Low-cost carriers are not known for their willingness to pay for extra equipment that may be required to improve air traffic management. In this respect they are very much similar to their legacy brethren… Even when there is a clear business case, the mad rush to equip is usually conspicuous by its absence. There are exceptions to rule though. Southwest had announced earlier that it will equip all its fleet with RNP capability and the news is out now that US low-cost carrier JetBlue is equipping 35 of its Airbus A-320 aircraft with ADS-B Out capability, including the ACSS SafeRoute suite of applications. The catch? This is a demo project funded by the FAA to the tune of 4.2 million dollars.
Once equipped, JetBlue’s aircraft will be able to fly more precise trajectories under ADS-B surveillance from Boston and New York to Florida and the Caribbean although this latter will have to wait until 2012 as there is no ground ADS-B infrastructure there just yet.
Equipping of the 35 A320s will be completed in the next two years and the FAA will conduct data collection and evaluations of the ADS-B system on revenue flights.
The demo is aimed to show the cost-sensitive airline industry that equipping with ADS-B does make business sense and that those equipping to-day will be able to reap the upcoming benefits of NextGen sooner rather than later. The FAA expects equipped airlines to see greater efficiency, fuel savings and more on-time arrivals as the availability of NextGen procedures increases nation-wide.
In Europe we have seen just how successful a bit of seed-money can be. CPDLC equipage increased exponentially when EUROCONTROL decided to introduce the pioneer scheme, first proposed by IATA. No doubt this important step by the FAA to show just what ADS-B can do will have a very positive effect on airlines’ willingness to equip well before the mandatory equipage date in 2020.