Boeing

The Boeing Company -- along with Luchtverkeersleiding Nederland (LVNL), the air traffic control organization of the Netherlands, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AAS) and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines -- announced today that they have started the final phase of their joint program to investigate new, more comprehensive concepts to improve the efficiency and environmental performance at Schiphol airport.

"With the combined resources of all the members of our team, we can more effectively demonstrate how collaborative decision-making concepts can be used to streamline operations among airports, airlines and air traffic control," said Rob Mead of the Advanced Air Traffic Management team in the Boeing Phantom Works. "This, along with our movement into advanced arrival techniques such as tailored arrivals, is the primary focus of our final phase of the program."

Boeing and LVNL embarked on this 27-month, three-phase program in October 2002. They first investigated the key elements that affect Schiphol operations, such as current airspace design, operating procedures and air traffic equipment.

In phase 2, they determined that the typical procedure of allowing aircraft to land on a first-come, first-served basis, despite actual scheduled arrival times, can cause significant arrival and departure delays. Airport procedures could be improved with a better procedure to determine landing priorities, they found.

These analyses led to the current effort to demonstrate robust collaborative decision-making tools called "Inbound Priority Sequencing" (IPS). The IPS tools will be used in conjunction with the existing Schiphol airport and KLM airline infrastructure to show improved predictability of inbound aircraft and the on-time performance of airport operations.

"IPS is designed to allow each participating airline to have better control of achieving their target time of arrival at Schiphol and thus be able to improve on-time performance and transfer reliability," said Paul Riemens of LVNL. "If we can do this for even a fraction of the aircraft, we should see some significant improvements in traffic flow."

During the one-year demonstration phase of the program, which began in August, IPS capabilities will be introduced step by step.

"Once parts of the concept are implemented in 2005, IPS will provide us with a valuable increase in our efficiency and improve the satisfaction of our connecting customers, particularly in cases where unexpected weather disrupt inbound flights," said Ton Dortmans of KLM.

"The improvements developed by the team will help Schiphol stay competitive and offer superior service to both airlines and passengers," said Cees Jan Dosker of AAS.