AST gives airports real-time insight into runway performance to help increase runway availability and reduce spend

New 360-Degree Runway Analytics tell airports exactly where runway surface inspections and treatments are most needed

CHICAGO, IL, UNITED STATES, October 21, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- "Airports are models of efficiency and they’re always looking for new ways to improve runway operations and availability," says Joe Vickers, CEO, Aviation Safety Technologies. "Our 360-Degree Runway Analytics help crews monitor, treat, and optimize runways with unprecedented granularity. Runways are analyzed in targeted 100-ft segments that help identify hotspots, set treatment priorities, and reduce the number and severity of runway closures."

Chicago-based Aviation Safety Technologies (AST) is pleased to continue its leadership in runway performance and uptime with the addition of science-based, real-time runway analytics now available in the AI-powered ABARnet™ Runway Uptime Platform.

The new 360-Degree Runway Analytics service turns each aircraft landing into a data-based record of braking effectiveness, deceleration forces, available friction, and runway response in individual 100-foot runway segments, adding important new insight for airports and airlines. Using this targeted data, airside crews can cost-efficiently focus on specific runway sections that may need attention due to rubber build-up or other issues, rather than having to spend precious cycles and dollars needlessly working the entire runway.

“Full-length inspections, friction tests, and rubber removal cost money and can take whole runways out of service,” says Joe Vickers, CEO of Aviation Safety Technologies. “But what if only a few specific segments of a runway need treatment? Why should a crew work the entire runway when they don’t have to? Our 360-Degree service gives airports objective data about which 100-ft runway sections need treatment, and which don’t. Airports can shorten runway closures, spend treatment dollars only where the science points, and, post-treatment, see whether their corrective steps worked as planned.”

The 360-degree analytics service leverages a four-step process to capture insight critical to improving runway monitoring, maintenance, and post-maintenance review:

1. Braking friction, efficiency, and other data is collected and processed by the ABARnet™ platform from landing aircraft via the plane’s onboard sensors. No extra hardware is required.

2. Each landing is broken into 100-ft segments, and each 100-ft segment is compared with a baseline of relevant historical landing behavior to help identify patterns in runway performance, such as degradations in available braking friction.

3. The data is precise enough to localize exactly where a runway issue needs monitoring or where a “hotspot” exists that needs immediate treatment, such as removing rubber or improving drainage.

4. Major 360-degree metrics include braking demand, braking friction and effectiveness, surface exposure and contaminants, braking balance (left-right), and overall priority (hotspots) that should be investigated first.

ABARnet’s mission is to help airports optimize their operations with the highest levels of runway performance, cost-efficiency, and uptime while helping incoming pilots optimize their landing strategies for maximum aviation safety. 360-Degree Analytics enhances this mission.

“This is super cost-efficient runway maintenance, section by section,” says Mr. Vickers. “Rather than subjective assessments, airside crews now have science-based insights to identify which 100-ft sections should be inspected and potentially treated. No more traversing up and down entire runways seeking information about runway conditions. AST gives airports granular, data-based insight to optimize inspection and treatment schedules, reduce maintenance costs, and keep runway closures to an absolute minimum.”

About ABARnet™

Every time an aircraft participating in the ABARnet™ runway uptime platform executes a landing, an Aircraft Braking Action Report (ABAR) about that landing is automatically generated and distributed to pilots on approach, airline operations, airport personnel, ATC, and other stakeholders. ABARs utilize real-time data from aircraft-based sensors about the actual braking friction that those planes experience when landing, especially on wet, icy, or contaminated runways.

The ABARnet™ platform delivers three connected capabilities to help airports optimize runway performance and uptime based on accepted industry standards: (1) scientific FAA-recommended Aircraft Braking Action Reports (ABARs) about available braking friction, (2) 360-degree Runway Analytics that gives airports unparalleled granularity into how runways are performing and where treatments need to be targeted, and (3) Friction Forecasts that gives airports a crystal ball into future runway conditions and how best to respond to incoming weather events or other contaminants.

Together, this science-based reporting empowers airports to make smarter, more cost-efficient decisions about how and when to manage runways for the highest levels of service availability. ABARnet™ is offered to participating airports and airlines as a 100% cloud-based service, providing real-time access from anywhere.

About Aviation Safety Technologies LLC

Aviation Safety Technologies (AST) offers the world’s leading software platform for improving runway uptime and performance. The company’s mission is to elevate airport operations and aviation safety by giving stakeholders a complete view of current and projected runway performance – real, predictive, and actionable. AST’s ABARs are recognized by the FAA and Transport Canada as the most precise methodology for measuring and reporting on real-time braking action and runway friction conditions. More than 26 million recorded landings are in the AST database, with 7,000+ more landings added every day from 2,400 participating aircraft. Coverage encompasses 340+ airports worldwide. AST is a portfolio company of the Chicago-based Dillon Kane Group, a privately-held group of affiliated companies that builds technology solution businesses.
ABARnet™ is a trademark of Aviation Safety Technologies.

Joe Vickers
Aviation Safety Technologies
joe.vickers@avsafetech.com