TITLE:
The Influence of Climate Change and Variability on Aircraft Take-off and Landing Performance; a Case Study of the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport-Zanzibar
AUTHORS:
Omar Mohamed Haji, Kombo Hamad Kai, Sara Abdalla Khamis, Said Suleiman Bakar, Hassan Rashid Ali, Gharib Hamza Mohamed, Fatma Said Seif
KEYWORDS:
Aircraft Take off/Landing Performance, Missed Approach, Diversion, Take off Distance Required, Maximum Take-off Mass, Diversion, Missed Approach
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Transportation Technologies,
Vol.12 No.3,
July
26,
2022
ABSTRACT: Climate change (CC) and variability have been world widely reported to pose number of risks
in aviation industry including accidents, astray, and other operational difficulties.
The impact of weather on landing and take-off performances has been several
times experienced at Abeid Amani Karume International Airport (AAKIA); however,
the influence of climate change and variability to the aircraft performance
needs to be assessed. Thus, this study investigated the influence of climate change and
variability on aircrafts take-off and landing performances.
Specifically, the study investigated; i) the influence of climate change on Take-off Distance Required
(TODR) and Maximum Take-off Mass (MTOM) for different types of aircraft;
ii) the influence of climate variability to the aircraft landing performance on
light, medium and heavy aircraft and lastly, iii) the study investigated the
seasonal and annual variability on aircraft landing performance due to climate
variability. The datasets used in this study include the eight years
(2014-2021), aircraft operational records (diversion
and missed approach events) and Aviation Routine Weather Reports (METAR) records which were utilized as the
indicators for landing performance, the long-term (1990-2020) annual maximum
temperatures (Tmax) which was used to determine the TODR and MTOM.
Statistical tools including mean, percentage
changes, correlations, regression, and the chi-square test were used for
analysis and hypotheses testing. The results revealed that light and medium
aircraft categories were significantly most affected on diversion events as
compared to the heavy categories; however, for the missed approach events the
impact was vice versa. Moreover, the seasonal and annual variability on
diversion and missed approach events were significantly different (at p ≤ 0.001). As for the take-off performance, results show
that the TODR and MTOM were significantly
increasing and decreasing (at p ≤ 0.001),
based on increasing air temperatures. Therefore, the study concludes that the changing climate
has significantly affected aircraft by increasing the TODR and decreasing the
MTOM, while the climate variability has significantly affected landing performance by influencing the diversion and missed
approach events. Thus, the study recommends (i) further research works including
the feasibility study on runway extension for the safety of future aircraft
operations at the AAKIA and (ii) proper maintenance and improvement of the
Instrumental Landing Systems (ILS) as an adaptation measures to the landing
aircraft during bad weather events.