A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/806148
Hi everyone. T his week, we visited JFK International Airport to talk about how Data Communications is making a difference, especially at busy airports like JFK where nearly 59 million passengers were served last year, 10 million of whom benefitted from this new technolo gy. We recently completed the implementation of Data Comm Departure Clearance Service (DCL) at 55 airports throughout the country. Because we are under budget and more than two and a half years ahead of schedule, we plan to put DCL into an additional sev en airports. Thus far, more than 23,000 air traffic operations per week are taking advantage of this capability, and this number continues to grow. One of the biggest benefits occurs when the control tower has to revise departure clearances, for instance if there is a need to re - route around congestion or bad weather. In the past, communicating these changes could be time - consuming and labor intensive. Controllers had to call the cockpit and verbally relay new instructions, which the pilot has to confirm and manually enter into the aircraft computer system. With Data Comm, controllers and pilots can transmit flight plans and other messages by digital data exchange, instead of having multiple conversations. Controllers can send instructions to several air craft at once. When planes have to process a reroute, pilots can push a button to accept the updated instructions. This allows planes in line to depart to keep their place and depart on time. Data Comm also enhances safety by reducing the chance of a rea d - back error while relaying information. In 2019, we'll start to deploy Data Comm in our en route control centers; we are in the process of building these capabilities now. We estimate that Data Comm will save operators more than $10 billion over the next 30 years — along with savings to the FAA about $1 billion. We're also making progress on our Metroplex initiative — an effort to reduce congestion in busy metropolitan areas. In Southern California, we recently implemented 99 new satellite - based procedures, consisting of 41 departure, 37 arrival and 21 approach procedures. In addition, we revised dozens of additional procedures already in place, which — along with the new procedures — will help make flights more efficient, saving money and reducing pollution. The se procedures cover most of the airspace from the Mexico border to Santa Barbara, and east into the deserts. We held dozens of meetings with the community during this process to ensure their input was considered. Our work in SoCal builds on our recent PB N implementation in our Charlotte and Atlanta Metroplexes. We also have ongoing operational and community efforts underway in various phases at other Metroplex locations such as Cleveland/Detroit, Denver and Las Vegas. All of this work is bringing us close r to our goal of a PBN - enabled NAS. Programs like Data Comm and Metroplex are just two of many NextGen innovations we're putting in place all around the country. I look forward to seeing even greater progress in the weeks and months ahead. Thanks every one! Teri L. Bristol ATO Chief Operating Officer