The PASSUR OPSnet Report 
Informing the Airport Operations Community
| |
|
"With an effective departure sequencing program in place, a boarding pass could indicate to the passenger whether to expect boarding in 30/45/60 minutes, as a function of direct-to-departure taxi out."
Airline ATC Coordinator, PASSUR OPSnet 2009 User Conference, September 17, 2009
| |
|
| October 2009 |
Welcome to the October edition of The PASSUR® OPSnet™ Report, developed for the national community of PASSUR OPSnet users.
We're doing things a little differently this month. Since there was so much good  discussion at our user conference in September, we thought we'd devote this entire issue to the big themes of the conference. If you weren't there, you'll see why this is a worthwhile event for everyone involved. If the conference could be distilled to one theme, it's this: to solve some of our most expensive problems -- like delays and fuel burn -- we have to migrate more business processes onto the collaborative platform we all share on PASSUR OPSnet. We also need to make more operational Key Performance Indicators available to all, for easier and better collective decision-making. There are now thousands of aviation professionals who log onto PASSUR OPSnet every day. We have a unique opportunity to leverage that volume and expertise to make progress on some of our most difficult challenges. Thanks for reading. As always, please let us know how we can improve this newsletter by contacting Ron Dunsky, Executive Editor, at rondunsky@passur.com. |
|
|
|
Focus on Expensive Problems/Decisions
|
- More aviation business processes need to become part of the PASSUR OPSnet collaborative program, if we are to make significant headway on aviation's biggest challenges. These include the issues of delays and congestion, and specifically departure sequencing; the related problems of excessive fuel burn (with its enor
 mous financial and environmental cost); "passenger bill of rights" issues; emergency management; and "choke point" management (or, as some airport executives put it, "matching airport supply and demand," in areas like taxiways, runways, CBP, TSA, roadways, trains, etc.)
- More air traffic and related capacity information needs to be consolidated onto the PASSUR OPSnet platform. This includes information and alerts about delays, cancellations, diversions, taxi-out/taxi-in times, and key performance indicators of the airspace; "visual NOTAMs;" and construction information.
- The program should introduce more flexibility in the way users set it up for communication, information and alerting. As the program grows to include more processes and information categories, it will be helpful to allow different users to modify their views so they are seeing the content that helps and interests them the most.
|
| Ground Delays, Fuel Burn Top Areas That Could Benefit the Most from Collaboration |
A number of focus problems/business processes were discussed at the user conference. The group identified several of the most urgent to tackle next in the collaborative environment on PASSUR  OPSnet: Maximizing Throughout - The Passenger Bill of Rights discussion continues to rage as more flights have seen delays that have pushed them into the spotlight. But behind the headlines, the heart of the issue, as discussed at the conference by senior airport and airline ATC professionals, is: how do we ensure that when a flight pushes back, it is "delivered" to the end of the runway for an immediate departure? There are several aspects to this solution:
- Alerts to the performance of key elements of the departure environment, such as departure queues by runway and fix, the actual flow through the departure fixes themselves, and current average taxi times by fix and runway -- all of which enable carriers to adjust their flight plans tactically to take advantage of unused capacity, and avoid pushing back into long queues.
- The ability for all key players (airport, airline, FBOs, cargo and ATC) to coordinate their push-back decisions so that departure sequencing is metered effectively. Users of PASSUR OPSnet have developed and used a related process for snow operations which can and should be adapted to the more general congestion scenarios in all seasons. Collaboration between all airport stakeholders, including airlines and airport management, will significantly reduce the chances of people being stuck on aircraft for extended periods.
- A coordinated ramp control fed by good data and predictive analytics, managed on collaborative software with agreed-upon protocols, will enable constantly adjusted push back based on changing demand.
- Ensuing that all players are sharing the same operational picture ("common operating picture") is essential for collaborative decision making and coordinated action in a fast-moving tactical environment.
Reducing Fuel Burn - Closely related to maximized throughput is the reduction in ground fuel burn (a huge financial and environmental cost). There is simply no way to make a significant dent in ground fuel burn unless the process by which flights are pushed back and metered for departure is changed to resemble more closely the collaborative mechanism developed for winter operations by PASSUR OPSnet airlines, airport operators and local FAA towers at several airports. |
| New Enhancements Coming to PASSUR OPSnet: You Speak, We Listen! |
|
New enhancements to PASSUR OPSnet are in the test phase:
- Autofill NOTAM language: As users type a new NOTAM, a drop-down menu emerges with prompts for recommended/typical NOTAM language. If a recommendation is selected, it automatically converts to the approved NOTAM abbreviation
- Auto-fill calendar: when a new NOTAM is created, a calendar pop-up is available to select start/end dates for WEF/TIL NOTAMs
These enhancements will be released once testing is complete. If you have additional suggestions, please contact Frederick Roe at 203-622-4086 or directly at 203-887-4940; or email froe@passur.com.
| |
| Enhanced Decision Support: Adding More Information on to the Shared Platform |
 Another main discussion area at the user conference was migrating more information elements from other PASSUR solutions onto our collaborative platform, to ensure a deeper "common operating picture" for more effective decision making. Some of the key information elements requested were:
- "Visual NOTAMS" - showing the current field conditions/NOTAMs on a dynamic map for visual conformation of airfield status
- Diversions, delays and cancellations - more detail, consolidation and alerting of this information onto the PASSUR OPSnet platform
- Traffic Management - status of departure queues, taxi-times, terminal airspace
- Integrated flight tracking - seamless visual tracking of flights, gate to gate
- TALPA-ARC runway status reporting requirements
| |
|
|
|
