An agreement between Airways New Zealand and US-based The MITRE Corporation is a significant step forward in the development of data analytics technology aimed at improving aviation safety, capacity and efficiency globally.
Airways and MITRE are working in partnership under a broad research and development memorandum of understanding (MOU),ย formalised in August 2018.ย This latest agreement marks the start of the market validation phase of the first major project advanced under the MOU. It was signed in Washington this week by Airways International CEO Sharon Cooke and Gregg Leone, MITRE Vice President and Director of the Center for Advanced Aviation System Development.
โThis is an exciting analytics project with benefits which could be widely realised across the aviation industry,โ Airways International CEO Sharon Cooke says. โWeโre working together with MITRE to develop a flexible tool that enables better decision making and delivers demonstrable safety and efficiency gains for customers.โ
MITRE Vice President Gregg Leone says: โWe are excited about expanding our partnership with Airways International to advance global aviation safety and efficiency. These efforts will help the aviation community to see systematic risks and efficiencies and to develop associated mitigations and enhancement.โ
Airways New Zealand is a world-leading air navigation services provider. It is responsible for one of the largest areas of airspace in the world, of some 30 million square kilometres, and is renowned globally for driving innovation and development in the aviation sector. MITRE is a U.S. not-for-profit company that provides system engineering, research and development, and information technology support to the U.S. government. MITRE has been supporting the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for over 55 years. It operates the FAAโs only federally funded research and development centre (FFRDC) whose mission is to advance the safety, security, and efficiency of aviation in the U.S. and worldwide in collaboration with the aviation community.
Under the MOU, Airways and MITRE are also in discussions regarding another airspace project that would benefit from their complementary capabilities and experiences in maximising runway capacity, and advanced airspace and procedure design.