Page 28 - AAA JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2012 Online Magazine

Navigation

Peak Challenge Industry-wide there are many tech-
nological innovations that address air
traffic congestion. Honeywell offers
multiple solutions that both reduces
congestion at airports and in the air,
Briand Greer, President, Honeywell Aerospace, Asia Pacific and ensures more efficient and safer
looks at the issue of peak season traffic and its effects on the flights in adverse conditions.
region’s air navigation systems Next generation Flight Management
Systems enable flight crews to compute
the most efficient flight profiles and
Can you give some idea, and if pos- the increase in passenger traffic. automatically navigate the aircraft to
sible figures, on the scale of the Beyond peak periods, there is tre- follow the best routes. Advanced sat-
‘peak’ challenge in Asia? Where are mendous air travel growth across ellite technology (ADS-B) is helping to
the main hot spots, and how much China, India and throughout Asia also considerably increasing efficiency
traffic do they handle over the festive and this looks to continue for many and routing. By using ADS-B, aircraft
period compared with other times of years to come. We see other emerg- can better communicate their position,
the year? ing countries in the Asia Pacific re- monitor the location of other aircraft,
gion, such as Vietnam and Indonesia and safely reduce oceanic and remote
There is substantial increase in travel with year-over-year growth rising in aircraft separation, resulting in better
across Asia during the peak festive 2012. According to the International routing and reduced fuel burn.
periods. The Civil Aviation Admin- Air Traffic Association (IATA), Viet- Similarly, advanced weather ra-
istration of China (CAAC) recently nam will be the third fastest growing dar systems such as Honeywell’s 3D
estimated that as many as 35 million airline industry market after China weather radar IntuVue, provide pi-
airline passengers will be travelling and the United Arab Emirates. As the lots with a more complete picture
during the Chinese New Year period, skies experience further increases in of weather conditions than current
which is an increase of seven percent congestion levels, it is crucial the in- two-dimensional systems, helping
from last year’s statistics. We see this dustry employ technology for more increase efficiencies. Efficiencies are
play out in places like Hong Kong, efficient and safer air travel. gained because pilots can make better
which on the Friday before the holiday decisions sooner to avoid bad weather
set a record for the number of incom- What are the main technological in- thereby minimizing path deviations
ing and outgoing flights in one day; novations that the industry can put to and flight delays.
and in Beijing where weather and con- use, thinking of a time frame over the Despite planes being equipped
gestion issues at the world’s second rest of the decade, in order to reduce with the latest avionics, radar systems,
busiest airport can be aggravated by congestion? and engine technology, bad weather
conditions can still force last-minute
route changes, service cancellations
and increased flight times that drive
up costs, threaten safety and gener-
ate congestion. To combat this, Hon-
eywell is developing new technology
that increases situational awareness
by providing pilots a 3D view of the
world through the limited-visibility
environment that displays real-time
images of the terrain and key ground-
based objects through an accurate syn-
thetic image. Honeywell’s Combined
Vision System (CVS) will help pilots
land in low-visibility environments,
such as during a thunderstorm, haze
or fog. CVS not only keeps pilots and
passengers safe while landing in low-
visibility situations, it also enhances
the passenger experience by avoiding

28 ASIAN AIRLINES & AIRPORTS January/February 2012 www.AsianAirlines-Airports.com