Hmm can't believe I never saw this topic originally in April. East Operation... hmmm
East Operation is the typical low vis setup since 9R is the only CATIII/ALSF-2 runway. That right there tells you your gonna have delays since most aircraft will be going to one runway. You might get lucky if the cigs are above 800 ft the Converging ILS 9R/ 17 can be ran so that helps offload traffic to a secondary runway. If the cigs feel like dropping below 800 and often they do. You have to go to a single runway operation. In IFR weather you can't use a Final Controllers favorite tool - Visual Separation. There they wind up putting more mileage between aircraft joining the final. Which in turn brings the Arrival Rate from say 52 to 32 and then maybe down to 28 if the weather worsens.
As for the new southern Parallel runway - It's gonna happen. Now this is the City of Philadelphia we are talking about. It will be very late and over budget for sure. But the new spot for the Tower relocation is picked out. It's just a matter of time when the real work begins.
Now the blame doesn't really go to Philly for departure delays during weather. Jet Airways are very cramped in the Northeast. Generally many of the ground stops that you hear about at Philly during the afternoons is because all of a sudden good ol' ZNY feels like shutting down J75 (goes to Atlanta), J48, and J64 for no reason other than 'volume' then soon after ZDC shuts down J79 and J193. Leaving Philly in the middle of the mess leaving no room for departures in any direction and pax bitching about delays just because the Command Center (ATCSCC cares more about New York and DC airports). Philly or other airports have no control over what the Centers do. Many people blame an airport for delays simply because they don't think about what a big role a Center plays, let alone two centers overlying an airport, and the fact that they have to control hundreds of the thousands of miles of airspace laterally.
I see Mitigated headings being brought up. This is helped a great deal. Especially about a year ago when the times allowed for use were extended. It's now used 8-11AM, 2-8PM. On a good day with a good controller working the Local West position (27L Tower position) you'll see planes pumped out of there ala LAS/ PHX style as long as the aircraft in the lineup are sequenced good with alternating initial fixes as North, South, North, South - MXE, DITCH, PTW, OOD etc. When an aircraft is cleared for takeoff - next one goes into position. As I said if the controller is on top of it. As soon as he/she sees that preceding aircraft's nose rotate he'll clear the aircraft in position for TO. Lot's of time saved compared to the old 2.5 - 3 Mile sep for departures.
RNAV Departure Procedures are currently in the works right now planned for a release in the 1002 Chart Cycle - TBRIG1, STADM1, MIFLN1, GRDEN1. Likely will be one Northbound for West Operation, one for Southbound West Operation and the same for East Operation. Will be curious to see if they save some time and actually can provide a quick northbound turn on a Westbound operation.
There are many other things that can play a factor. I'll keep looking at this space for more posts/ comments that I might be able to reply to with some reason as to why such and such is done one way or a another at the Facility.
