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Runway and taxiway markings must be maintained in order to keep compliance with FAA regulations. Every year airports go through recertification by an FAA inspector who will evaluate the condition of the airfield, including signage, markings, and perimeter fencing. The knowledge of airport operations and airfield maintenance employees will also be tested, as the FAA requires personnel to be adequately trained. Airports abide by regulations found in the ACs (Advisory Circulars), which change over time. When the ACs change, airports are required to adjust. The inspector may write up several instances of the airport not in regulation, then will be given a deadline to fix the issues. Many airports take pride in the condition of their airfield and spend millions of dollars to keep the condition beyond what is required.
In preparation for my airport’s recertification in July we contracted the project out to a widely known company that travels around the nation painting airfields using highly technological equipment. The project for our airport to remove and repaint 70% of the total markings cost just over $500,000. After weeks of planning and mapping to determine which markings need to be removed and repainted, a team showed up with several pieces of equipment to do the job.
Most people, even those who work at an airport have no idea what an “Alert” is, but they may have heard the term once or twice. To put it simply, Alerts are when aircraft encounter a problem and the pilot informs Air Traffic Control (ATC) who passes the information onto airport authorities through the proper means, typically AVCOM (Aviation Communications) who then signals ARFF units (Aircraft Rescue & Fire Fighting) and Airport Operations.
Alerts are classified into three types:
- ALERT I– is reported when an aircraft has a minor problem. This would include an oil leak, one engine out on a three or four engine aircraft, or one engine out on a twin engine general aviation aircraft weighing less than 12,500 lbs. During an Alert I, the fire department and rescue equipment will stand by near the fire house (on the airfield) and Operations will respond to the approach end of the landing runway. Once the aircraft has landed, Operations will conduct a sweep of the runway for any FOD and turn it back over to ATC. The Alert would then be terminated provided the aircraft landed without incident and is able to taxi to the ramp on its own.
Someone had recently asked me, “How do airports make money?” Airports are burdened with the cost of governmental mandates, such as security upgrades, environmental, and compliance with numerous other ordinances. The majority of airports are publicly owned and are financed through airport bonds and municipal grants. To raise money, airports lease hangars, buildings, fuel farm facilities, gates, terminal space, and sometimes entire terminals to airlines, FBOs (Fixed Based Operators), freight companies, restaurants/concessions, and other corporate entities which amount to the single largest source of income.