Airline Operations Center Usage of FAA Terminal Weather Information Products

Historically, the FAA has not provided the airlines full access to products from FAA commissioned terminal weather information systems (TWIS) such as LLWAS, the ASR-9 weather channel and the TDWR. With the advent of Collaborative Decision Making (CDM), the FAA has agreed to provide the airlines with access to the FAA TWIS products. An airline/FAA group is working to determine the products to be provided and the data transfer mechanism.

The recent air carrier accident at Little Rock, AR in June 1999 has raised significant issues on the role of airline dispatch in providing real time guidance to pilots. Additional insights on the role of dispatch in improving convective weather operations have been gained through airline use of products from the ITWS demonstration systems over the past 6 years.

In this paper, we review the possible functional use of the TWIS information by airline operations centers in the context of:

(1) stated requirements for airline dispatch (2) safety enhancement for severe and/or rapidly changing convective such as at Little Rock, and (3) reducing disruptions (e.g., delays, diversions) to airline operations

and then suggest functional product characteristics to meet these needs.