Automated management of airport revenues

• US 20060085236A1
• Filed: 08/15/2005
• Published: 04/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SRA International, Inc. (General Dynamics Corporation)
• Original Assignee: ERA Systems Corporation (General Dynamics Corporation)
• Inventors: Smith, Alexander E., Breen, Thomas J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,739,167 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

A solution is described which provides an airport with the tools to accurately manage all sources of airside revenues, including operational revenues and capital programs. The system of the present invention relies on the acquisition of any and all data related to the operations, property, lease, and revenue management of an airport, including aircraft tracking data. This data is then stored in a central database where it is processed, sorted, and stored for later retrieval. The data may exist in a number of forms including real-time streams, tabular, or in the form of a database. From this data, airport revenue information can be accurately managed.

Claims

1. A system for managing airport finances, comprising:

a data acquisition unit for receiving airport operations data from a plurality of sources, the plurality of sources including a means for tracking vehicle movement, including path of movement data for vehicles, the data acquisition unit outputting data from the received airport operations data;

a data correlation unit, for receiving the data and processing the data to remove duplicate entries and outputting a single stream of processed data;

a data warehouse, for receiving the processed data and storing the data in a predetermined database format; and

an interface for interfacing with the data warehouse to retrieve processed data from the database format to manage airport finances.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the data correlation unit calculates, from the data, airport operation parameters.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the airport operation parameters comprise one or more of:

number of passengers enplaned at an airport;

number of landings at an airport;

number of takeoffs at an airport;

amount of cargo shipped through an airport;

time spent by aircraft at a gate;

time spent by aircraft parked;

weight of a landing aircraft;

weight of a aircraft taking off;

track of aircraft;

aircraft type;

number of passengers passing through an airport; and

traffic flow of passengers through an airport.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the interface receives data indicating a number of passengers passing through an airport and determines subsidies for the airport based upon the number of passengers passing through the airport.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the interface receives data indicating the number of passengers passing through an airport and the amount of cargo passing through the airport and determines subsidies for the airport based upon number of passengers and amount of cargo passing through the airport.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the interface receives data indicating landing weight of an aircraft and invoices for landing fees based upon aircraft weight.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein the interface receives data indicating the amount of time spent by aircraft at a gate and invoices for gate fees based upon gate usage.

8. The system of claim 3, wherein the interface receives data indicating the amount of time spent by aircraft parked and invoices for parking fees based upon amount of time spent by aircraft parked.

9. The system of claim 3, wherein the interface receives data indicating passenger flow through an airport and invoices retail space lessees for rent based at least in part upon passenger flow near retail space.

10. The system of claim 3, wherein the interface receives data indicating at least one of aircraft type and aircraft track and invoices for gate services based upon at least one of aircraft type and aircraft track.

11. The system of claim 3, wherein the interface receives data indicating number -of passengers passing through an airport and landed cargo weight and calculates a Federal Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grant entitlement for the airport.

12. The system of claim 3, wherein the interface receives data indicating the number of passengers passing through the airport and calculates Passenger Facility Charges based on passenger throughput for the airport.

13. The system of claim 3, wherein the interface receives database queries from a user and outputs airport operations data in tabular or graphical form in response to such queries.

14. The system of claim 3, wherein the interface interfaces with financial accounting software to receive data queries from such software and outputs airport operations data to the financial accounting software in response to such queries.

15. A method for managing airport finances, comprising the steps of:

receiving in a data acquisition unit, airport operations data from a plurality of sources, the plurality of sources including a means for tracking vehicle movement, including path of movement data for vehicles, and outputting from the data acquisition unit data from the received airport operations data;

correlating the data in a correlation unit to remove duplicate entries and outputting a single stream of processed data;

storing the processed data in a data warehouse in a predetermined database format; and

interfacing with the data warehouse to retrieve processed data from the database format to manage airport finances.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of correlation comprises calculating, from the data, airport operation parameters.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the airport operation parameters comprise one or more of:

number of passengers enplaned at an airport;

number of landings at an airport;

number of takeoffs at an airport;

amount of cargo shipped through an airport;

time spent by aircraft at a gate;

time spent by aircraft parked;

weight of a landing aircraft;

weight of a aircraft taking off, track of aircraft;

aircraft type;

number of passengers passing through an airport; and

traffic flow of passengers through an airport.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of interfacing comprises receiving data indicating a number of passengers passing through an airport and determines subsidies for the airport based upon the number of passengers passing through the airport.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of interfacing comprises the steps of receiving data indicating a number of passengers passing through an airport and the amount of cargo passing through the airport and determining subsidies for the airport based upon number of passengers and amount of cargo passing through the airport.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of interfacing comprises the steps of receiving data indicating landing weight of an aircraft and invoicing for landing fees based upon aircraft weight.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of interfacing comprises the steps of receiving data indicating the amount of time spent by aircraft at a gate and invoicing for gate fees based upon gate usage.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of interfacing comprises the steps of receiving data indicating the amount of time spent by aircraft parked and invoicing for parking fees based upon amount of time spent by aircraft parked.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of interfacing comprises the steps of receiving data indicating passenger flow through an airport and invoicing retail space lessees for rent based at least in part upon passenger flow near retail space.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of interfacing comprises the steps of receiving data indicating at least one of aircraft type and aircraft track and invoicing for gate services based upon at least one of aircraft type and aircraft track.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of interfacing comprises the steps of receiving data indicating number of passengers passing through an airport and landed cargo weight and calculating an amount of a Federal Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grant entitlement amount for the airport.

26. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of interfacing comprises the steps of receiving data indicating the number of passengers passing through the airport and calculating Passenger Facility Charges based on passenger throughput for the airport.

27. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of interfacing comprises the steps of receiving database queries from a user and outputting airport operations data in tabular or graphical form in response to such queries.

28. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of interfacing comprises the steps of interfacing with financial accounting software and receiving data queries from such software and outputting airport operations data to the financial accounting software in response to such queries.