New airport technology aims to increase safety for passengers flying

When people are flying, they want to know that safety comes first. There’s new technology in place created by Saab Inc. at an upstate New York airport to help win that.

“Recently, a lot of sort of incidents, right? Even with air traffic controllers, missed communicating. So you think you made it and something I think happened on the landing, recently in New York City, where I live. So as much as you can make it more safe,” said Dexter McKinney, a passenger.

Mckinney said he’s happy to know that Saab's Aerobahn Runway and Surface Safety service is being used to better ensure safety for passengers like himself.

“What the system does is it listens to the broadcasts from the aircraft transponders, generates an accurate position and shows up to the air traffic controllers on a situational display so that they can keep track of precisely where everything is,” said Robert Brown, director of marketing and sales for Saab.

Brown says the new technology is another level of safety to ensure air traffic controllers know where a plane is at all times.

“It’s most useful when it is low visibility conditions. That's when aircraft, you know, may kind of get misplaced, honestly. It's really focused on keeping the taxiways and runways safe. So whether the aircraft are moving out, moving in, on approach or departing,” said Brown.

Brown says airports across upstate New York are using the new technology, including Rochester and Albany. The company is in the process of rolling it out in more than 60 other cities.

“It was like some turbulence today, just now, and it was scary. I’ve been flying for a long time. So the fact that they continue to do things to make if you are safer is obviously amazing,” said McKinney.

Brown says the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

“They kind of look at it and say, 'we don’t know how we did it without it,' " said Brown.