According to a NASA analysis of 1,600 Alaska Airlines flights, access to this type of dynamic airspace information and alternative trajectories suggested by TASAR could save the company 1 million gallons of fuel and 110,000 minutes of flight time annually. I thought this sort of thing was more common practice. Sci-fi spoils me. 1 million gallons at Monday's prevailing aviation fuel price of ~$5.20 means about $5 million in savings. Not sure how to calculate the savings of flight time, but with the industries margins so thin, I bet Alaska et al will take anything they can get? Does this sort of thing have a measurable effect on Alaska's stock price?For example, the airline is conducting flight trials to evaluate the use of NASA’s Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) software. TASAR is designed to allow flight crews to make trajectory change request decisions in en route airspace, using near-real-time weather information, special-use airspace status and traffic conditions.
The biggest problem with varying flight times, I would think, would be the airplane's arrival window and "reservation" for the runway and terminal. Planes in the air have a lot of variability. On the ground, things quickly get complicated. Miss your landing window by 5 minutes, and you are left flying circles over the airport until they can find a window to fit you in. Miss your gate time by 10 minutes, and simply getting across the tarmac to the gate, can be a problem, with congestion and ground crew availability. Seems like if they go with TASAR to improve flight efficiency, they also need to automate the arrival and ground operations with some sort of adaptable neural net, overseen by skilled human controllers.