Since 1999 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been operating a prototype system for the collection, analysis, and reporting of performance-related data from the National Airspace System (NAS). This Performance Data Analysis and Reporting System (PDARS) has been installed at ten Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs), five Terminal Radar Approach Control facilities (TRACONs), two Regional Offices, and the FAA's Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Herndon, Virginia. The system generates and distributes over 100 reports daily for these facilities.
PDARS calculates a range of performance measures, including traffic counts, travel times, travel distances, traffic flows, and in-trail separations. It turns these measurement data into information useful to FAA facilities through an architecture that features (1) automatic collection and analysis of radar tracks and flight plans, (2) automatic generation and distribution of daily morning reports, (3) sharing of data and reports among facilities, and (4) support for exploratory and causal analysis.
PDARS applications at FAA facilities include performance measurement, route and airspace design, noise abatement analysis, training, and support for search and rescue. PDARS has also been used in a range of FAA and NASA studies. Examples are the measurement of actual benefits of the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) Metroplex airspace, an analysis of the Los Angeles Arrival Enhancement Procedure (AEP), an analysis of the Phoenix Dryheat departure procedure, measurement of navigation accuracy of aircraft using area navigation (RNAV) en route, and a study on the detection and analysis of in-close approach changes.