American Eagle to Improve Airport Safety and Efficiency at DFW with I.D. Systems’ AvRamp™ Wireless Vehicle Management System
/I.D. Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: IDSY) announced that American Eagle Airlines has selected I.D. Systems’ AvRampTM Wireless Vehicle Management System (VMS) to manage a fleet of aircraft ground support equipment (GSE) at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
“American Eagle is selective in its investments, focusing on innovative, best-practice technologies that can improve our airport ground handling operations, cut costs and enhance service for our customers,” said Jonathan Snook, American Eagle’s Senior Vice President of Customer Services. “We are implementing the AvRamp system because we believe it will improve the safety of the ramp area, where GSE and aircraft operate closely together and make the airport a safer place to work for our employees." Snook also said he believed the system would help American Eagle reduce the significant costs required to maintain and operate the GSE fleets while also helping to direct the equipment more efficiently to load and unload aircraft, for the benefit of their customers.
The AvRamp system, which was developed in part through funding from the Transportation Security Administration and which is TSA- and FAA-approved for use at U.S. Airports, provides a wide range of safety, security and operational management functions for airport vehicles, including the following:
- an automatic, on-vehicle driver authentication system to reinforce safety training requirements and secure equipment that has direct access to passenger aircraft
- electronic vehicle safety inspection checklists to help expedite repairs and prevent unsafe vehicle operation
- vehicle speed management and impact sensing to help prevent vehicle accidents and provide analysis if accidents do occur
- real-time equipment visibility with “geo-fencing” (electronic boundaries that define “off-limits” areas) to reduce the risk of vehicle runway incursions
- automatic fuel conservation functions to reduce energy costs and the airline’s carbon footprint
- an array of wireless communication and data reporting tools designed to optimize fleet utilization
“The AvRamp system’s core ability to manage who is authorized to drive what equipment can make a significant contribution to safety on the ramp,” said Peter Fausel, I.D. Systems’ Executive Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Customer Service. “AvRamp has many advanced safety management capabilities as well—automated geo-fencing, for example, which can automatically warn a driver who is approaching an active runway, and shut the vehicle down if the vehicle gets too close to that runway.”
Fausel also said that although AvRamp was an airport safety and security system at heart, it also provided many ways to help manage and reduce GSE fleet costs, so it could generate a much more compelling return on investment than some other safety-only technologies. He said I.D. Systems looked forward to helping American Eagle generate economic benefits from AvRamp while also helping to enhance their GSE safety practices.
“We are eager to explore all of the fleet management tools that AvRamp has to offer to manage operating costs and increase efficiency,” Snook said. “For example, we expect to be able to plan and control preventative maintenance schedules more tightly, based on actual vehicle usage rather than on calendar days, which should increase the efficiency of our maintenance staff and help reduce GSE fleet maintenance costs.”
“We also think that AvRamp’s ability to automatically conserve vehicle fuel will result in lower GSE fuel costs, which has the significant parallel benefit of reducing the emissions and carbon footprint of internal combustion vehicles,” Fausel said. “In addition, because the AvRamp system incorporates both a GPS receiver and two-way text messaging on every vehicle, we expect it will help American Eagle allocate vehicles more efficiently to service aircraft when flight schedules and gate assignments change.”
About American Eagle
American Eagle operates more than 1,400 daily flights to more than 150 cities throughout the United States, Canada, the Bahamas, Mexico and the Caribbean on behalf of American Airlines. American, American Eagle and the AmericanConnection® airlines serve 250 cities in 40 countries with, on average, more than 3,400 daily flights. The combined network fleet numbers more than 900 aircraft. American's award-winning Web site, AA.com, provides users with easy access to check and book fares, plus personalized news, information and travel offers. American Airlines is a founding member of the oneworld® Alliance, which brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business, enabling them to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own. Together its members serve more than 700 destinations in more than 140 countries and territories. American Airlines, Inc. and American Eagle Airlines, Inc. are subsidiaries of AMR Corporation. AmericanAirlines, American Eagle, AmericanConnection, AA.com, We know why you fly and AAdvantage are registered trademarks of American Airlines, Inc. (NYSE: AMR).
About I.D. Systems
Based in Hackensack, New Jersey, with a European business office in Düsseldorf, Germany, I.D. Systems is a leading provider of wireless solutions for managing and securing high-value enterprise assets, including industrial vehicles, such as forklifts and airport ground support equipment and rental vehicles. The company’s patented technology, which utilizes radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology, addresses the needs of organizations to control, track, monitor and analyze their assets. For more information, visit www.id-systems.com.
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This press release contains forward looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, such as the Company’s outlook for 2008 financial results and prospects for additional customers and revenues. Forward-looking statements include statements with respect to our beliefs, plans, objectives, goals, expectations, anticipations, assumptions, estimates, intentions and future performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may be beyond our control and which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risk and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, future economic and business conditions, the loss of any of the Company’s key customers or reduction in the purchase of its products by any such customers, the failure of the market for the Company’s products to continue to develop, the inability to protect the Company’s intellectual property, the inability to manage the Company’s growth, the effects of competition from a wide variety of local, regional, national and other providers of wireless solutions and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007. These risks could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward looking statements made by, or on behalf of, the Company. The Company assumes no obligation to update the information contained in this press release.