Study: Changi Airport, SIA facing more flight delays

[SQ22]

I suspect the ATCOs have been schooled in the old ways of thinking and doing things. It's probably a cross-organisational cultural thing and change has to come from the top. Sadly, while Singapore is tops in many areas, there are many more areas for improvement. I see similarities between the inefficiencies in air traffic management and the world-renowned train breakdowns, if you get my drift.

[boing]

CAAS has partnered NATS( London ATC provider) in the past few years to address these congestion issues. I can think of a few reasons why they are unable to replicate LHR's impressive record in SIN. The first reason has to be Singapore's unpredictable weather conditions. Anytime bad weather crops up in the immediate region of the airport, traffic has to be rerouted to be flown around these weather cells. It may not be visible from Changi, but bad weather is common is around the Batam region and Pulau Tioman areas. Another is the high concentration of civillian airports around Changi airport. RSAF does its best to not interfere with traffic at Changi although the occasional exercise impacts Changi operations. The occasional commercial traffic from Paya Lebar and Seletar commonly fly in the path of arriving/departing traffic to the North of Changi. These is temporarily suspended to allow these traffic to fly through. Third is the occasional tall ships including oil rigs that sail off Changi beach which can suspend traffic sometimes up to 20 minutes at Changi. Quick changing wind directions at Changi airport also adds to these although it's fairly uncommon. I have seen wind direction changing thrice in an hour at SIN and the whole line of departing traffic queuing up had to taxi back and forth to the opposite ends of the runway.

[SQ22]

Quick changing wind directions at Changi airport also adds to these although it's fairly uncommon. I have seen wind direction changing thrice in an hour at SIN and the whole line of departing traffic queuing up had to taxi back and forth to the opposite ends of the runway.

Thank you for the insightful explanation, boing. Now I understand better! So the congested airspace attributable to our small land mass as well as the crowded sea lanes around Singapore are contributing factors! As for the weather, what you said was interesting. Considering that Singapore has a tropical climate, shouldn't our weather be more stable than that in the temperate countries? I can imagine London's world-renowned fog would cause major disruptions at LHR!

[boing]

Thank you for the insightful explanation, boing. Now I understand better! So the congested airspace attributable to our small land mass as well as the crowded sea lanes around Singapore are contributing factors! As for the weather, what you said was interesting. Considering that Singapore has a tropical climate, shouldn't our weather be more stable than that in the temperate countries? I can imagine London's world-renowned fog would cause major disruptions at LHR!

My pleasure ! Singapore's wind condition is mostly stable except during the monsoon season when wind conditions can change in an instance. Fog or haze for that matter are not much of an issue for major airports as most of them would be installed with an ILS system which can land an aircraft in bad visibilty. Another reason for delays which I had omiited earlier is windshear. Most aborted landings in SIN are due to windshear warnings. This conditon is common in tropical countries.

[SQ968]

There were massive delays yesterday afternoon. KB500, CX713, SQ975, BA11 (in that order) all circled around the sea to the south of Tioman, then again over Senai Airport, before doing their final approach to 20C/20R. Flight times were stretched by as much as 40 minutes.

I was in T3 DNATA lounge witnessing all this on Saturday afternoon, while waiting to board GA841 to DPS. It really seemed like the delays were for no apparent reason. The weather was fine and there seemed to be awfully long spacing between landings, up to 4 minutes on 20R. My inbound aircraft had an original ETA of 1533 hrs only to be put on holding patterns over the Indonesian Riau Islands and finally landed at 1612 hrs, 12 mins behind schedule.

[SQ228]

So someone spilt their tea on the control panel perhaps?

[CarbonMan]

CAAS has partnered NATS( London ATC provider) in the past few years to address these congestion issues. I can think of a few reasons why they are unable to replicate LHR's impressive record in SIN. The first reason has to be Singapore's unpredictable weather conditions. Anytime bad weather crops up in the immediate region of the airport, traffic has to be rerouted to be flown around these weather cells. It may not be visible from Changi, but bad weather is common is around the Batam region and Pulau Tioman areas. Another is the high concentration of civillian airports around Changi airport. RSAF does its best to not interfere with traffic at Changi although the occasional exercise impacts Changi operations. The occasional commercial traffic from Paya Lebar and Seletar commonly fly in the path of arriving/departing traffic to the North of Changi. These is temporarily suspended to allow these traffic to fly through. Third is the occasional tall ships including oil rigs that sail off Changi beach which can suspend traffic sometimes up to 20 minutes at Changi. Quick changing wind directions at Changi airport also adds to these although it's fairly uncommon. I have seen wind direction changing thrice in an hour at SIN and the whole line of departing traffic queuing up had to taxi back and forth to the opposite ends of the runway.

Excellent explanation, boing. We've seen how flypasts for National Day prep and actual day as well as the recent Singapore/Indonesia air forces anniversary (?) have impacted SIN ops. But these were planned events, hence scheduled movements can be adjusted.

[flyguy]

At most times, do feel that Changi's ground and ATC is not doing all that they can to ease runway congestion during the peak hours and especially from 9am to 1030am where one sees up to 8 aircrafts queuing to take-off. Just like last thursday, I was on a 1010am flight and before that at the gate could see that runway 02L was use for the very occasional landings whilst runway 02C was used for take-offs. Our flight push back was delayed for some 15 mins due to "congestion" and then we have to taxi all the way from T3 to cross over to runway 02C and then were stuck at number 5 for take-off. The actual time the plane started its take off roll was 1047am some 40 mins behind the scheduled departure time of 1010am. Just do not understand why ATC cannot use both runways for departures as on some few occasions it does happened. Even so, have seen only one active runway in use for both arrivals and departures during the peak hours - and ironically have seen before 8am the 2 runways was active for use but one was closed when it was 9am onwards. I fly every 2.5 weeks and have seen how inefficient the runways were used over the years. Only during rare few occassions I have seen both runways in use for take-offs and landings and even last month whilst we were taking off on runway 02L there was another aircraft on our right taking off at almost parallel to ours on runway 2C. If only changi can keep its priorities constantly and have both ruways in use for take-offs and arrivals during peak hours, then the long queue of 5 to 8 aircrafts waiting to take offs can be truly minimised. Maintenance could be done in the early mornings or after the morning peak but.....

[SQ22]

At most times, do feel that Changi's ground and ATC is not doing all that they can to ease runway congestion during the peak hours and especially from 9am to 1030am where one sees up to 8 aircrafts queuing to take-off. Just like last thursday, I was on a 1010am flight and before that at the gate could see that runway 02L was use for the very occasional landings whilst runway 02C was used for take-offs.

This was probably what the Scoot pilot I met alluded to. Our runways could be use more efficiently. Apart from the valid points about weather, military flights, etc, creating havoc at Changi, our departure/arrival slots are hardly maximised.