Northrop Grumman launches airport collaborative decision making capability

Posted by John McHale
LONDON, 5 Feb. 2011. Northrop Grumman Corp.'s (NYSE:NOC) Europe-based air traffic management subsidiary, Northrop Grumman Park Air Systems, has launched Airport Realtime Collaboration (ARC), a technology and services capability for the implementation of collaborative decision making solutions in airport operations.
ARC is designed to provide the airport community with more accurate and timely information for enhanced decision making and improved coordination of airport operations. The ARC technology uses existing infrastructure, such as the NOVA 9000 Air Traffic Management (ATM) suite, to deliver a common situational awareness picture through web-based geographical and tabular views of the airfield operations. ARC's processes can be optimized to combine industry best practices with local airport needs.
Northrop Grumman Park Air Systems has entered into a long-term strategic agreement with Rockshore, a specialist provider of real time information technology. Rockshore has deployed technology that is already in use in multiple airports in Europe. Northrop Grumman Park Air Systems has established a professional services team to support both the technology and business process aspects of the introduction of ARC.
Airport collaborative decision making (A-CDM) is a concept developed by the aviation community to improve the operational efficiency of airports by reducing delays, improving the predictability of events during the progress of a flight, and optimizing the utilization of resources.
"The combination of technology and the support for business processes provided by ARC enables a low-risk approach to the adoption of A-CDM. The system can be implemented incrementally at a pace that is suitable for a given airport and with minimum disruption to existing operations," says Charles Houseago, managing director, Northrop Grumman Park Air Systems.
ARC enables airlines, ground handlers, air navigation service providers, and airports to work together efficiently helping increase capacity, improve safety and reduce environmental impact and costs. As an example, the amount of time an aircraft is stationary with its engines running can be reduced and runway capacity can be managed more efficiently.