San Antonio, Texas has a rich heritage and the San Antonio International Airport is the gateway to
this vibrant community. The FAA is proposing to modernize the flight paths into and out of this
airport. This proposal is part of a nationwide strategy to modernize the entire National Airspace
System. It would help bring in aircraft quicker and reduce delays. In the past aircraft flew point
to point by passing over ground based navigational aids. However, many of these ground based aides
are now old, inefficient, and costly to maintain. Therefore, the FAA is proposing to replace them
with satellite based procedures. These new procedures allow pilots and controllers
to use more direct routes, which can help the environment by reducing fuel burn. One of the
procedure types is the standard terminal arrival procedure or STAR. It has built in speed and
altitude requirements, which are programmed into the airplane s flight computers, and allow the
aircraft to essentially glide down on idle power. This is called an optimized profile descent
or OPD. It's like driving a car from a highway to an exit ramp and then a neighborhood street
but seamlessly and without stopping. Placing an aircraft on a continuous and predictable path
improves safety and efficiency. San Antonio has three runways. Runway four two two runs
southwest to northeast, runway one three right three one left runs from the southeast
to the northwest. There is also a shorter parallel runway next to one three right three one left,
and it is designated as one three left three one right. Aircraft take off and land into the wind
and runways are built to align with historic wind patterns specific to each airport. At San Antonio
winds primarily come from the south east. However, winds can come from the north or
even the west which will change the direction in which the aircraft will take off and land.
General runway identification is based on the compass heading the aircraft is facing as it lands
or takes off. For example, runway four two two is facing approximately 40 degrees in one direction
and 220 degrees in the opposite direction. If you drop the zero at the end of the compass setting,
you will get four and two two. Even though a runway is a single strip of concrete,
it is essentially treated as two separate surfaces. Parallel runways are further designated
with an L for left or an R for right at the end of the runway number which explains runways
one three right three one left and one three left, three one right. Air traffic controllers
work in three dimensional space to keep plane safely separated vertically and horizontally.
They continually space and separate arrivals and departures. Satellite based procedures make
that job safer and more efficient because the separation requirements can now be incorporated
within the procedure. Creating and publishing new flight procedures is a multi-step process.
Federal law and FAA policy requires the FAA to conduct an environmental review
in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. We hope this video gives
you a basic understanding of how the air traffic control system works in the San Antonio airspace.
For more information please visit the San Antonio page on the FAA s community involvement website.