The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) scooped the Infrastructure and the Environment award for the successful implementation of its Traffic Management Advisor (TMA) at some of the country's busiest airports.
TMA is part of the FAA's Free Flight programme, which aims to minimise airspace restrictions and thereby increase the efficiency of the national air traffic system. The goal of the programme is to improve existing resources, increase user choice, provide more open skies and increase system capacity without compromising safety controller workload.
TMA provides automation to support arrival-sequence planning and increase the efficiency of air traffic operations in the airspace surrounding major airports. It allows en route controllers to develop complete arrival scheduling plans that maximise the airport's use of its available capacity, yielding significant fuel savings and reducing passenger delays. The system was implemented at four of the FAA's planned eight sites between February and December last and is already bringing results. Since its implementation at Fort Worth, Texas, TMA has increased arrivals into Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport by 5%, according to the FAA. Finalists were Lufthansa Cityline, for its achievement in becoming the first airline to receive European and international environmental certification, and Swedavia and Alenia Marconi Systems for the completion of the Faraway II project.
Source: Flight Daily News
