Case Study: Berlin Schönefeld achieves major fuel, CO2 and delay reductions with SITA’s Pre-Departure Sequencer (PDS)

Controls the Rate at Which Aircraft Arrive at the Runway

Berlin Schönefeld faced unpredictable runway delays and inefficiencies from a first-come-first-served runway policy that caused aircraft queuing on taxiways, extra fuel burn, noise and emissions, and risks to on-time performance. To tackle this, SITA deployed its AirportCentral Pre-Departure Sequencer (PDS) module as part of the SITA Airport Management Solution (AMS) and supported the airport’s A-CDM implementation.

SITA’s PDS calculates optimum pushback/off-block times, controls the rate aircraft arrive at the runway, estimates TSAT/TTOT and integrates with third‑party systems to improve predictability and recovery from disruption. At Berlin Schönefeld this delivered measurable gains: annual savings of 360,000 kg fuel (~€280,000), 1,100 t CO2, 2,000 delay minutes and 26,300 taxi minutes; taxi-out reduced by ~45 seconds per flight; ATFM slot adherence rose from 90% to 97%; take-off accuracy improved from 11 to 1 minute and predictability from 14.5 to 4.6 minutes, with ATFM Delay Share falling from 1.0 to 0.9.

Berlin Schönefeld