Aerial Navigation, Air Transportation and Airports

This course covers an introductory overview of the air transport industry and all those infrastructures that are needed to ensure aircraft fulfill safe and efficient operations. The course is divided in three blocks, namely: Air transportation, Air Navigation, and Airports.

Air transport plays an integral role in our way of life. Commercial airlines allow millions of people every year to attend business conventions or take vacations around the globe. Air transport represents also the fastest way to ship cargo over long distances. Air transport must be seen both as a business and as a technical and operational activity. Therefore, how an aircraft is operated and exploited, and what is the cost of operating and maintaining an aircraft are questions to be assessed. First, we need to understand the complex regulatory framework needed: ICAO and IATA will be studied. Second, within the air transport economy we need to consider aircraft performance and the particular characteristics of air transport. Thus, this block will briefly focus on the types of aircraft and manufactures, on the structure of costs of a typical airline, and on aviation¿s environmental fingerprint.

Air navigation is the process of steering an aircraft in flight from an initial to a final position, following a determined route, and fulfilling certain requirements of safety and efficiency. The navigation is performed by each aircraft independently, using diverse external sources of information and proper on-board equipment. CNS-ATM systems ensure that aircraft can circulate in the air in a safe and efficient manner. Therefore, in this block we analyze air navigation as a whole, including an introduction and historical perspective, the technical and operational framework, the so-called CNS-ATM concept. Finally, we analyze the project SESAR, giving an overview of future trends in the air navigation system.

Airports are a fundamental infrastructure to facilitate intermodal transportation and ensure that flights are performed in a safe way. First, we will focus on defining what airports are, providing a brief overview of their history, introducing their naming nomenclature, describing the variables that potentially affect the demand of air transportation, and thus the necessity of building an airport in a determined location, and finally giving a description of the master plan, the set of official documents for the design and construction of an airport. Then, the focus will be on providing a description of the configuration of a modern airport, including air-side and land-side elements. Finally, we will focus on analyzing airport operations.