Growing numbers of aircraft pose increasing difficulties for the smooth management of busy airports and airspace, says Honeywell (Stand G39). But this can be alleviated, a leading air traffic management (ATM) official told AIN, in part by introducing advanced systems that can allow different angles of approach to avoid wake turbulence. Other ways to improve the situation include savvier ways to get departing aircraft from gates to taxiways, he said.

The U.S. company is working on several initiatives in the Asia Pacific region to deliver its SmartPath, SmartRunway and SmartLanding systems. This is expected to help regional airlines and airports avoid the growing pressure at airports, said Paul Nef, director ATM initiatives. “Even though growth rates appear to be slowing, air traffic rates appear to be keeping pace [in the region],” he said.

Shanghai’s Pudong Airport announced in April it had completed flight demonstrations under Honeywell’s SmartPath, a Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS). It said that the technology was especially valuable in bad-weather, low-visibility situations (and China has a lot of smog).

Honeywell also installed its SmartPath technology at Sydney Airport in 2014, allowing suitably equipped aircraft to approach on a predictable, precise landing path, correcting minor GPS errors and transmitting the ultra-precise data directly to an aircraft’s flight management system.

Nef said the technology could reduce a typical five-minute interval between an arriving Airbus A380 flying a 2.8-degree glideslope angle, and a smaller aircraft seeking to avoid its wake vortices. By directing the second aircraft to fly a steeper approach angle of 3.5 degrees, for example, (with the information delivered digitally to its flight management system) the smaller aircraft could safely land without being affected by the earlier, larger aircraft. “Significantly smaller amounts of time between landings would dramatically increase the number of aircraft [that could be processed],” he said.

Incheon Airport in Korea also installed Honeywell systems for ground traffic management as early as 2009. SmartRunway prevents runway incursions, while SmartLanding is designed to prevent aircraft approaching the runway too high or too fast.

“[A] key safety issue and NTSB [U.S. National Transportation Safety Board] concern is the appropriate energy level [speed] for landing, required landing distance, and adequate safety margin when landing; all key areas that are addressed with Honeywell’s SmartLanding package,” Honeywell said.

Pressure on airspace is also growing because of the need for coordination between civilian and military fleets in places like China. “Similar things are happening in China to what’s happening in the Middle East. Civilian-military is a complicating factor that continues to affect the way things are done,” Nef said. The high incidence of low-cost-carrier traffic is also complicating the regional picture.

“Air travel within Asia continues to grow. If you look at the type of traffic flowing in Southeast Asia, the low-cost carriers are more prevalent. Their needs are somewhat different, with shorter routes of one- to 1.5 hours’ flying time, which is different from United Airlines flying to Asia Pacific. The mix of airports continues to be a challenge,” he explained.

An additional complication on the ground is that Asia Pacific airports, especially in China, find it difficult to create the right business mix to become profitable. While retail and food and beverage facilities are increasingly prevalent, they may not be enough.

Nef said, “In most cases where infrastructure is being built, the challenge is for investors to figure out a way to get their money back. Landing fees alone aren’t enough.”

Honeywell is likely to stay at the forefront of the international players in the region. “We see that the Chinese authorities are looking to the rest of the world and what’s going on there, but the direction and speed of progress is based on its own local needs,” he concluded.