brian collins meteorologist southwest airlines (wednesday november 9 th 2011) amdar workshop mexico...
TRANSCRIPT
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES’PARTICIPATION IN AMDAR
Brian CollinsMeteorologist
Southwest Airlines
(Wednesday November 9th 2011)
AMDAR WorkshopMexico City, Mexico
Topics of Discussion
Look at SWA Facts and Figures
SWA AMDAR History
Potential Issues in the AMDAR Process
Operational use of the Data
Future Possibilities
10/26/11
SWA Aircraft
Type Number Seats
737-300 168 137
737-500 25 122
737-700 357 137
Note: New 737-800 aircraft are expected to begin service in Spring 2012, increasing the passenger capacity from 137 to 175
SWA Facts and Figures 3400+ daily flights from 72 airports
550 Boeing 737 aircraft (300’s, 500’s, 700’s)
Southwest consumed 1.4 billion gallons of jet fuel in 2010
Average flight length is 653 miles
Shortest: 133 miles (RSW-MCO)
Longest: 2,363 miles (PVD-LAS)
As of May 1, 2011, up to 58 SWA cities connect to six different Volaris cities in Mexico: Cancun, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Morelia, Toluca, and Zacatecas
10/26/11
SWA Facts and Figures
Southwest carried approximately 116.5 million onboard customers during the past 12 months
average of 9.7 million onboard customers per month
average of 585,500 onboard customers per weekend
AMDAR History Early in 2005, SWA began reporting wind and
temperature information from 50 aircraft during the ascent phase of flight
In early 2010, SWA began reporting water vapor information along with the wind/temperature data on a select group of 737-300 aircraft
Currently there are 29 of the 737-300 aircraft that report water vapor information
Another 2 are scheduled to be installed before the end of 2011
SWA is under contract to install 36 water vapor sensors on the 737-700 aircraft over the next 2 years
Contract calls for the reporting of data from all aircraft for at least 36 months after water vapor sensor installations
Issues for Consideration
No additional instrumentation was needed to report wind and temperature information
Airlines do need to work with Flight Management System (FMS) vendors to establish reporting mechanisms
Need to analyze the actual cost of bandwidth versus “opportunity costs” that the AMDAR information occupies
Determine member of the organization to be responsible for aircraft setup and ongoing maintenance required for reporting
US airlines require the de-identification of flight information (i.e., remove tail number, flight number, aircraft type, etc.)
Taxi Taxi Take-Off Departure En Route Approach Land
6 sec intervals to 90 secs from OFF
20 sec intervals to 510 secs to TOC
3 min. intervals to TOD
Top of Climb
(TOC)
Top of Descent
(TOD)
ARINC 620 Reporting Specifications
60 sec intervals to ON
Future Plans & Opportunities
Automated reporting of turbulence is delayed due to
FMS capacity issues
Exploring options for turbulence (EDR) reporting,
including on new Teledyne equipped units
Possibly the 737-300 aircraft during 2013
SWA hoping to expand AMDAR participation (wind
and temperature reporting) to take advantage of
company route structure
SWA hopes to provide input and additional
participation in any AMDAR data optimization efforts