URET May Save Airlines Over $600 Million In Fuel Costs
A new air traffic control system designed to safely route planes
more efficiently has been deployed to all 20 Air Route Traffic
Control Center (ARTCC) facilities across the United states. The FAA
estimates the new system, called the User Request Evaluation Tool
(URET), may save airlines 89.5 million nautical miles in travel
distances... which works out to $626.5 million in fuel and
operational costs.
The system's developer, Lockheed Martin, says URET can determine
whether pilot-requested changes in flight plans are free of
conflicts with other air traffic. The new system can also evaluate
pilots' requests to deviate from their planned routes to avoid bad
weather... and assign more direct routing of aircraft to cut down
trip times, and take better advantage of current wind
conditions.
That saves time, fuel and money for the airlines and saves
travel time for passengers, while helping to ensure safe aircraft
separation.
URET also automatically predicts aircraft-to-aircraft conflicts
up to 20 minutes in advance, enabling controllers to plan more
strategically. Prior to URET, controllers relied on paper flight
strips and mental calculations to determine whether a proposed
route change would be conflict free. The system also
continuously monitors aircraft flight path conformance with its
flight plan and issues a controller alert 40 minutes in advance of
when an aircraft is predicted to penetrate restricted or prohibited
airspace.
"With URET, the FAA has delivered a completely new capability to
our nation's air traffic controllers," said Sue Corcoran, vice
president of Aviation Solutions for Lockheed Martin Transportation
and Security Solutions. "Lockheed Martin is proud to support the
FAA by deploying a next generation technology that is already
providing measurable returns on investment -- meeting the FAA's
goals of becoming a more cost-effective organization and increasing
airspace availability for its customers."
With jet fuel averaging
over $2 a gallon, the airline industry's total fuel expense
increased by $10.4 billion between 2004 and 2005, and data for 2006
suggests higher prices this year.
"We are pleased that the FAA is deploying new technologies, such
as URET, to enable pilots and carriers to get more out of the
national air system," said Air Transport Association President and
CEO James C. May (right). "With today's high fuel costs, it is
saving an extraordinary amount of money on fuel use alone."
Lockheed Martin was responsible for URET systems engineering,
software development, integration and deployment, hardware design
and installation, and controller training material, and remains
dedicated to system maintenance and user support and adaptation
maintenance at all 20 ARTCCs. URET is based on a prototype that was
developed by Mitre's Center for Advanced Aviation Systems
Development.
The system is a part of the FAA's En Route Automation
Modernization program, or ERAM... which will redesign and modernize
the current 40-year-old, antiquated traffic management system.
Deployment of ERAM is set to begin in 2008.