Honeywell and Civil Aviation Resource Net of China (CARNOC.com) revealed the second phase of their annual survey of Chinese-licensed pilots. The majority of survey respondents (67 percent) ranked air traffic congestion and delays as the biggest overall concern for flight crews.

"With strong demand for air travel in China causing robust growth in air traffic, it comes as no surprise that congestion and delays are the biggest concern among Chinese pilots," said Brian Davis, vice president, Airlines, Asia Pacific, Honeywell Aerospace. "Honeywell is constantly striving to provide solutions that address the challenges faced by air crewsand, ultimately, support the growth and development of China's thriving aviation industry. These solutions are available now, and we're working closely with our associates and the authorities in China to put them into operation."

Honeywell and Civil Aviation Resource Net (Carnoc) collected survey results from more than 3,000 pilots and cockpit crew members, of whom 53 percent were first officers and 36 percent were captains. To gain additional feedback on the survey results, Honeywell and Carnoc held in-depth phone interviews with 20 pilots last month, which showed pilots would like more advanced technology and tools to alleviate challenges related to air traffic control (ATC).

Congestion and Delays Ranked Biggest Overall Concern

As air traffic continues to increase in China, congestion and delays have become a growing issue for flight crews. In Honeywell's survey, two-thirds (67 percent) of respondents ranked air traffic congestion and delays as their biggest overall concern. "Weather and turbulence" (12 percent) ranked second, followed by "access to real time/integrated information in critical flight situations" (8 percent).

Other top ATC-related findings from the survey include these:

. For landings, over half (51 percent) of respondents indicated that ATC is the biggest pilot workload-related challenge, while 63 percent ranked poorly designed standard terminal arrival routes or instrument approaches as the biggest airport-related challenge.

. Forty-four percent of respondents said that voice or visual alerts for unstabilized approaches are a key feature for flight situational awareness.

. Thirty-four percent of respondents ranked runway location situational awareness and 33 percent ranked low-visibility cockpit technology as the top two key features for runway safety.

Honeywell's Smart Solutions Address Pilot Concerns

Honeywell offers an array of smart solutions that can address concerns among Chinese pilots by helping optimize ATC and reduce congestion, enhance situational awareness, and improve safety and efficiency for approaches. Honeywell has worked with Hughes Aerospace to develop performance-based navigation (PBN) procedures for airports, which can tackle the biggest airport-related challenge for surveyed pilots. PBN procedures help optimize routing, provide better access to terrain-challenged airports, and enable more reliable, repeatable flight paths. Other solutions include these:

. SmartPath Ground-Based Augmentation System (GBAS), a cost-effective solution to increase airport capacity, decreases air traffic noise and reduces weather-related delays. GBAS improves landing positioning accuracy to within one meter down to an altitude of 200 feet and eliminates the required routine recalibration necessary with instrument landing systems.

. SmartRunway and SmartLanding increase situational awareness for flight crews during all phases of flight through aural and visual alerts that help reduce the risk of runway incursions and excursions.

. Next Generation Flight Management System enhances flight planning, navigation and guidance, and situational awareness for shorter, more direct flights. It integrates PBN features that allow aircraft to fly automated flight paths with assured aircraft separation and obstacle clearance for increased airport access and airspace usage.

Contributed by Honeywell Aerospace