Or to be exact, bans the use of the Charlotte Douglas International Airport’s crosswind runaway — Runway 5/23 — during most operations. If you’ve ever flown into the airport from the north, and seem to have come in directly over Uptown, you were landing on Runway 23. It’s been SOP for many, many years now, as it increases airport capacity and reduces taxi times as compared to just using the parallel runways.
The real issue here: Why exactly did the FAA come to the conclusion that making use of this runway in conjunction with the parallels is now, suddenly, unsafe? What’s different now from last year? Or 2010? Or 2000? Or 1990? Or 1980?
