A lot has been reported on news channels, written in articles & blogs, discussed and debated about how challenging “Air Traffic Control” is.

It gets a lot more challenging in the high traffic areas like New York & New Jersey which have 3 major airports within very close proximity of each other. The same case on the west coast with San Francisco, Oakland & San Jose international airports.These are some of the worlds most congested airspaces and managing them is a job for a skilful few. The enroute & tower controllers guide the airplanes safely and as fast as possible to their destination airports. Once the airplane has landed, travellers feel happy about reaching their destination and they are in a big hurry to get off the plane. But they can’t do so unless the airplane has reached its gate and parked safely.

Guiding the plane to the gate is the responsibility of Ground Control. The Tower control ensures that the airplane has landed safely, guides it away from the active runway via taxiways and hands them to Ground Control. The time it takes to reach the gate after the plane has landed depends on a lot of factors, primary being the traffic or the number of planes already on the ground moving around the airport either for a departure or heading towards a gate. The more the number of planes the longer it will take. The airport and taxiway layout also play a major role in how long the taxi times are. Airports with straight taxiways and less turns see aircraft reaching higher taxing speed than airports which have more turns. The taxing times for departing airplanes is also highly dependent on the take-off queue size.

Guiding planes on the ground is as challenging as in the air. The planes have to remain on their taxiways and away from active runways. In the air, when 2 planes come close to each other, the TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) alerts the pilots and they can take heavy evasive action like diving, ascending, turning left or right to avoid the collision. The same cannot be done on the ground. If the planes leave their taxiways suddenly they are at a high risk of being grounded. Yes, grounded. The wheels of the planes can get stuck in the mud or can burst if they go over a sharp object. Worst, the plane can collide with another plane which can be catostropic. The Ground Controller needs to ensure that such a situation never occurs and he or she must keep the planes moving. Guiding the departing planes to the runways and arriving ones to their gates ensures that the airport stays operational.

Turkish Airways plane with its nosewheel stuck in the ground

A380 collides with a CRJ-700

Ground Control can be overwhelming and go from a good situation to a bad situation within minutes. Here is what happenedto one Ground Controller at JFK.

Improved ground movement can increase on-time performance at airports, so ground movement simulations and optimisers are extremely useful. Try being a ground controller here and see for your self how challenging it can be.