EAST SYRACUSE, NY – July 20, 2009 – The City of Atlanta’s Department of Aviation (DOA) has selected Sensis Corporation’s airport automation and management tool, Aerobahn®, to provide the DOA and airlines at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport with a comprehensive view of airport surface traffic. Aerobahn will enable airport stakeholders to collaborate and make decisions that enhance airfield efficiency and reduce delays for travelers, adding to Hartsfield-Jackson’s award-winning efficiency (Air Transport Research Society’s top honoree for seven consecutive years).
Sensis Aerobahn combines airside operational information, such as flight schedules, with the exact location and identification of aircraft and vehicles on the surface of the airport for a real-time, comprehensive view of surface operations. Through the DOA, each airline at Hartsfield-Jackson and the FAA will have access to the web-based Aerobahn service with the ability to customize Aerobahn with their operational data. Further, each individual user will be able to customize Aerobahn’s screens and tools to best match his or her job requirements. This will result in airlines having the information most needed to better manage daily operations. The DOA will use Aerobahn to automatically measure gate use and occupancy in addition to managing airfield operations.
“The Aerobahn surface management system will help enhance airfield efficiency by providing airport and airline operations with real-time insight into the ground operations at the airport,” said Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Assistant General Manager Robert Kennedy. “This information enables users to proactively reduce taxi times for greater fuel savings and less environmental impact, facilitate on-time arrivals and quickly recover from inclement weather operations for improved customer experience.”
A dedicated Sensis Multistatic Dependent Surveillance (MDS) multilateration surveillance infrastructure covering the entire airport will provide highly accurate aircraft and vehicle position and identification information to Aerobahn. Aerobahn enables users to observe departure queues, view actual arrival demand and contrast the demand with available gates for arriving aircraft. Users can also set Aerobahn to provide a visual alert when performance thresholds, such as taxi-out times, are met or exceeded. All events are recorded for future playback, providing users with the ability to identify trends, develop new procedures to mitigate delays or similar events in the future and provide justification for process improvements. For irregular operations, such as bad weather, users will have better situational awareness of aircraft location and the elapsed time of specific events, such as deicing operations.
A key component of Atlanta’s Aerobahn service will be a suite of predictive tools, including Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA), Estimated Time of Departure (ETD) and gate conflict status and alerts. These tools will enable airport operations personnel to better anticipate key events that impact daily operations, such as peek arrival and departure times, and plan gate assignments, ground crew staffing and push-back sequencing accordingly.
“Atlanta will be adopting a NextGen surface management solution by employing Aerobahn’s ability to share critical operational information in real-time among key airport stakeholders,” said Tony Lo Brutto, vice president and general manager of Sensis Air Traffic Systems. “In addition, Aerobahn provides the airport and airlines with a host of metrics that will facilitate further efficiency improvements.”
Sensis Aerobahn is operational in North America, Europe and Asia, providing airlines, airports and air navigation service providers with visibility into the status of critical airside operations. Aerobahn customers include Continental Airlines at Houston Intercontinental and Newark Liberty International Airports; Northwest Airlines at Detroit Metro and Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airports; Federal Aviation Administration, Port Authority of New York/New Jersey and authorized airlines at John F. Kennedy International Airport; Port of Seattle at Seattle –Tacoma International Airport; Service de la Navigation Aerienne for Paris Orly and Charles de Gaulle Airports; and the Civil Aviation Department for Hong Kong International Airport. Aerobahn will also be deployed at Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney Airports, Australia.
