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Transformation to Performance-based Navigation will Allow Communities, Airlines and Air Traffic Managers to Collaborate on Optimized Flight Paths
Monday, October 5, 2009
Transformation to Performance-based Navigation will Allow Communities, Airlines and Air Traffic Managers to Collaborate on Optimized Flight Paths
SEATTLE, Oct. 2, 2009 -- As aviation stakeholders around the world accelerate the deployment of environmentally friendly Performance-based Navigation (PBN), they’ll need to work together with communities around airports to deploy new flight paths that work best for everyone.
On Friday, more than 200 aviation stakeholders at the Naverus Performance-based Navigation Summit in Seattle, heard that PBN technology is being adopted rapidly around the world and that it has profound implications for the way air traffic is managed.
“This is a unique time,” said Dan Elwell, vice president of civil aviation for the Aerospace Industries Association. Elwell advised aircraft operators and air traffic managers to engage communities early on in discussions as they design new PBN flight paths.
During the course of the Summit, attendees heard how advanced PBN provides new flexibility to design quieter, cleaner, more fuel efficient flight paths. As part of implementing those paths, important decisions must be made about how to route traffic in ways that balance noise reduction, emissions savings and fuel efficiency.
“There’s no time to lose,” Elwell said. “The environmental imperative is a train coming right at the industry. It’s a huge plus for communities to have input into these discussions,” he said.
Many airlines are responding to the environmental challenge. In the U.S., Southwest Airlines is training more than 6,000 pilots and is spending $175 million to make its entire fleet of aircraft capable of performing advanced PBN procedures by the middle of next year.
Jeff Martin, the senior director of flight operations at Southwest, predicted the airline’s efforts will jumpstart change in the U.S. “Once we drop more than 500 NextGen-equipped aircraft in the system, something’s got to happen,” he said.
Alaska Airlines has a similar story, said Gary Beck, director of Flight Operations at the Seattle-based carrier. Alaska flew its first advanced PBN procedure in 1996, Beck said, and is today working with the FAA on new environmentally friendly PBN procedures at Seattle’s SeaTac airport. Alaska, which already flies advanced PBN procedures at many remote Alaskan airports, expects to save $15 million this year in Alaska alone by reducing diversions, cancellations and extra flying caused by bad weather, Beck said.
Conference participants also heard speakers from Australia, Canada, Peru, Sweden, Panama and New Zealand, talk about their efforts to save fuel, reduce emissions and cut noise by adopting advanced PBN procedures. Representatives from both Boeing and Airbus spoke about their initiatives to provide advanced PBN capabilities in aircraft they manufacture.
PBN unleashes the full potential of current-generation aircraft to fly precisely-defined paths without relying on ground-based radio navigation signals. Required Navigation Performance, (RNP) an enhanced mode of PBN, guarantees the aircraft does not stray from the path and enables additional navigational flexibility, such as the ability to custom tailor a curved path.
About Naverus
Naverus is the global leader in the development and implementation of Performance-based Navigation and is working with airlines and air traffic management providers in China, South and Central America, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Europe to implement advanced PBN solutions. Learn more about Naverus at: www.naverus.com.
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For more information contact:
Ken Shapero, Naverus, Inc.
(253) 867-3955
(206) 779-9064 mobile
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