Aussie aviation to benefit as airports synchronize data

Australian airlines are expected to reduce taxi times by about 7 percent thanks to a new state-of-the-art platform designed to synchronize data across the nation’s biggest airports. The new Aerobahn airport collaborative decision making (A- CDM) system from US-based Saab Sensis is expected to save the Australian aviation industry $A52m over a decade by giving air traffic controllers a coordinated, real-time view of operations across airports. Aerobahn streamlines data between agencies on  a range of services such as departure management sequencing, traffic flow management and resourcing. It can help minimize delays and improve performance during irregular operations caused by problems such as bad weather but also improves overall efficiency. The system is already used in Europe and the US with customers including New York’s JFK and LaGuardia airports as well as those in Chicago, Detroit, Houston and Minneapolis. Read passenger bumping by US carriers hits a new low. “This new system allows us to work more collaboratively,’’ Airservices Australia chief executive Jason Harfield said in announcing a deal to install the system. “An air traffic controller can view the same real-time data that an airport or airlines operations manager can see. Ultimately this gives us greater predictability and working together we can plan the most efficient operations, which are more predictable and burn less fuel. ”It means taxiing aircraft, and arrival and departure gates can be better managed, reducing delays. In fact, preliminary modeling using A-CDM indicates taxi-times can be reduced by around 7 percent, or one minute per aircraft in peak busy periods, which adds up to big savings very quickly.” The new system is the next step in a CDM program Airservices has been pursuing for several years. It expects to start rolling out Aerobahn at Brisbane Airport from September, 2019 before moving on to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Saab head of industrial and product services Jessica Oberg predicted the four airports would benefit from “a host of metrics” that would help target other efficiency improvements.