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Airlines

With Aireon’s space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system, Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) will have complete real-time surveillance of all ADS-B equipped aircraft in their airspace which enables airlines to optimize flight paths, routes and tracks, save significant amounts of fuel and improve operational efficiency — anywhere in the world.

Additionally, improved airline predictability and efficiency have the potential to reduce direct operating costs and optimize passenger flight times.

Increased Cost Savings

  • Conservative estimates indicate annual fuel savings of over $100 million per year for customers on the North Atlantic alone.  This also translates to a reduction of greenhouse gases of over 300,000 metric tonnes annually

Return on ADS-B Investment

  • Expanded benefits from investments in ADS-B avionics
  • Improvement of ANSPs ability to meet ADS-B surveillance needs without major investments in infrastructure

Operational Efficiencies

  • Surveilled oceanic and remote airspace enables:
    • Improved flight profile predictability
    • Fewer altitude and speed restrictions
    • Optimization of tracks and flight distance
    • Optimized flight profiles for best times
    • Improved aircraft ability to fly cost index (CI)
    • Improved air traffic flow management
  • Reduced reliance from ANSPs on expensive ground-based infrastructure:
    • Lowered infrastructure costs
    • Harmonized costs between ANSPs, allowing for more consistent Air Traffic Control (ATC) charges globally
    • Improved traffic flow across borders
    • Reduced impact from radar outages
    • Improved system predictability
  • Improved global airline fleet tracking, without gaps

Reduced Emissions

  • Reduced fuel consumption and lower greenhouse gas emissions — a key benefit in the context of cap-and-trade offset regulations

Enhanced Safety

  • Minimization of impact from operational and weather disruptions
  • Elimination of service and safety gaps over oceans and remote land with limited to no current air traffic surveillance
  • Reduced search and rescue response times over oceanic and remote/polar airspace

Regulatory Compliance

  • Compliance with International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) global flight tracking proposals like Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS)
  • ICAO has updated Annex 6 to the Chicago Convention (Operation of Aircraft)  with requirements to help avoid recurrence of MH370-type disappearances. These will take effect between now and 2021. They relate primarily to:
    • The requirement for aircraft to carry autonomous distress tracking devices which can autonomously transmit location information at least once every minute in distress circumstances.
    • The requirement for aircraft to be equipped with a means to have flight recorder data recovered and made available in a timely manner.
    • Extending the duration of cockpit voice recordings to 25 hours so that they cover all phases of flight for all types of operations.