URET May Save Airlines Over $600 Million In Fuel Costs

A new air traffic control system designed to safely route planes more efficiently has been deployed to all 20 Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) facilities across the United states. The FAA estimates the new system, called the User Request Evaluation Tool (URET), may save airlines 89.5 million nautical miles in travel distances... which works out to $626.5 million in fuel and operational costs.

The system's developer, Lockheed Martin, says URET can determine whether pilot-requested changes in flight plans are free of conflicts with other air traffic. The new system can also evaluate pilots' requests to deviate from their planned routes to avoid bad weather... and assign more direct routing of aircraft to cut down trip times, and take better advantage of current wind conditions.

That saves time, fuel and money for the airlines and saves travel time for passengers, while helping to ensure safe aircraft separation.

URET also automatically predicts aircraft-to-aircraft conflicts up to 20 minutes in advance, enabling controllers to plan more strategically. Prior to URET, controllers relied on paper flight strips and mental calculations to determine whether a proposed route change would be conflict free.  The system also continuously monitors aircraft flight path conformance with its flight plan and issues a controller alert 40 minutes in advance of when an aircraft is predicted to penetrate restricted or prohibited airspace.

"With URET, the FAA has delivered a completely new capability to our nation's air traffic controllers," said Sue Corcoran, vice president of Aviation Solutions for Lockheed Martin Transportation and Security Solutions. "Lockheed Martin is proud to support the FAA by deploying a next generation technology that is already providing measurable returns on investment -- meeting the FAA's goals of becoming a more cost-effective organization and increasing airspace availability for its customers."

With jet fuel averaging over $2 a gallon, the airline industry's total fuel expense increased by $10.4 billion between 2004 and 2005, and data for 2006 suggests higher prices this year. 

"We are pleased that the FAA is deploying new technologies, such as URET, to enable pilots and carriers to get more out of the national air system," said Air Transport Association President and CEO James C. May (right). "With today's high fuel costs, it is saving an extraordinary amount of money on fuel use alone."

Lockheed Martin was responsible for URET systems engineering, software development, integration and deployment, hardware design and installation, and controller training material, and remains dedicated to system maintenance and user support and adaptation maintenance at all 20 ARTCCs. URET is based on a prototype that was developed by Mitre's Center for Advanced Aviation Systems Development.

The system is a part of the FAA's En Route Automation Modernization program, or ERAM... which will redesign and modernize the current 40-year-old, antiquated traffic management system. Deployment of ERAM is set to begin in 2008.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.lockheedmartin.com