AUS provides new details on upcoming ramp control program
AUSTIN (KXAN) — The acting Deputy Chief of Operations at Austin’s airport, Loren Lintner, said he expects a new safety control program to be operating by the end of February.
Lintner presented new details about the ramp control program during an Airport Advisory Committee meeting this week. There he said the airport’s ramp has become chaotic as traffic continues to increase.
“If you got two aircraft trying to push back from adjacent gates, there’s no mechanism to de-conflict those aircraft either,” Lintner said.
Where is the ramp?
The “ramp” is the area where planes board and de-board. Austin’s airport has an uncontrolled ramp, meaning there is no one directing the flow of traffic as planes push back and enter gates.
The picture above shows an aerial view of Austin’s airport. The areas shaded in blue are taxiways and runways. When a plane is traveling on those blue areas, the air traffic control tower is communicating with pilots and making sure planes are separated and avoid collision. The green area is the ramp where there is no communication.
“Today, because of that lack of coordination, the ramp is just congested,” Lintner explained.
What program will Austin have?
There is no need for smaller airports to have a ramp control program because there is not as much traffic and congestion. Austin has crossed a threshold where a ramp control program is needed to increase safety for passengers.
There are two different versions of a ramp control program, Lintner explained. One solution is a physical building or room where an employee can visually see the ramp. That person would communicate with pilots on the ramp to give them direction for where and when they can move.
The other option, the option that Austin is striving for, is a virtual program. This includes cameras and software that give a team of employees visuals of the entire ramp. The employees are usually sat in a room somewhere in the terminal. Houston Intercontinental Airport has a virtual program.
Lintner said the airport has been studying how to implement a ramp control program in Austin since May 2022. It will take at least a year to get a virtual program operational, so the city is creating an interim program until then.
The city is in the process of hiring and creating a team of part-time employees that will operate the interim program. Lintner said the interim program will operate 19 hours a day with one supervisor and eight controllers.
The city is currently working on procedures and speaking with air traffic controllers to discuss how the program will work. Lintner said the start time of the interim program is fluid right now, but does expect planes to start being controlled by end of February.
The official program will be run by a third party company, not the city. The city is working on a starting the bidding process to find the company that will provide the software and manpower to run a 24/7 ramp control program.
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