Los Angeles International Airport Introduces Enhancements to Popular Internet Flight Tracking and Information System

Source: Los Angeles World Airports

Los Angeles International Airport Introduces
Enhancements to Popular Internet Flight Tracking and
Information System

LOS ANGELES, March 1, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Los Angeles
International Airport (LAX) today announced new
enhancements to its popular Internet flight-tracking
system on the airport's website that provides
residents of neighboring communities concerned about
aircraft noise with information on planes landing and
taking off at LAX. 

The AirportMonitor program, designed for LAX by
Greenwich, Conn.-based Megadata Corporation, was
launched on the airport's website at www.lawa.org
(then click on "Noise management") during April 2002.
Users can view air traffic and flight information in
near-live and replay modes -- from close to the
runways all the way out to 80 miles -- from a home
Internet connection. The new version, called
AirportMonitor 2.0 Gold, adds features such as
enhanced map zoom detail, pause and resume, fast
forward, and color coding for flights to and from
multiple nearby airports. 

The program has proven to be very popular, with an
average 40,500 individual user sessions per month (a
single user session registers the first time a person
logs in for the day from one computer; while actual
logins and "hits" range from 10 to 100 times higher).
Last December, approximately 57,000 individual user
sessions were recorded on the LAX AirportMonitor site,
translating to approximately 570,000 to 5,700,000
"hits" and/or logins. This is the highest one-month
total for a single AirportMonitor site to date. LAX
was the first airport in the United States to install
the AirportMonitor program. Now, 12 U.S. airports
currently run the program customized for their
respective airports. 

Michael DiGirolamo, deputy executive director for
airports operations and noise management at Los
Angeles World Airports (LAWA) said, "These new
enhancements to our popular Internet flight-tracking
program demonstrates our continuing commitment to
provide residents in neighboring communities with the
means to quickly identify and report to airport
operations, the airlines and the Federal Aviation
Administration aircraft operations that do not comply
with established flight procedures." 

"LAX literally led the way for other airports in the
country, by being the first of many airports to deploy
AirportMonitor," stated Jim Barry, Megadata president
and chief operating officer. "Now LAX is the first to
launch our newest version, AirportMonitor 2.0 Gold. We
look forward to this next opportunity to serve their
communities." 

The new version of AirportMonitor was created in close
consultation with the LAWA Noise Management Division
to address the needs of the airport's neighboring
communities, while keeping the program easy to use
from a home Internet connection. Enhancements and
customized features of the premium version to which
LAX subscribes include: 


 -- Close-in views of their residential area, for
people living up to
    20 miles radius from LAX

 -- The ability to pause all the activity onscreen for
easy lookup of
    information - then to instantly resume from where
they left off

 -- The option to replay at various speeds and to
quickly advance to
    the point of interest

 -- Distinctive color coding for flights to and from
nearby airports
    in order to better identify and segment traffic

 --  New onscreen HELP menu

AirportMonitor is based on Megadata's web-based PASSUR
(passive surveillance) flight tracking and flight
information system, which is used by more than 40
airports, including LAX, and many major airlines in
the United States. The PASSUR system provides an
independent source of live and historical flight
graphics and data. The program allows users to: 


 -- See detailed traffic patterns and flight paths
(flight tracks are
    delayed approximately 10 minutes for security)

 -- Learn about the way aircraft typically flow around
Southern
    California

 -- Identify specific flights of interest

 -- View all LAX arrivals and departures, and all
in-transit traffic
    in the region including general aviation (private
and charter)
    traffic

 -- Replay flight events immediately, as well as
review up to three
    months of past flight activity

 -- Identify airline and flight number, altitude,
aircraft type, and
    airport of origin and destination (some
information is available
    in replay only, after a one-hour delay for
security purposes)

 -- View aircraft activity at six, 12, 24, 48 and 80
miles around LAX.

Community residents can use flight-tracking
information from the AirportMonitor system in
conjunction with LAX's on-line Noise Complaint Form
also found in the "Noise management" page of the
airport's website. Or residents can call the
long-established LAX Noise Complaint Hotline at (310)
64-NOISE (646-6473). 

Los Angeles World Airports is a department of Los
Angeles City that owns and operates LAX and three
other Southern California Airports -- Ontario
International, Van Nuys and Palmdale Regional. LAWA
expects to launch the AirportMonitor system covering
flight activity at Ontario International Airport and
Van Nuys in the future for use by residents of those
communities. 

CONTACT:  Los Angeles World Airports
          Nancy Suey Castles
          (310) 646-5260


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