Case Study: University of Nottingham helps Manchester Airport reduce taxiway delays with Microsoft Azure

University of Nottingham - Customer Case Study

The University of Nottingham, in collaboration with the University of Stirling, sought to reduce delays and improve efficiency on airport taxiways at Manchester Airport. Partnering with Microsoft Corporation, the researchers leveraged the Microsoft Azure cloud platform to access the computing power required to model complex airport ground movements and overcome the challenge of acquiring sufficient data.

The solution involved using Linux virtual machines on Microsoft Azure to run open-source algorithms that processed global public flight data, reducing data processing time from months to weeks. Microsoft's cloud computing enabled the creation of tools to model and predict taxi times, which are expected to cut bottlenecks in half at Manchester Airport and lead to multi-million-pound savings for airports worldwide.

University of Nottingham

Jason Atkin

Assistant Professor