The PASSUR OPSnet Report 
Informing the Airport Operations Community
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"The eNOTAMs integration will provide for more rapid dissemination of NOTAM information, ensure uniformity of messages because the information being sent to Flight Services and the airport stakeholders are one and the same, and simplify the communication specialist's role."
Terry Blue, Deputy Airport Director, Milwaukee General Mitchell International Airport
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| September 2009 |
| Welcome to the September edition of The PASSUR® OPSnet™ Report, developed for the national community of PASSUR OPSnet users.
Summer is over, so it's now time to start thinking about snow. We've improved our Snow Operations Assistance Program (SOAP) and you'll find details below. We also review changes to the Delayed Aircraft Assistance Program and to eNOTAMs.
Thanks for reading. As usual, please let us know how we can improve this newsletter by contacting Ron Dunsky, Executive Editor, at rondunsky@passur.com.
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| SOAP Enhancements for the Upcoming 2009/10 Winter Season |
Summer is now officially over, and PASSUR's Snow Operations Assistance Program (SOAP) -- onsite and/or remote expert assistance in managing the operation on behalf of all carriers at an airport during snow events -- is gearing up for its third season. We've made a few enhancements this year to improve this popular program.
The PASSUR SOAP staff facilitates communication and coordination between an airport authority, the FAA and air carriers, resulting in timely and accurate decisions being made regarding the airport operation. With each event, the airport's performance improves. Air carriers, the FAA and airport authorities have come to rely on PASSUR OPSnet to provide awareness of flight cancellations, field conditions, traffic flow, coordination of snow removal with deicing activity and management of departures in an efficient and equitable manner. Carriers are now accustomed to providing their planned taxi times and listing cancellations so the true departure demand can be assessed.
We've added a new tool to the OPSnet platform to facilitate departure management. The Slot Allocation Calculator provides the departure management team with a quick, equitable means of assigning departure slots to carriers during periods when slot allocation is in effect. It distributes available slots to carriers based on their schedule percentages.
Training classes are being scheduled for airport, air carrier and FAA staff and will be conducted using automated classroom facilities at the airports. To learn more about the SOAP program, please contact Fred Roe at 203-622-4086 or froe@passur.com.
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New Enhancements to the Delayed Aircraft Assistance Program (DAAP)
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One of our newest additions to the OPSnet platform, the Delayed Aircraft Assistance Program (DAAP), is already seeing improvements. This program is vital for airports that want to ensure that they don't end up in the news for having passengers stranded on airplanes for extended periods of time.
The Delayed Aircraft Assistance Program allows the entire airport operating community to monitor the status of all arrivals and departures delayed on the ground. This is a powerful tool to enable a timely response to stranded aircraft and passengers during irregular operations even in the busiest and most complex airports. The program provides onscreen and email information and alerts for flights experiencing extended ground delays off the gate, and tools to communicate, coordinate and manage these events in real time with the carriers in a secure and confidential environment. It is designed as a modular component of PASSUR OPSnet.
We are pleased to introduce two enhancements to the program:
- Flight-Matching Tool - provides an interface that identifies flights that are operating enroute using one flight identifier but use another identifier while arriving at the gate. This helps report an accurate "in" time.
- Discrepancy Resolution - a new option that allows the user to resolve discrepancies when a flight that is terminating for the night (RON) fails to transmit an "in" time upon arriving at the gate.
As the "Passenger Bill of Rights" heats up again, airports need to remain focused on ways they can partner with their carriers and show DOT and Congress that they have the tools and the collaborative procedures and protocols to proactively deal with this issue.
For more information about the DAAP, please contact Fred Roe at 203-622-4086 or froe@passur.com. |
| Current and Future Improvements for FCR eNOTAMs |
We've been talking about eNOTAMs a lot lately, and now we have more enhancements to report. As you know, the PASSUR OPSnet FCR eNOTAM program interfaces with the Flight Services eNOTAM website and the FAA NAIMES site to provide a complete NOTAM service for an airport. And now it's being improved.
A NOTAM closing a runway can now be requested using only the "Open-Green," "Closed-Red" drop down box. When the runway opens, the closed runway NOTAM can be cancelled using the same drop down box by changing the status from Closed-Red to Open-Green.
The Submissions Status Box will now contain flight specialist comments, if applicable and a status of either "Pending" or "Rejected" for each NOTAM request. The name of the NOTAM submitter will no longer appear.
Also set to be released are:
- The capability to issue a NOTAM for one direction of any given runway. A condition may exist that affects a runway in only one direction and not the other.
- The ability to NOTAM a runway "restricted" rather than just "open" or "closed"
- Automated calendar dates filled in for easier "effective from/til" entries
- Choice to use local or Zulu time for "effective from/til" entries, with automatic local-to-Zulu conversion
For more information, contact Frederick Roe at 203-622-4086 or froe@passur.com.
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| Early Review of the Annual PASSUR OPSnet User Conference |
On September 16 and 17, PASSUR OPSnet users gathered in New York City for the annual PASSUR OPSnet User Conference. Some of the main themes were:
- Several critical challenges facing aviation today can best be solved through a collaborative process that includes software and common operational protocols. These include the management of traffic (including terminal airspace and ground operations like departure sequencing), passenger bill of rights issues, carbon emissions and emergency events.
- More key performance indicators and alerts should become part of the common informational platform on PASSUR OPSnet, including diversions, delays, visual NOTAMS, construction planning, and landside/terminal chokepoints status.
- There's a need for more customized alerting and remote messaging of critical status changes being tracked on PASSUR OPSnet.
Next month we'll dive in to the conference and tell you all about it in detail.
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