FAA Expanding Its Airspace Flow Program This Summer

The FAA is expanding its Airspace Flow Program (AFP) that gives operators the option of either accepting delays or flying alternative routing around thunderstorm activity that is affecting their normal flight plan.

The number of AFP locations will be expanded from seven to 18 flights operating in the South and Midwest, this summer, as well as those on transcontinental flights.  And the program will also be used in conditions not related to weather, such as severe congestion near major cities.

The agency launched the program last year at seven locations in the Northeast, and says it reduced delays there by nine percent compared to the year before on bad weather days.  These translated into cost savings for the airlines and the flying public of $100 million annually, the FAA claims.

AFP allows traffic managers at the agency's Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) to gather and analyze data to focus on specific flights rather than regions and airports when determining whether to issue weather-related ground holds, and then give operators estimated delayed departure times, which allows them greater flexibility in deciding how to respond.  "Dynamic" programs also will be introduced this summer to achieve more precision as storms develop and move.

The FAA's Mike Sammartino, who directs system operations, said "It used to be that FAA didn't have the opportunity to look at specific flights.  Before, we held entire airports, but now we can target flights and determine whether they can fly around a storm."

In another development, the agency rolled out a new software program in March, called Adaptive Compression, which helps ensure that airport arrival slots that often open during bad weather due to delayed or canceled flights, are used as much as possible.

FAA Administrator Marion Blakey also announced that the agency will test software that forecasts alerts on specific routes that will experience congestion and weather throughout the day. The application, which was developed with the help of MITRE, NASA, NOAA, Lockheed-Martin, Sensis, and Metron, uses years of data to compare traffic loads, weather conditions, time of day, fuel burn, and so on, to make recommendations to airlines and individual flights.  05-24-2007.

Click here to become a registered Flt Tech Online subscriber and receive headlines delivered to your e-mail each week

Click here to go back to the headlines