“谢谢您延误了我们的航班”

在最近的一次飞行中，我从纽约肯尼迪国际机场起飞, 我的邻座作了自我介绍，并继续攀谈起来. He started with the standard questions that we business travelers have grown accustomed to exchanging, the friendly ones that help feel out whether the other person is interested in chatting with us and whether they seem pleasant enough for us to want to continue chatting with them. We made it over the first hurdles, the “Where are you froms” and the “Business or pleasures”. 然后他又开始说那句经典台词:“你会怎么做??” As I was about to launch into my usual explanation of my company and my role in it, the pilot interrupted to announce that we had received a surface flow management delay and we were going to hold at the gate for 10 minutes for our turn to depart. When the pilot’s mic clicked off, I chose a different response, “that’s what I do,” I told him. His raised eyebrows told me he was intrigued, but was waiting for the rest of the story.

我是星际网赌导航航空交通管理(ATM)部门的经理. 我们的使命源于星际网赌导航的企业愿景, 哪一个是支持每个人都有安全感的权利. 在星际网赌导航自动取款机, we are dedicated to enabling a safe and efficient aviation system that allows people and goods to flow freely. 三十年来, we have worked hard to support this mission by providing tools that help air traffic controllers, 飞行操作符, 机场运营商也在履行他们的重要职责.

Saab ATM’s portfolio of products spans surveillance sensors that accurately track aircraft in the air and on the ground, safety alerting tools that monitor traffic and alert air traffic controllers to unexpected or unsafe conditions, decision support tools that help controllers and operators understand what’s happening and make better decisions, and digital tower solutions that reduce the cost of providing services to remote airports. 我们对安全和效率的承诺也延伸到机场内部, where we provide airport security solutions to help manage incidents and the every-day coordination of security resources.

Our air traffic management systems are deployed in more than 100 locations across 45 countries. JFK is one of these locations and while nobody wants to claim responsibility for a delay, I’ll proudly state that we had more than a little something to do with the 10 minute gate delay that I mentioned earlier. 我们在肯尼迪机场部署了两个主要系统. 首先是机场地面探测设备, 我们设计的X模型(ASDE-X), 建, 并为联邦航空管理局(FAA)安装. It consists of surveillance sensors that identify and track aircraft and ground vehicles and software automation tools that provide situational awareness and safety alerts to air traffic controllers in the tower.

The other Saab ATM system that we have deployed at JFK is our Aerobahn Collaborative Decision Making Suite. Aerobahn连接到ASDE-X提供的监控数据馈送, 但将飞机位置信息用于一个非常不同的目的. While ASDE-X is focused on helping air traffic controllers safely keep planes apart, Aerobahn is focused on enabling multiple operational stakeholders to work together to coordinate and optimize flight movements on the ground. The goal is to get each flight in and out as fast and as efficiently as possible so that passengers can get on with their journey. 这就是为什么会有10分钟的延迟. Our Aerobahn system at JFK implements what the industry refers to as “pre-departure sequencing” or “departure management.” It automatically monitors traffic at the airport to determine the optimal sequence that aircraft should leave the gate so that they spend the minimal amount of time waiting in line to use the runway. This reduces the amount of fuel burned and also reduces the total amount of delay incurred. 这就像在熟食店柜台前排队一样. 如果每个人都协调一致，等待轮到他们, 来回走动的时间更少，每个人都能更快得到服务. So the 10 minute delay we took at the gate saved us at least 10 minutes that we would have otherwise spent taxiing and it likely saved us more because of the additional optimizations that Aerobahn makes to account for other flight details (like aircraft size and flight route).

Systems like Aerobahn make the steadily increasing amount of air traffic possible and systems like ASDE-X are what make air travel so safe. The rarity of air traffic safety incidents today means that most passengers hardly even think about them anymore. 在我解释完之后, 我的邻座点头表示理解, 拼凑出一句航空史上从未有人说过的话. “好吧，谢谢你延误了我们的航班，”他笑着说.