LOS ANGELES, March 1, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) today announced new enhancements to its popular Internet flight-tracking system on the airport's website that provides residents of neighboring communities concerned about aircraft noise with information on planes landing and taking off at LAX.
The AirportMonitor program, designed for LAX by Greenwich, Conn.-based Megadata Corporation, was launched on the airport's website at www.lawa.org (then click on "Noise management") during April 2002. Users can view air traffic and flight information in near-live and replay modes -- from close to the runways all the way out to 80 miles -- from a home Internet connection. The new version, called AirportMonitor 2.0 Gold, adds features such as enhanced map zoom detail, pause and resume, fast forward, and color coding for flights to and from multiple nearby airports.
The program has proven to be very popular, with an average 40,500 individual user sessions per month (a single user session registers the first time a person logs in for the day from one computer; while actual logins and "hits" range from 10 to 100 times higher). Last December, approximately 57,000 individual user sessions were recorded on the LAX AirportMonitor site, translating to approximately 570,000 to 5,700,000 "hits" and/or logins. This is the highest one-month total for a single AirportMonitor site to date. LAX was the first airport in the United States to install the AirportMonitor program. Now, 12 U.S. airports currently run the program customized for their respective airports.
Michael DiGirolamo, deputy executive director for airports operations and noise management at Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) said, "These new enhancements to our popular Internet flight-tracking program demonstrates our continuing commitment to provide residents in neighboring communities with the means to quickly identify and report to airport operations, the airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration aircraft operations that do not comply with established flight procedures."
"LAX literally led the way for other airports in the country, by being the first of many airports to deploy AirportMonitor," stated Jim Barry, Megadata president and chief operating officer. "Now LAX is the first to launch our newest version, AirportMonitor 2.0 Gold. We look forward to this next opportunity to serve their communities."
The new version of AirportMonitor was created in close consultation with the LAWA Noise Management Division to address the needs of the airport's neighboring communities, while keeping the program easy to use from a home Internet connection. Enhancements and customized features of the premium version to which LAX subscribes include:
-- Close-in views of their residential area, for people living up to
20 miles radius from LAX
-- The ability to pause all the activity onscreen for easy lookup of
information - then to instantly resume from where they left off
-- The option to replay at various speeds and to quickly advance to
the point of interest
-- Distinctive color coding for flights to and from nearby airports
in order to better identify and segment traffic
-- New onscreen HELP menu
AirportMonitor is based on Megadata's web-based PASSUR (passive surveillance) flight tracking and flight information system, which is used by more than 40 airports, including LAX, and many major airlines in the United States. The PASSUR system provides an independent source of live and historical flight graphics and data. The program allows users to:
-- See detailed traffic patterns and flight paths (flight tracks are
delayed approximately 10 minutes for security)
-- Learn about the way aircraft typically flow around Southern
California
-- Identify specific flights of interest
-- View all LAX arrivals and departures, and all in-transit traffic
in the region including general aviation (private and charter)
traffic
-- Replay flight events immediately, as well as review up to three
months of past flight activity
-- Identify airline and flight number, altitude, aircraft type, and
airport of origin and destination (some information is available
in replay only, after a one-hour delay for security purposes)
-- View aircraft activity at six, 12, 24, 48 and 80 miles around LAX.
Community residents can use flight-tracking information from the AirportMonitor system in conjunction with LAX's on-line Noise Complaint Form also found in the "Noise management" page of the airport's website. Or residents can call the long-established LAX Noise Complaint Hotline at (310) 64-NOISE (646-6473).
Los Angeles World Airports is a department of Los Angeles City that owns and operates LAX and three other Southern California Airports -- Ontario International, Van Nuys and Palmdale Regional. LAWA expects to launch the AirportMonitor system covering flight activity at Ontario International Airport and Van Nuys in the future for use by residents of those communities.