Limiting round-trip flights at Noi Bai thanks to shared software

From July 25, Noi Bai International Airport continued to test the A-CDM model for the second time after receiving approval from the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam.

At airports with large transport volumes such as Noi Bai or Tan Son Nhat, the current process has not optimized exploitation efficiency due to many reasons such as lack of information between units, each unit performs separate processes so resources are not optimized.

Airports still operate on the principle of “first come, first served”, leading to many cases of departure order disruption; many aircraft have to queue up to wait for their turn to take off, making it difficult to control taxi times.

This situation leads to the fact that airlines, ground service units, airports, and flight management units do not have an optimal solution to share information about the aircraft turnaround process as well as flight delay status in real time...

Faced with this situation, on March 26, Noi Bai International Airport officially tested the actual exploitation of the A-CDM model.

NoiBai A-CDM interface on the curved screen is convenient for monitoring and exploiting information (Photo: N.Huyen)

A-CDM is a coordination process between units to make decisions at airports. With a shared software platform, units including: Airports, airlines, ground service units, flight operations management units... have coordinated, shared information and data in a timely manner to serve decision-making at airports.

Accordingly, when implementing A-CDM, it will help optimize the use of airport infrastructure; improve indicators related to on-time operations, minimize plans for allocating parking positions, check-in counters, and gates; optimize aircraft turnaround time; improve situation forecasting and save flight time; minimize congestion on taxiways and parking lots; optimize departure order; save fuel, improve transportation efficiency, etc.

For passengers, when flying through airports with the A-CDM system, they will experience flights with high on-time rates, limit situations of circling to wait for landing, minimize situations of aircraft stopping for a long time on the runway, and at the same time, the service of luggage and cargo of the flight will be better served,...

The reason is that flights are well planned, have clear information, and have optimized operations thanks to A-CDM.

For example, in unfavorable weather conditions or when the destination airport is overloaded, the plane will have to circle and wait without being able to land immediately. If this happens, if the airport applies A-CDM, it will recalculate and adjust the appropriate take-off time. At this time, passengers only have to wait at the terminal and depart at the new time. This saves fuel for the airline and passengers no longer have to be stressed when the plane circles and waits for many hours in the air.

Continue testing on all flights

According to Noi Bai International Airport, after the first test (from March 26 to April 30) with more than 3,000 flights taking off and landing safely during the A-CDM application time frame, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has approved to continue the second practical test of the A-CDM model lasting 3 months (from July 25 to October 31, 2023).

The Port representative said that the second trial period will be divided into two phases and applied to all domestic and international flights arriving/departing through the port.

Passengers will not have to wait in the air

Phase 1 applies A-CDM continuously for 8 hours per day, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. from July 25 to August 31.

Phase 2 applies A-CDM continuously for 12 hours per day, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. from September 1 to October 31, 2023.

Regarding the A-CDM process, in the second practical exploitation trial, to increase the efficiency of the system, all participating links are required to strictly comply with 16 important milestones.

Accordingly, each participating unit needs to develop and deploy internal operating procedures to all individuals and related departments. Specifically, agree on the time to send flight plans: Airlines send flight plans to the port before 10:00 a.m. every day, if there is any change, send it again before 6:00 p.m. the same day.

The time limit for determining a flight delay is agreed to be tightened, from 15 minutes to less than 60 minutes late, the airline must send a flight “delay” notice. If the delay is more than 60 minutes, the airline must issue a new flight plan.

In the first phase of implementation, the A-CDM model at Noi Bai International Airport was applied in many different situations and actual operating conditions, showing that the aircraft taxi time index was recorded to decrease compared to the average in 2022.

According to calculations, the taxi out time for takeoff of the aircraft during the testing time frame at the port reached 13 minutes, a decrease of 3 minutes compared to the average in 2022 before the test.

The average taxi-in time of the aircraft from the time the aircraft actually landed on the runway and taxied into the parking position during the test time frame was 7 minutes, a decrease of 1 minute compared to the average before the test.

Reducing aircraft taxi times will help reduce taxiway occupancy time and optimize airport infrastructure usage, while reducing costs for airlines.

According to preliminary calculations of domestic airlines, each minute of taxi time saved will correspond to the amount of fuel saved and the cost conversion is as follows:

With the A350 aircraft, 25kg of fuel can be saved per minute, equivalent to about $127 per minute of reduced taxi time.

With the B787 aircraft, 20kg of fuel can be saved per minute, equivalent to about $122 per minute of reduced taxi time.

With the A321 aircraft, 13.5 kg of fuel is saved per minute, equivalent to about $68 for each minute of reduced taxi time.

With the ATR72 aircraft, 13.5 kg of fuel is saved per minute, equivalent to about $19 for each minute of reduced taxi time.

In particular, with the application of A-CDM, passengers will have better experiences, because the aircraft will have reduced taxiing time, waiting time, etc. At the same time, the service of luggage and cargo of the flight will be better served because the flights are well planned, have clear information, and have optimized stages in the operation process thanks to A-CDM.

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