Planning of New Airport Runway in Constrained Environment

Planning a new greenfield airport runway requires the consideration of a host of complex factors to identify and assess the most viable alternative, both in terms of future infrastructure capability and cost.

In a constrained environment, such as mountainous regions, this exercise is particularly difficult: in addition to meteorological conditions, a special attention should be paid to the topography and obstacle environment. While the main objective is ideally to meet ICAO Annex 14 Obstacle Limitation Surfaces “free of infringements”, it is often not technically possible and requires the optimisation of runway layout and characteristics, together with the development of flight procedures based on ICAO PANS-OPS criteria.

airsight was commissioned by a client to determine the best location for the development of a new commercial airport runway in Indonesia, in a difficult geological and topographical environment.
Relying on its expertise in the fields of airport planning and flight procedure design, airsight iteratively developed and assessed several alternatives, in accordance to multiple optimisation objectives, i.e. obstacle clearance, flyability – but also the required earthworks (cut and fill) within the projected airport boundaries as well as for the partial removal of natural obstacles.

Such detailed study at an early stage at a greenfield airport development project greatly reduces costs, and ensures the sustainability of investment in infrastructure.