Focusing on the key aspects of take-off and landing, gate information and baggage handling, the aim is to provide a level of information that allow controllers the best information to work with.  Currently, they rely upon personal observations, reports and experience and all the elements are handled in isolation. 

The resulting system, the developers claim, will act like a giant search engine offering a view of all the scheduling permutations possible.

Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the project is being led by The University of Nottingham.

Speaking about the plans, Professor Edmund Burke – principal investigator on the project – commented: “Many people in the industry recognise that automating just one of these aspects could improve the efficient running of airport operations, so integrating all four would be a huge step forward. We’ll be developing a computer system that will work its way through the many billions of permutations created daily in each of these operations, to provide a much higher level of computer-aided decision support than is currently available.”

The project, called Integrating and Automating Airport Operations, is due for completion in November 2013.

On land

Meet a civil engineer who works at John Lennon Airport.