Claim Slower-Moving Aircraft May Cause Traffic Jams
It's a familiar complaint... but as
more and more very-light-jets come online, more and more air
traffic controllers and airline pilots are expressing doubts the
small jets will be able to smoothly integrate into the nation's air
traffic control system.
A recent report by USA Today states controllers in Florida are
already taking steps to keep VLJs out of high-altitude airways
during busy times. Controllers note the small jets fly at speeds at
least 100 mph slower than larger airliners and business jets, and
they can't climb as fast.
"They don't mix very well" with larger jets, said David Cook,
who heads the National Air Traffic Controllers Association chapter
at Jacksonville Center. Steven Wallace, who holds the same title at
Miami Center, adds controllers must keep VLJs out of airways when
traffic is busy.
While it appears the VLJ market is several years away, at best,
from the small jets "darkening the skies" as airline interests once
implied... ATC and airline pilots alike say as more small jets
become available, they carry the potential to increase
problems.
So far, most of the experience in handling VLJs comes from
Florida-based DayJet, which operates a handful of Eclipse 500s on
short runs throughout the Southeastern US. Controllers, including
Wallace and Cook, admit it's been easy to handle DayJet flights so
far, especially as most of its planes don't climb to the upper
flight levels on their short hops.
That's with a couple dozen planes, however... plus a couple
hundred other EA500s and Cessna Citation Mustangs throughout the
US, most of them in private hands. If predictions by NASA and the
FAA come true, however, one day there could be thousands of VLJs,
and that poses a bigger issues.
An airliner cruising along the same airway behind a
comparatively slow-moving Eclipse 500 would be "a bit like
following a farm vehicle," said Captain Rory Kay, safety chairman
for the Air Line Pilots Association.
Kay also cites concerns about the level of equipment carried
onboard VLJs. No Eclipse 500 carries even a basic traffic collision
advisory system (TCAS,) for example (Cessna does offer TCAS I
technology on its Mustang) even though the planes are allowed to
fly at the same altitudes as commercial aircraft, and TCAS II is
mandatory in all airliners with 30 seats or more.
Eclipse CEO Vern Raburn and DayJet founder Ed Iacobucci both
insist new technologies -- presumably tied to the FAA's oft-touted
"NextGen" air traffic control network -- will allow the planes to
one day operate in congested areas, without affecting airline
operations.