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NASA/FAA System Helping Holiday Airline Travelers Miss Fewer Flights

Dwayne Brown 
Headquarters, Washington, DC                    December 15, 1997 
(Phone: 202/358-1726)

Michael Mewhinney 
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 
(Phone: 650/604-3937)

Les Dorr 
FAA, Washington, DC 
(Phone: 202/267-8521)

RELEASE: 97-285

NASA/FAA SYSTEM HELPING HOLIDAY AIRLINE TRAVELERS MISS FEWER FLIGHTS

     Atlanta Hartsfield International, the nation's second largest 
airport in total passengers, is helping its holiday airline 
travelers miss fewer connections and wait less time for flights by 
using a new airport system developed by NASA and the Federal 
Aviation Administration (FAA).

     Called the Surface Movement Advisor, the system is primarily 
a set of computers and software that electronically connects 
information constantly gathered separately by the three principal 
entities that make an airport run -- the local airport authority 
managing the airport's ramp areas, the airlines managing the 
gates, and the FAA's air traffic controllers.  This is the first 
automated system that distributes each group's information to the 
others.  Until now, these entities only occasionally had access to 
each other's information.

     This system makes the airport run more efficiently by 
reducing ground operations bottlenecks, thus allowing planes to be 
serviced and dispatched more quickly.  Since the system has been 
in use, it has reduced airline taxi departure times at Hartsfield 
by more than one minute per flight.  Multiplying this minute by 
the thousands of daily flights in the whole flow of airport 
operations leads to a scenario in which passengers will less 
likely miss their flights and will spend less time waiting.

     "There are well over 1,000 daily departures from Atlanta 
Hartsfield.  That's at least 1000 minutes a day, or at least 
$40,000 to $50,000 a day saved in airline direct operating costs. 
That translates into an annual savings at Hartsfield of $16 to $20 
million in direct operating costs," said NASA's manager for the 
project, Dr. Brian Glass.  This means that savings could soon 
translate into cheaper air fares for travelers."

     The FAA selected Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport in 
1995 as the field test site for the system. In June 1996, Delta 
Air Lines, the nation's largest airline for passenger miles flown, 
and several other airlines began daily use of the system at 
Atlanta Hartsfield. Delta operates nearly 700 flights per day from 
Atlanta Hartsfield, which serves as its largest hub.

     "With the introduction of this system at Hartsfield, our 
customer service has improved, which is very important for the 
industry as well as for the FAA," said Bill Drew, Delta's Air 
Traffic Control Systems Manager.

     "From an industry standpoint, this system helps the air 
traffic community, airline community and airport community 
interact better together and make better collaborative operational 
decisions," explained Dennis Lawson, the FAA's Surface Automation 
Research and Development Team lead.

     The system was designed by engineers at NASA's Ames Research 
Center, Moffett Field, CA, in collaboration with FAA engineers, 
air traffic controllers, and airline and airport management staffs.

                       -end-