A recent study conducted by Assaia International AG showed that an airport with 400,000 aircraft movements per year has on average 40 FOD incidents per year with an associated cost of $10.4 million.
The purpose of the study was to detect the adherence to standard operating procedures related to the required post departure FOD checks within the OSZ (Operational Safety Zone). The study was performed at a medium-sized European airport with 19 contact stands and remote handling facilities serving up to 3 million passengers per year. The ApronAI system, which detects turnaround operations and safety events in real time, was deployed to provide the airport with accurate data points.
The system detected that initially, 60% of all flights lacked the essential post-departure stand check. By using the ApronAI system to improve the execution of post-departure stand checks, the airport managed to reduce this unsafe behavior by more than 50%.
Why do these findings deserve the industry’s attention?
A study conducted by Insight SRI found that on average the cost of FOD damage is as much as $26 per flight. They also report that a FOD incident happens on average 12.8 times per 10,000 aircraft movements. If indeed proper post-departure stand checks can prevent these incidents from happening, the ApronAI enables airports to reduce FOD damages by as much as $13 per flight.
