INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF SNOWFALL ON THE FLIGHTS IN TURKEY

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1 INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF SNOWFALL ON THE FLIGHTS IN TURKEY A. ÇAKIN 1,*, İ. CEYHAN 1, V. YAVUZ 1, E. T. ÖZDEMİR 1,2, C. TEMİZ 1, A. DENİZ 1 1 Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Department of Meteorological Engineering, Maslak, Istanbul Turkey 2 General Directorate of Meteorology, Atatürk Meteorology Office, Yeşilköy, Istanbul, Turkey * cakina@itu.edu.tr Abstract Air transport, has started to become more popular in the transportation sector in recent years. People can save both time and money by using this type of transportation. That is why even a minute deviation of the departure and arrival time of an airplane will lead to affect other flights, and it will be reflected adversely to the people. The most important factors that affect the departure and arrival of the airplane is technical and meteorological conditions. While technical requirements can be solved with appropriate interventions, meteorological conditions may cause the cancellation of the flights and deviation with hours or even days. A flight to take place under appropriate conditions, not just from the port, the destination is also required to be eligible. s to happen smoothly, the visibility of the runway, cloud base height, icing, wind speed and direction, fog, snowing and a lot of meteorological factors must be appropriate with required standards. These standards vary according to the location of each airport. In this study, snowfall, a significant meteorological factor, were examined how affect the national and international airports in Turkey and is that caused flight cancellations at any airports in recent time. According to preliminary data obtained, between the dates 05/01/ /01/2015, there are so many cancellations and delays happened at many airports because of snowfall. Keywords: Snowfall, airports, flight, Turkey INTRODUCTION Air transportation is becoming more important every year. People prefer airways instead of the railways or highways because of recovery time. Also, people can save both time and money by using this type of transportation. So, the important thing is that even a minute deviation of the departure and arrival time of an airplane will lead to affect other flights, and it will be reflected adversely to the people. The most important factors that affect the departure and arrival of the airplane is technical and meteorological conditions. While technical requirements can be solved with appropriate interventions, meteorological conditions may cause the cancellation of the flights and deviation with hours or even days. A flight to take place under appropriate conditions, not just from the port, the destination is also required to be eligible. There are many factors which must be appropriate with required standards such as visibility

2 of the runway, cloud base height, icing, wind speed and direction, windchill, fog, snowing and many meteorological factors must be appropriate with required standards. These standards vary according to the location of each airport. In this study, snowfall, a significant meteorological factor, were examined how affect the national and international airports in Turkey and is that caused flight cancellations at any airports in recent time. According to preliminary data obtained, between the dates 05/01/ /01/2015, there are so many cancellations and delays happened at many airports because of snowfall. This study stated that cancellation of 101 flights has led to approximately 18 thousand passengers aggrieved and accordingly there are material and spiritual losses for THY Company. METHOD In this study, analysis of METARs, TAFs and Synoptic Codes are investigated for flights cancellation of Turkish Airlines which also known as common companies in aviation sector. Cancelled flights at international airports in Turkey are shown in the following list as a result of occur snow held between 7-8 January Turkish Airlines has cancelled 165 flights in totally because of snowfall in 7-8 January This study just involves the examination about the cancellation of 101 flights occurred in international airports in Turkey. Informations for International s in Turkey LOCATION ICAO IATA AIRPORT NAME Adana LTAF ADA Adana Şakirpaşa LTAC ESB a Antakya LTAK HTY Hatay Antalya LTAI AYT Antalya Bodrum LTFE BJV Milas-Bodrum Bursa LTBR YEI Bursa Yenişehir Dalaman LTBS DLM Dalaman Erzurum LTCE ERZ Erzurum Eskişehir LTBY AOE Eskişehir Anadolu Gaziantep LTAJ GZT Gaziantep İstanbul LTBA IST İstanbul Atatürk İstanbul LTFJ SAW LTBJ ADB Kayseri LTAU ASR Kayseri Konya LTAN KYA Konya Kütahya LTBZ KZR Kütahya Zafer

