Boeing Announces Air Traffic Management Research Collaboration in Poland

- LOT Polish Airlines, Polish agencies and research institutions to work with Boeing to develop new technologies

WARSAW, Poland, June 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Boeing (NYSE: BA) announced today it will collaborate on air traffic management (ATM) research with LOT Polish Airlines, Polish government agencies and academic institutions to make commercial aviation in Poland more efficient and to support airline profitability.

The collaboration was announced during the U.S.-Poland Economic Summit, a meeting of officials including Acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank and business executives. At the summit, executives from Boeing and several Polish partners signed an agreement to launch the research. The project establishes a Boeing research and development presence in Poland that will pursue other opportunities to work with Polish R&D institutions.

"We already have important customer relationships and a strong Boeing presence in Poland, and this agreement broadens our engagement in the country," said Henryka Bochniarz, president of Boeing Central & Eastern Europe. "This is the first major research initiative by an aircraft manufacturer in Poland and recognizes Poland's unique talent and world-class technology capabilities."

In addition to LOT Polish Airlines and Boeing, the ATM project consortium includes Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Poland, Polish Airports State Enterprise, Enter Air, Polish Air Navigation Services Agency, and the University of Warsaw Interdisciplinary Center for Mathematical and Computational Modeling.

Boeing Research & Technology-Europe (BR&T-Europe) will oversee the company's research activity in Poland. BR&T-Europe is focused on developing future aerospace solutions and improving the cycle time, cost, quality and performance of current aerospace systems. To this aim, BR&T-Europe conducts its own research and works with partners around the world to find technologies that are innovative and affordable. Boeing's enterprise-wide ATM portfolio includes research and development, airspace design, navigation services, modeling and simulation, airplane equipage, air-ground integration and system-wide information management.

Francisco Escarti, managing director of BR&T-Europe, said: "This is another example of how Boeing is partnering with the best technologists in the world to develop aerospace solutions that meet our customers' needs."

"The ability to work with Boeing on the ATM research provides a great opportunity to test and develop weather forecasting models," said Robert Sot of the University of Warsaw Interdisciplinary Center for Mathematical and Computational Modeling.

The consortium will begin by studying ways to make aircraft descents more efficient in dense air traffic, a process known as Optimized Profile Descent. When implemented, this can reduce fuel consumption for airlines, make landings and takeoffs more efficient and reduce noise at airports. The first phase of the project is expected to be completed later this year, and the benefits of Optimized Profile Descent will be applied to a selected Polish airport.

Contacts:
Francesca De Florio, Boeing Communications
+44 (0) 2073401939
francesca.e.deflorio@boeing.com

Tom Koehler, Boeing Communications
+1 (425) 373-2921
thomas.j.koehler@boeing.com