Colorado Springs Airport Updates Flight Status Screens

By Sarah Colwell, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Mar. 28–New flight status screens at the Colorado Springs Airport will provide travelers with information that is more accurate and up-to-date information.

The flight information display system is Internet-based, providing instant updates which enables the information to be automatically updated from the air traffic control system.

“If a flight is flying through the system and falls 10 minutes behind, it will pick it up through the air traffic control system, and it will automatically be updated on the monitors,” said Mark Earle, the airport’s aviation director of the Colorado Springs Airport.

Air carriers still will update gate changes with the new system.

Information on the current 14-year-old system is retrieved from centralized equipment located in the airport, which can only be updated manually by the air carriers. As the air carriers have cut costs, there are fewer employees to update the system, and often the information posted is unreliable and not accurate, Earle said.

The new monitors are part of an overall renovation project in the terminal.

There are a few test monitors up at the airport, but the remaining monitors will be up and running within the next two months, Earle said.

Flat-screen monitors will make the information easier to read and will support colored graphics such as airline logos. The airport will also have one monitor available for weather updates and another for advertisements. Sponsors will pay a portion of those monitor installations, Earle said.

The old system, with a centralized processor, would cost $500,000. Installation and equipment for the new system costs $67,000 to install and will have an annual servicing cost of $30,000. The service is being provided by UltraFIDS, a United Kingdom-based company with an office in Kansas City, Mo., that is a leading supplier of flight information display systems to airport and airlines worldwide, according to the company’s Web site.

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