3 Malatya LTAT MLX Malatya Nevşehir LTAZ NAV Nevşehir Kapadokya Samsun LTFH SZF Samsun Çarşamba Şanlıurfa LTCS GNY Şanlıurfa GAP Trabzon LTCG TZX Trabzon Visual range is determined by an observer and defined as the maximum distance at which an object or low intensity light can be distinguished. Visual range and visibility are used here interchangeably. Runway visual range (RVR), in aviation meteorology, is the distance over which a pilot of an aircraft on the centreline of the runway can see the runway surface markings delineating the runway or identifying its centre line. METAR is a format for reporting weather information. A METAR weather report is predominantly used by pilots in fulfillment of a part of a pre-flight weather briefing, and by meteorologists, who use aggregated METAR information to assist in weather forecasting. TAF (terminal aerodrome forecast or terminal area forecast) is a format for reporting weather forecast information, particularly as it relates to aviation meteorology. TAFs are issued every 6 hours such as 0000,0600,1200,1800 UTC, and generally apply to a 24 or 30-hour period, and an area within approximately five statute miles from the center of an airport runway complex. TAFs complement and use similar encoding to METAR reports. They are produced by a human forecaster based on the ground. For this reason there are considerably fewer TAF locations than there are airports for which METARs are available. TAFs can be more accurate than Numerical Weather Forecasts, since they take into account local, small-scale, geographic effects. SYNOP (surface synoptic observations) is a numerical code (called FM-12 by WMO) used for reporting weather observations made by manned and automated weather stations. CAVOK is an abbreviation for And Okay, indicating no cloud below 5,000 ft (1,500 m) or the highest minimum sector altitude and no cumulonimbus or towering cumulus at any level, a visibility of 10 km (6 mi) or more and no significant weather. Atmospheric icing occurs when water droplets in the atmosphere freeze on objects they contact. This can be extremely dangerous to aircraft, as the built-up ice changes the aerodynamics of the flight surfaces, which can increase the risk of a subsequent stalling of the airfoil.

4 and s Of Cancelled s Table No TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK2170 İstanbul 17:25 (ASR) Kayseri 19:30 İstanbul 06:55 (KYA) Konya 08:55 İstanbul 13:45 (KYA) Konya 15:45 İstanbul 17:55 (KYA) Konya 19:55 İstanbul 07:00 a 09:00 İstanbul 10:00 a 11:50 İstanbul 13:00 a 15:00 18:00 Of (ASR) Kayseri 18: İstanbul 21: (KYA) Konya 08: İstanbul 10: (KYA) Konya 15: İstanbul 17: (KYA) Konya 19: İstanbul 21: a 08: İstanbul 10: a 11: İstanbul 12: a 14: İstanbul 16: :

5 TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK2908 İstanbul a 20:00 İstanbul 06:00 (GZT) Gaziantep 08:30 İstanbul 11:00 12:50 İstanbul 18:00 20:00 İstanbul 06:30 (ADA) Adana 08:45 İstanbul 17:00 (ADA) Adana 19:15 İstanbul 20:30 İstanbul 12:55 Of a İstanbul 21: (GZT) Gaziante p 07: İstanbul 10: Mendere s 12: İstanbul 13: Mendere s 19: İstanbul 21: (ADA) Adana 08: İstanbul 10: (ADA) Adana 18: İstanbul 20: (ADA) Adana 22: Mendere s 13:

6 TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK :40 İstanbul 19:00 20:50 İstanbul 07:00 (AYT) Antalya 08:55 İstanbul 07:30 a 09:15 İstanbul 18:15 İstanbul 19:15 a 20:30 a 21:15 İstanbul 08:00 Of İstanbul 15: Mendere s 15: İstanbul 21: (AYT) Antalya 08: İstanbul 10: a 08: İstanbul 10:15 R06/1200 R24/ a 19: a 20: İstanbul 21: İstanbul 22: a 09:

