Coordinating Winter Operations

Denver International Airport

The problem

In the winter of 2006-2007 Denver International Airport suffered severe disruptions in operations due to back-to-back blizzards during the holiday season.  One of these storms even led to a significant closure of the airport. Post event analysis revealed that the airport needed a much greater level of coordination and information sharing in order to ensure proper and timely allocation of resources to keep the facility operational during severe weather and other disruptions.

The solution: PASSUR OPSnet

Denver International airport chose PASSUR OPSnet to implement a new program of communication, coordination and consistent information. Specifically they requested two new enhancements to address their challenges:

• New tools to allow the airport to immediately show the status of both snow removal and deicing equipment, to ensure resources are available and properly allocated.
• Electronic submission of NOTAMS to the FAA (this enhancement was pioneered by Boston Logan on PASSUR OPSnet, and then taken up by DIA) for timely, actionable distribution of NOTAMS.

The results

DIA launched PASSUR OPSnet in November 2007, and to date the results from the first winter have been a significantly higher level of information sharing and collaboration during winter events. In fact, some of the airport stakeholders have already asked to have additional information such as glycol inventory levels posted on OPSnet.