Software Saves Time and Money

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says a new software program launched in March 2007 saved an estimated $27 million for the airlines and 1.1 million delay minutes for air passengers in the first year of its operation. Adaptive Compression works by scanning for airport arrival slots that would otherwise go to waste when a flight is cancelled, delayed or re-routed. Open slots are filled with the next available flight, minimizing passenger delays by maximizing operations at constrained airports. Adaptive Compression, which was developed in collaboration with the airlines, updates slot assignments without adding to controller workload. Controllers are automatically notified of open slots and the next available flights, rather than having to perform those functions manually.