Apron Management, Gate Assignment and Billing

Seamless integration of aircraft identification and position at gates

Challenges/Solution

Manual operations are subject to human error. Apron data collection is often conducted as a secondary task by operations staff overseeing gates and apron areas This staff typically have competing and higher priority functions, which can affect the accuracy of records. Often data is located in disparate locations, making aggregation difficult.

The manual processes of analysis and invoicing are time-consuming, and lead to errors, resulting in constant revisions and occasional billing disputes with airlines. Ramp controllers regularly need to view multiple display units to collect the information they need to allocate gates, provide push-back clearances, and maintain situational awareness. The end results may include decreased efficiency, delays, lost revenue generation opportunities, and dissatisfied airline clients.

Automation of Aircraft Billing and Observation Processes

ANSPs track vehicles in the air, and this data can be passed on to operations automatically when they reach the airport, without manual input. Information such as gross weight, carrier, taxi times, and stand allocation can be aggregated and reported on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis as desired.

With the Searidge solution, similar data can be made available to apron towers and operations staff in real time via a one-look situational display, detailing all desired information at a glance on a visual map of the non-movement area. This is achieved by leveraging rich data from the Airport's AODB (Airport Operations Database), Intelligent Video Surface Data, FIDS, and other information sources that may be available.

Deployments

Malta International Airport: IntelliDAR - Remote Apron Monitoring

Malta International Airport: Enhanced Airport Vision Display (EAVD)

Benefits at a Glance

  • Increased situational and ramp-status awareness
  • Automation of billing for gate & ramp usage data collection
  • Automation of data collection, billing analysis, and invoicing
  • Increased billing accuracy
  • Reduction of costs to airport
  • Reduction of costs to airlines
  • Decreased inbound and outbound taxi times through routing analysis
  • Increased security through monitoring of vehicles and personnel