South Korea has started operating a new air traffic flow management system which significantly reduces flight departure delays to Da Nang.

Passengers line up for check-in at the Incheon airport. Photo: VNA

On average, there are 24 flights per day (around 8,700 flights a year) from South Korea to Da Nang, but frequent departure delays have caused inconvenience to airlines and passengers as well.

In a great effort to deal with the aforementioned issue, the Air Traffic Management Office under the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) switched its air traffic flow management technique from ‘Time Based Separation’ between aircrafts to ‘Calculated Take - Off Time (CTOT)’, which officially started operating from August 15.

CTOT is the departure time slot also known as ATFM departure slot (air traffic flow management). The departure time slot is the time interval within which the take-off has to take place. The departure slot is defined to improve the traffic flow and avoid to jam-up the airspace.

Thanks to the use of the new system, as calculated, the average ground delay of aircrafts bound for Da Nang will reduce by over 70% from 273 minutes (11 minutes per aircraft) to 78 minutes (3 minutes per aircraft) by informing airlines of departure times adjusted in advance in consideration of landing availability at the arrival airport.

In addition, the reduction in fuel consumption during the waiting time on the ground is estimated to save 145 million won KRW (US$110,000) per year, and travellers' in-flight waiting time due to unnecessary ground waiting after boarding the plane has also been significantly reduced.

MOLIT will continue to make efforts to actively improve air traffic management on international routes that frequently witness delays in order to reduce inconvenience facing passengers, and increase the on-time operation rate of South Korean flag aircraft.

Reporting by https://baotintuc.vn/- Translating by A.THU