Weather impacts on Aviation Industry

Weather can significantly affect aircraft operations. Low cloud, fog and rain may impede
visibility at or around an airport while thunderstorms and lightning can cause serious
disruption to flight schedules.
Thunderstorms, and the rapidly rising or falling air currents which usually accompany them,
can make air travel uncomfortable for passengers and difficult for pilots in control of
aircraft. Aircraft are unable to take-off or land during a storm and will often be re-routed
around storm cells or diverted from their destinations. Thunderstorms and lightning strikes
near airports may also stop ground operations until they pass.

Impact on runway selection

Weather, particularly wind speed and direction, is generally the major factor to determine
which runways to use at an airport, in which direction aircraft will take off and land and
which flight paths are used.
Aircraft must take off and land into the wind or with minimal tail wind. This means current
and forecast wind direction dictates the selection of runway/s in use at any time. Wind
direction can change with short notice and this may affect the flight paths and runways
used.
Wind blowing across the runway is called a cross wind. Generally, aircraft can take off or
land where there is only a low cross wind, usually up to a speed of about 15 knots (28
km/h). Cross winds above that speed may force aircraft to use another runway or divert to
an alternative airport.

Weather Affects on ATC And Pilot Performance

When air traffic particularly in congested airspace during bad weather, the workload of the
controller increases significantly. In such scenarios the increase in workload is caused by:

 Non standard traffic flow –

 Reduction in available airspace 
 New conflict points 
 Increased frequency occupancy
 Increased manual (telephone)
 Rapidly changing situation 
 Degradation of RVSM capability 
 Lack of information about traffic in own sector (not on frequency) 
 Limited applicability of radar vectoring 
 Airspace constraints 
Dealing with bad weather is one of the most difficult things for air traffic controllers to
manage. Its unpredictable nature means that it has an adverse effect on aircraft getting
where they need to be via their usual flight patterns, adding huge complexity to the airspace
and the workload for each controller.
The weather forecast is a key element of the pilot's pre-flight checks and flight crew will
continually update their weather information throughout a flight. Bad weather makes
difficulty for pilot during take off and landing

Difficulty in landing and Take off

Strong surface winds (particularly crosswinds and gusts) can greatly affect aircraft coming
into land, causing turbulence and significant changes in aircraft speed, heading and altitude.
This can make a pilot’s job much more difficult, and on some occasions can lead to them
abandoning the landing in favour of a go-around before trying again, in turn creating extra
workload for the controllers as the landing sequence must be reorganised to fit them back
in.
Slower aircraft on final approach
For busy airports, making best possible use of runway capacity is absolutely vital – but if
headwinds are slowing the aircraft down, they take longer to land. This reduces runway
throughput, increases airborne holding and has a knock-on effect on the airspace.
In order to lessen the effects of headwinds on final approach, NATS helped develop a
concept called Time Based Separation. This system, introduced at Heathrow in 2015, uses
real-time wind data to calculate the optimum safe time between arriving aircraft, allowing
ATC to reduce the distance between them in order to maintain the landing rate. On average,
we have seen gains of c. 1 movement per hour.
Approach sequencing
Strong upper winds mean certain aircraft moving in a certain direction have a strong
tailwind, whilst others have a strong headwind. As a result, aircraft approaching an airport
from different directions reach their instructed waypoints much faster or slower than
others.
Under normal conditions at Heathrow, for example, air traffic control land around 42
aircraft per hour, but in a strong headwind this number tends to fall dramatically because
aircraft fly more slowly over the ground.
And it’s not only what’s in the air that can be affected. If winds reach certain strengths,
airport ground operations are also restricted as the use of some airfield equipment, such as
jet bridges, can be stopped – affecting passenger flow and causing potential delays.
Weather Impacts on Airport Revenue
Bad Weather also severely degrade the efficiency of commercial aviation. Reduced ceiling
and/or visibility can severely reduce the capacity of an airport and lead to airborne or
ground delays that result in diversions, cancellations, missed connections, and extra
operational costs.

 Decrease in Capacity of Airport

  Increase delays
 Slow operations
 Minimum landings and Take Off
 Flight Cancellations
These all factors affects on airport revenue and also badly impacts on airline industry