The groundwork for the Federal Aviation Administration’s NextGen airport modernization program was completed yesterday at Denver International Airport. Proponents say the new performance-based navigation technology — called area navigation with required navigation performance (RNAV RNP) — will reduce delays and improve efficiency.
Jeppesen, an Englewood-based subsidiary of Boeing Co., collaborated with DIA and the FAA to incorporate its technology in what is the most comprehensive rollout of its kind in the nation.
Mike Pound, manager of corporate communications for Jeppesen, says that the technology will increase runway throughput, lessen flyover noise, and reduce aircraft fuel burn – saving the airlines cash and lower carbon emissions.
“Bottom line is you get much more precise navigation,” Pound said. “These arrivals are more of a continuous landing than a step-by-step path.”
Air traffic controllers currently piece together flight plans using a vectored system. Each aircraft is instructed step-by-step as to when and where they can change altitude during descent. The new system gives each pilot and aircraft one flight path out of several predetermined routes, with the goal of producing a more fluid navigation stream.
“By getting airplanes to fly that precise and repeatable course, airplane-after-airplane, you know exactly where those airplanes will be,” Pound said.
Experts predict that the the air traffic controllers’ ongoing game of airspace Tetris will be minimized.
However, due to the current, semi-modernized phase of U.S. airspace, aircraft landing at DIA will continue to use a mixture of conventional, beacon-to-beacon navigation and the new performance-based system until the entire NextGen program is implemented nationwide.
Depending on the approach route, airline partners estimate the new technology could reduce the miles traveled by 5 to 20 miles per flight — saving 150 lbs. of fuel.
If only 50 flights a day landed using this system, that equals a savings of 7,500 lbs. of fuel daily. Multiplied out, it would save to 2,737,500 lbs., or more than 400,000 gallons, of fuel each year for aircraft landing at DIA.
At the most recent three-month average of $3.15/gallon, that adds up to nearly $1.3 million in fuel savings.
“Airports like this because they are more neighborhood-friendly with less airplanes flying around there at a low altitude,” Pound said.
While DIA may like its “neighborhood-friendliness,” it likely enjoyed the pricetag even more: free.
Jeppesen did all of the work free-of-charge.
“We did the work for DIA because they are right here in our backyard, and it was a good way to showcase our capabilities,” Pound said. “It was just the ideal place to put this to the test.”
Similar RNAV technology is already used in Los Angeles, Miami, and Atlanta, but Pound says that none of them are as comprehensive as DIA, which uses the technology for planes arriving from all directions.