Modernising Air Traffic Management with Open Standards

Snowflake Software is pleased to announce, along with NATS, that the Jane’s Award-winning Heathrow XMAN cross border arrivals management system (SWIM-WS) has now been migrated into full operational service under a three year contract.

Originally a prototype developed for the 2013 EUROCONTROL SWIM Master Class and subsequently run within an operational trial by NATS since April 2014, the trial system has saved an estimated 8000 tonnes of CO2 and £1.65 million in airline and ground costs.

Snowflake packaged its GO Publisher data exchange technology into NATS’ operational environment to enable arrival information relating to aircraft landing at Heathrow airport to be shared with air traffic controllers in different European countries. As a result, operational decisions can be made to slow aircraft en-route to Heathrow, reducing the time aircraft spend circling in ‘holding stacks’ around London. The effect is a saving in fuel and carbon emissions as aircraft are more efficient when flying at high level yielding a significant benefit to airlines and the environment.

Alexis James Brooker, Director of Professional Services at Snowflake Software commented, “We are delighted to see Snowflake Software’s products and engineering solutions deployed in an operational context with NATS. As the European aviation community moves towards implementing SWIM, this deployment demonstrates just one example of how Snowflake’s products can help ANSPs and their customers realise tangible operational benefits.”

Ben Sanderson, XMAN System Engineering Manager at NATS commented, “This milestone is a monumental achievement, recognising the contributions of suppliers and partner ANSPs, collaboratively enhancing ATM services.”

Spencer Norton, British Airways Fuel Efficiency Manager – Flight Operations commented, “We look forward to on-going collaboration with NATS and the other ANSPs to ensure we can utilise even more fuel savings in future phases of XMAN, including tighter trigger points and an extended horizon to 500nm plus.”