7 TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK2458 a 09:00 İstanbul 08:45 (KYA) Konya 10:25 İstanbul 18:30 (ASR) Kayseri 20:15 İstanbul 06:00 a 08:00 İstanbul 06:35 (ASR) Kayseri 08:45 İstanbul 06:40 (MLX) Malatya 09:15 İstanbul 06:55 (KYA) Konya 08:55 İstanbul 08:50 İstanbul 10:00 Of R06/1200 R24/P (KYA) Konya 09: İstanbul 11: (ASR) Kayseri 19: İstanbul 21:30 R06/0500 R24/P a 07: İstanbul 09: (ASR) Kayseri 08: İstanbul 10: (MLX) Malatya 08: İstanbul 11: (KYA) Konya 08: İstanbul 10: (ADA) Adana 10:

8 TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK2334 (ADA) Adana 11:10 İstanbul 11:00 a 13:00 İstanbul 11:00 12:50 İstanbul 12:55 (ASR) Kayseri 15:05 İstanbul 14:00 a 06:45 İstanbul 16:00 a 18:00 İstanbul 18:00 a 20:00 İstanbul 18:00 Of İstanbul 12: a 12: İstanbul 14: Mendere s 12: İstanbul 13: (ASR) Kayseri 14: İstanbul 16: a 15: İstanbul 08: a 17: İstanbul 19: a 19: İstanbul 21: Mendere 19: CAVOK

9 s Of TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK :00 İstanbul 19:40 (NAV) Nevşehir Kapadokya 22:00 İstanbul 21:00 a 23:00 İstanbul 06:00 a 08:00 İstanbul 06:35 (ASR) Kayseri 08:45 İstanbul 06:40 (MLX) Malatya 09:15 İstanbul 06:55 (KYA) Konya 08:55 İstanbul 08:50 İstanbul 21: (NAV) Nevşehir Kapadok ya 21: İstanbul 23: a 22: CAVOK İstanbul 00: a 07: İstanbul 09: (ASR) Kayseri 08: İstanbul 10: (MLX) Malatya 08: İstanbul 11: (KYA) Konya 08: İstanbul 10: (ADA) Adana 10:

10 TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK TK2334 (ADA) Adana 11:10 İstanbul 11:00 a 13:00 İstanbul 11:00 12:50 İstanbul 12:55 (ASR) Kayseri 15:05 İstanbul 14:00 (ADA) Adana 06:45 İstanbul 16:00 a 18:00 İstanbul 18:00 a 20:00 İstanbul 18:00 Of İstanbul 12: a 12: İstanbul 14: Mendere s 12: İstanbul 13: (ASR) Kayseri 14: İstanbul 16: a 15: İstanbul 08: a 17: İstanbul 19: a 19: İstanbul 21: Mendere 19: CAVOK

11 s Of TK TK TK TK TK :00 İstanbul 19:40 (NAV) Nevşehir Kapadokya 22:00 İstanbul 21:00 a 23:00 İstanbul 21: (NAV) Nevşehir Kapadok ya 21: İstanbul 23: a 22: CAVOK İstanbul 00: CONCLUSIONS base height and visibility are analyzed through METARs and TAFs codes. The results are shown that values below 5000 meter in many airports. Even this, flights cancelled due to this value reach to below 1500 meter with the assumption that prevent flight during snowfall in some of the airports. Based on the research result shown another cause of cancelled flights, icing consisting of winds after snowfall has been determined. s was cancelled that might occur during icing formed in the landing runway at many airports may be the trigger of the huge accident.

12 This study stated that cancellation of 101 flights has led to approximately 18 thousand passengers aggrieved and accordingly there are material and spiritual losses for THY Company. Finally, night at January 8tt, THY employee worked on all planes for de-icing. Also, they have taken precautions for next flights. As it can see at the table, most of the cancellations are occurred at Istanbul Atatürk. After these days, the flights back to normal because of de-icing operations and more better weather conditions.

13 REFERENCES New Aviation Meteorology, Aviation Meteorology Course Document