current operational capabilities of a runway Exhibit 3A summarizes representative where no special operating procedures design aircraft categories. As shown on are necessary. the exhibit, the airport does serve large commercial transport aircraft such as The RRC for a runway is established Boeing 737, 747, 757, or 767. In fact, based upon the minimum runway to tax- even larger Boeing 747 and 777, as well iway centerline separation. as DC-10 and Airbus A360 aircraft, have operated at SLN on a limited basis over the last 11 years. Large transport aircraft DESIGN AIRCRAFT are most commonly used by commercial passenger and cargo airlines as well as The selection of appropriate Federal Avia- charter operators under CFR Part 121. As tion Administration (FAA) design stand- “America’s Fuel Stop,” large commercial ards for the development and location of aircraft will utilize the airport for fueling airport facilities is based primarily upon services. The airport also supports irreg- the characteristics of the aircraft which ular specialty operators with large air- are currently using or are expected to use craft as outlined in Chapter One. the airport. The critical design aircraft is used to define the design parameters for The airport is also utilized on a frequent the airport. In most cases, the design air- basis by a wide variety of business jet air- craft is a composite aircraft representing craft. The business jets range from very a collection of aircraft classified by three light jet (VLJ) models such as the Eclipse parameters: Aircraft Approach Category to the largest business jets on the market (AAC), Airplane Design Group (ADG) and today, including the Gulfstream family, Taxiway Design Group (TDG). In the case Global Express, and Boeing Business Jet of an airport with multiple runways, a de- (BBJ). Business jet activity at SLN is much sign aircraft should be selected for each more frequent than activity by large air runway. The first consideration is the carrier type aircraft. safe operation of aircraft likely to use the airport. Any operation of an aircraft that The Department of Defense (DoD) main- exceeds design criteria of the airport may tains its own system of military airports result in either an unsafe operation or a and also operates on civilian airports. lesser safety margin; however, it is not The military utilizes SLN on a regular ba- the usual practice to base the airport de- sis. Unfortunately, the FAA does not al- sign on an aircraft that uses the airport low for military aircraft to serve as the infrequently. airport’s critical aircraft. These opera- tions cannot be used to justify or support The design aircraft is defined as the most capital expenditures under FAA grant demanding category of aircraft, or family programs at civilian airports; however, of aircraft, which conducts at least 500 the DoD and/or airport sponsor may operations per year at the airport. Plan- freely expend their own available capital ning for future aircraft use is of particular resources to improve specific facilities for importance since the design standards military uses. As such, the military air- 3-3 craft operations at the airport will be fac- craft approach speed, aircraft wingspan, tored only as a local airport sponsor con- and designated or planned approach visi- sideration. bility minimums. In order to determine airfield design re- The RDC has three components. The first quirements, a design aircraft, or group of component, depicted by a letter, is the aircraft with similar characteristics, is de- AAC and relates to aircraft approach termined for each runway. This begins speed (operational characteristics). The with a review of aircraft currently using second component, depicted by a Roman the airport and those expected to use the numeral, is the ADG and relates to either airport through the 20-year planning pe- the aircraft wingspan or tail height (phys- riod. Each aircraft falls within a certain ical characteristics), whichever is most FAA design category based on its charac- restrictive. The third component relates teristics as detailed below. to the visibility minimums expressed by runway visual range (RVR) values in feet of 1,200, 1,600, 2,400, and 4,000. “NPI-1” Runway Design Code (RDC) is to be designated for runways with a non-precision instrument approach pro- The AAC, ADG, and approach visibility cedure having visibility minimums be- minimums are combined to form the RDC tween one and three miles.