Technology enables more departures

New system reduces cushion of space needed around planes.

The Federal Aviation Administration has launched new technology in Atlanta to allow more flights per hour at the world’s busiest airport.

Navigation technology on board planes is enabling pilots to fly “precise paths with pinpoint accuracy,” so air traffic controllers don’t have to keep an extra cushion of space around each plane to account for vagaries of its exact location.

That allows planes to take off in four departure paths from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport instead of three. As a result, the airport can handle eight to 12 more departures per hour, saving fuel and reducing taxi time.

Atlanta is the first airport where the FAA has launched the technology — which it calls ELSO for Equivalent Lateral Spacing Operations — and it plans to expand it to other airports in the next few years. The technology is part of the FAA’s modernization of its air traffic control infrastructure called NextGen.

Another new FAA standard is allowing planes to safely come in for landings in closer succession in Atlanta and several other airports. Research showed that wake turbulence — the vortices that form in the air behind a plane’s wingtips — depends on the type of plane, its speed and wingspan. Experts determined air traffic controllers could safely reduce separation between planes.