Lower fuel bills, greener operations and improved passenger experience were all confirmed results of the PASSUR departure metering program, according to a study conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at John F. Kennedy Airport.

The departure metering program at JFK is a collaboration between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the FAA, and the airlines operating at JFK, coordinated by PASSUR - all under the leadership of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Highlights of the study's annualized results are:

• Lower fuel bills for airlines: an estimated $10 million-$15 million savings to all the carriers involved in the metering program (using a range of $2-$3/gallon of aviation fuel) due to the "engines off virtual queue." Per-carrier savings will vary depending on their actual proportion of the schedule and their fleet mix.
• Greener operations: Five million fewer gallons of fuel burned and 48,000 fewer metric tons of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere, resulting from "engines off virtual queuing."
• Improved passenger experience: 14,800 fewer departure taxi minutes, resulting from flights which remain at the gate (or sometimes at a remote metering pad) rather than joining an extended active taxi queue and then eventually taxiing out into a shorter line for a quicker and more unimpeded departure.

MIT conducted the study by comparing taxi out times, fuel burn, and emissions before and after the implementation of the departure metering program, with all other variables (demand, capacity, airport configuration, weather, equipment status) being as equal as possible to ensure comparable conditions. The MIT study confirmed there were no adverse operational consequences including gate conflicts, increased ramp congestion or lost airport capacity.

PASSUR's departure metering program uses a combination of software, process management, and an operations center staffed by a PASSUR professional services team to create a "virtual departure queue" in which departures are "metered" by holding flights either at the gate or in a common metering area rather than queuing in an extended line of aircraft with engines on. Once aircraft enter the active taxiway they are ready to depart quickly, in a shorter taxi queue with less fuel burn. Virtual queuing ensures that a flight's position in the departure line up, and its planned runway departure time, are both preserved even though the aircraft is not physically out on the active taxiway.

Click here to learn more about the results of the study, watch a video of MIT's presentation at the PASSUR User conference, and download study slides or the full study.

Standardization of policies regarding RON/Parking and gate usage fees would go a long way in further streamlining airport revenue management. That was the conclusion of users attending the summer PASSUR User Conference, who noted the different airport definitions of what constitutes a Remain Overnight aircraft.

Some airports, they said, establish a six-hour or more gate-usage time frame while others define it as anything that crosses the midnight barrier.  

The first step, they concluded, was in establishing an auditing process of gate usage. PASSUR has developed a  template to facilitate such an audit. From there, after further customer feedback, PASSUR will integrate the standardized approach and best practices into the actual PASSUR billing software.

To request a copy of these new spreadsheet templates, contact Evan Danto at evan.j. danto@passur.com or 888-340-3712.  

PASSUR User Conference: Recap of 2011, Plan for 2012

Mobile apps, coordination between airlines and airports and proactive planning to better manage and improve airport operations for maximum efficiency were important topics for attendees at the PASSUR User Conference in Nashville, TN, this past June. A review of these discussions provides a peek of what could be offered at the next conference and a glimpse at the important give and take between users and PASSUR. 

Main themes of the conference: 

• Lowering industry operating costs through the availability, timeliness, and distribution of critical information - making a real difference between success and failure in executing on your business mission
  • This reinforces a major focus area at PASSUR, especially in the area of dashboard presentation of information and consolidation and processing of many different data sets into useful, actionable, and user-defined tools.

• Standardizing processes, best practices and technology across the industry to gain efficiencies and to drive toward the highest common denominator of quality.
  • In each of the three disciplines represented at the User Conference, PASSUR is pursuing industry standardization: in landing fee management, in the national field condition report platform, and in the Integrated Traffic Management suite that provides a common operations decision support platform for airline system, station, regional, and airport operations.  

• The interaction of each of the four PASSUR customer sets (airlines, airports, government, and business aviation) leads to greater operational efficiencies, financial savings, and customer care. Examples of these are:
  • Collaboration between airport and airline finance on landing fee management;
  • Collaboration between airport operations, TSA, CBP, business aviation, and airlines on a national field condition reporting standard;
  • Collaboration between airlines, airport, and TSA operations on diversions and surface management operations.

"Clearly the user conference was a success," said PASSUR Landing Fee Management product manager Evan Danto, who is also one of the chief organizers of the annual event. "It provided an opportunity for customers to get together to network and share best practices and bring together the various disciplines to improve the customer experience."   

Main themes by session track:

Airport Finance

• There is a strong desire for next year's conference to have at least one session that brings airport operations and finance together because of the many common issues, challenges and questions that emerged.
• RON/Gate Usage tracking - there is a consensus to start with an audit process, using the spreadsheet approach taught at the conference, before moving to incorporate this into the actual billing software.
• It was suggested to have one session incorporating both Ops and LFM finance in one room.
• The explanation of PASSUR data sources, flows, and characteristics was invaluable, and should become a standard part of training and presentations at the user conference and with each individual airport. 

Airport Operations

• National FCR is an important step toward further collaboration and information sharing between airports and airlines.
• There needs to be even deeper coordination between airport and airline ops, especially with the airline System Operations.
• OPSnet/FCR training should be extended to all airport tenants, to ensure this is a standard operating platform.
• There is a strong desire to see all PASSUR modules as mobile apps, especially for iPads. 

Airline Operations (System/Station) 

• Airlines need much closer collaboration and timely information sharing with airport operations - especially true for diversion management, tarmac delay management (3 hour rule) and surface throughput.
• Airlines prefer to keep surface management, especially sequencing, within their control, and collaborate on an airline-airport model for metering.
• There needs to be a strong focus on proactive planning rather than real time management, which tends to be reactive at that point. This is especially true with the price of fuel so high.
• There is the need for greater processing of information into consolidated presentations matched to the user's specific needs - to reinforce "management by exception" and minimize screen and keystrokes. 

We look forward to next year's conference - and in the meantime - you can stay in contact with your fellow PASSUR users by joining our PASSUR User Group on LinkedIn. It's easy to sign up - just go to the groups tab on LinkedIn and search for PASSUR User Group, then follow the instructions to join. You can find it here on LinkedIn.