Logan International Airport Case Study
MGCR 472: Operation Management

Executive Summary
This report provides an analysis and evaluation of the current and prospective delay problems of Logan International Airport at Boston, Massachusetts. Method of analysis includes waiting line simulation and historical data tracking as well as response from both local community and Massport. Results of the data show that the major causes to delay are broken down in the following:
1. Increasing demand for annual operations
2. Adverse weather conditions, especially the northwest wind which Logan airport is not designed to accommodate at normal capacity.
3. Continuous heavy air traffic …show more content…

The current layout of Logan Airport consists of 4 major runways which allow for a 3-runway configuration under SW winds, 3-runway configuration under NE wind, 2-runway configuration under the SE wind, and 2-runway configuration under NW wind. However when the NW wind is severe, only runway 15R/33L (1-runway configuration) is safe to use, and this leads to a significant downgrade on the capacity (to 40-60 operations per hour from normal capacity of 118-126 operations). According to the Massport’s data, a typical year consists of the following percentages of the time that wind from different directions occurs: 37% NW, 18% NE, 17% SE, and 28% SW (Figure 9). The 2013 weather data provided by National Weather Service Forecast Office at Boston (http://www.erh.noaa.gov/box/) also says that around 35% (Figure 8) of the time, the wind direction present at Logan Airport is from the NW. Assuming a typical year, these two sources lead us to conclude that the airport is usually not operating at normal capacity due to frequent NW wind, which confirms the NW wind as one of the primary causes of delay.
Runway 14/32 is an obvious and effective solution to delay problems as the runway is designed to allow aircrafts to take off and land during severe NW wind and thus enhance runway configuration to 3 runways (R 14/32, 15R/33L, 9/27) under moderate NW wind and 2 runways under severe NW wind. Also since a runway goes both ways, Runway 14/32 can