London Gatwick Airport Increases Runway Capacity to 55 Flights Per Hour and Estimates an Additional 2 Million Passengers on a Single Runway Assisted by Amadeus A-CDM Portal

MADRID, December 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

• London Gatwick Airport (LGW) is the first to implement Amadeus' cloud-based A-CDM^[1] portal to improve communication and operational efficiency at the airport
• Airports, airlines and ground handlers all benefit from Amadeus' cloud-based common situational awareness solution
• LGW rolls out Amadeus' A-CDM Portal to 300 users in just 8 weeks thanks to a quick implementation process

Amadeus, a leading technology partner for the global travel industry, today announces that London Gatwick Airport (LGW) is the first to implement Amadeus' cloud-based Airport-Collaborative Decision Making Portal (A-CDM) to improve collaborative decision-making processes. Gatwick is now one of a forward-thinking group of airports to join the European-wide A-CDM standard, with airports such as Munich, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Madrid and Zurich. However Gatwick followed an innovative approach opting for Amadeus' cost effective cloud technology to speed up the implementation time of A-CDM, rolling out the Amadeus portal to 300 users in just 8 weeks. Assisted by the Amadeus portal, LGW will handle 55 flights per hour from the world's busiest runway and estimates up to 2 million additional passengers.

The aim of the A-CDM standard is to bring the entire airport ecosystem (airport operators, airlines, ground handlers and air traffic management) together to operate more efficiently and transparently, sharing accurate information in a timely manner. This results in better air traffic management with fewer delays and increased capacity, as well as an improved passenger experience thanks to an integrated approach to operations.  

The Amadeus A-CDM Portal provides aggregated views of the status of airport operational activities based on real-time flight, passenger and other operational data. It can predict future flight problems over a three-to-four hour period, identifying which flights might be delayed and how they can be turned around faster to make sure they leave Gatwick on time, even if they arrived late. With accurate data at their disposal, airport stakeholders can make cooperative decisions to rapidly deal with operational issues.

Michael Ibbitson, CIO, London Gatwick Airport commented: "We have received extremely positive feedback from our Amadeus A-CDM Portal stakeholders. It is easy to use and enables them to make better decisions that contribute to smoother and more efficient operations. The portal supports all partners at the airport involved in activities from refuelling and de-icing and to ground handling and cargo. Those employees have access to real-time data about what's happening across London Gatwick - it's a game changer."

He continued: "We constantly strive to embrace new technologies at London Gatwick that will improve the travel experience and operating environment. We estimate that thanks to Amadeus' A-CDM Portal, we will be able to increase capacity to more than 40 million passengers on a single runway following wider adoption of the portal in the next year or so."

John Jarrell, Head of Airport IT, Amadeus added: "Communication gaps still prevail in the airport ecosystem - a collaborative approach is key to align on aspects such as disruptions, flight information, number of bags on board and passengers in transit. We hope to see other airports follow Gatwick's innovative use of the Amadeus A-CDM Portal to facilitate improved communications and operational efficiency."

The Amadeus Portal and its customisation for London Gatwick is part of Amadeus' broader commitment to work with airports to improve the passenger experience. Earlier this year, Amadeus published a whitepaper focused on attitudes to cloud computing in the airport industry. This included the viewpoints of over 20 senior IT leaders from the airport industry to investigate the business case for adopting cloud-based Common Use systems at airports.

For more information about Amadeus and its offering for airport operators, please visit http://www.amadeus.com/airports

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1. Airport Collaborative-Decision-Making