ARINC to Offer Attila Arrival Management System to Airlines

ARINC will offer ATH Group's Attila airport arrival management system to airlines under an exclusive agreement.

ARINC, which has dubbed the system AirPlan enRoute, is offering its functionality as a hosted service for multiple participating airlines at each airport served.  Since the system utilizes airlines' existing ACARS (aircraft communications addressing and reporting system), no new avionics or software modifications are required nor are any changes needed in an airline's IT (information technology) infrastructure.

Michael Baiada, the president of ATH Group, believes ARINC can accelerate the adoption of the technology by offering the service to airlines in this way that avoids many of the upfront costs that otherwise would be required.

Operational savings are possible, because during typical operations, incoming flights to a busy airport tend to arrive unevenly and must be vectored onto time-consuming and therefore costly approach patterns. AirPlan enRoute's patented technology calculates improved arrival times –starting when aircraft are hours from landing – and datalinks recommended small changes to each aircraft's projected time at the arrival fix to achieve more efficient sequencing.

Since the system was first implemented in 2006, ARINC and ATH say Attila has saved over $20,000 per day in fuel burn and reduced delays for a "major U.S. carrier" operating at one of the "world's busiest airports." (While neither ARINC nor ATH are disclosing the identity of the airline or the airport, Flt Tech Online believes they are Delta and Atlanta.)  04-27-2008.

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