Southwest Airlines’ Participation in AMDAR

1. Brian Collins Meteorologist Southwest Airlines (Wednesday November 9th 2011) AMDAR Workshop Mexico City, Mexico Southwest Airlines’Participation in AMDAR

2. Topics of Discussion • Look at SWA Facts and Figures • SWA AMDAR History • Potential Issues in the AMDAR Process • Operational use of the Data • Future Possibilities

3. SWA Cities

4. SWA Aircraft Note: New 737-800 aircraft are expected to begin service in Spring 2012, increasing the passenger capacity from 137 to 175

5. SWA Facts and Figures • 3400+ daily flights from 72 airports • 550 Boeing 737 aircraft (300’s, 500’s, 700’s) • Southwest consumed 1.4 billion gallons of jet fuel in 2010 • Average flight length is 653 miles • Shortest: 133 miles (RSW-MCO) • Longest: 2,363 miles (PVD-LAS) • As of May 1, 2011, up to 58 SWA cities connect to six different Volaris cities in Mexico: Cancun, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Morelia, Toluca, and Zacatecas

6. SWA Facts and Figures • Southwest carried approximately 116.5 million onboard customers during the past 12 months • average of 9.7 million onboard customers per month • average of 585,500 onboard customers per weekend

7. AMDAR History • Early in 2005, SWA began reporting wind and temperature information from 50 aircraft during the ascent phase of flight • In early 2010, SWA began reporting water vapor information along with the wind/temperature data on a select group of 737-300 aircraft • Currently there are 29 of the 737-300 aircraft that report water vapor information • Another 2 are scheduled to be installed before the end of 2011 • SWA is under contract to install 36 water vapor sensors on the 737-700 aircraft over the next 2 years • Contract calls for the reporting of data from all aircraft for at least 36 months after water vapor sensor installations

8. Issues for Consideration • No additional instrumentation was needed to report wind and temperature information • Airlines do need to work with Flight Management System (FMS) vendors to establish reporting mechanisms • Need to analyze the actual cost of bandwidth versus “opportunity costs” that the AMDAR information occupies • Determine member of the organization to be responsible for aircraft setup and ongoing maintenance required for reporting • US airlines require the de-identification of flight information (i.e., remove tail number, flight number, aircraft type, etc.)

9. SWA Aircraft - Wind & Temp Reports (24 hours)

10. SWA Aircraft - Water Vapor, Wind, & Temp Reports (24 hours)

11. Sounding from WVSS equipped aircraft

12. Top of Climb (TOC) Top of Descent (TOD) Taxi Take-Off Departure En Route Approach Land Taxi 6 sec intervals to 90 secs from OFF 20 sec intervals to 510 secs to TOC 3 min. intervals to TOD ARINC 620 Reporting Specifications 60 sec intervals to ON

13. Water Vapor Sensor Image 1

14. Water Vapor Sensor Image 2

15. Future Plans & Opportunities • Automated reporting of turbulence is delayed due to FMS capacity issues • Exploring options for turbulence (EDR) reporting, including on new Teledyne equipped units • Possibly the 737-300 aircraft during 2013 • SWA hoping to expand AMDAR participation (wind and temperature reporting) to take advantage of company route structure • SWA hopes to provide input and additional participation in any AMDAR data optimization efforts

16. Thank you for your time!