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Services for airlines

Photo: Aeroplane nose

Helping you with our knowledge

  • Make safety-critical decisions
  • Reduce fuel costs
  • Improve flight safety
  • Enhance route planning
  • Reduce downtime
  • Improve planning of ground staff
  • Have confidence that staff are fully trained
  • Encourage more efficient gate/ramp usage
  • Reduce missed take-off slots
  • Increase passenger satisfaction

Agreement with SITA

The Met Office has entered into an agreement with SITA* for the joint development of an integrated weather and flight-routeing product.

This agreement includes a period of limited exclusivity, for the integrated product, under which the Met Office will not enter into any agreement with a SITA competitor for the development of products similar to, or directly in competition with, the jointly developed product. This period is limited to 24 months from the effective date of the contract (1 July 2005) and does not affect the licensing of the underlying products or information.

Although the agreement covers the marketing and sale of other Met Office products (under a licensing arrangement), these products are not covered by the exclusive arrangement.

*SITA INC (Information Network Computing), part of the SITA group, is a leading global provider to the travel and transportation industry of value-added IT solutions and applications (see the SITA web site for more information).


 

The Met Office provides help and guidance to some of the biggest names in global aviation.

Through our ICAO designated World Area Forecast Centre, we provide commercial airlines and carriers with high-level weather information for the entire globe, including:

  • upper winds and temperatures;
  • significant weather (SIGWX) charts;
  • operational meteorology (OPMET), TAFs, METARs and SIGMETs.

Such data are distributed through SADIS and other commercial channels such as direct line and fax. Beyond these Annex 3 services, enabling users to make safety-critical and operational decisions on a daily basis, the Met Office provides value-added services which allow airlines to improve route planning and streamline costs.

New Airline Briefing Service

Capitalising on huge improvements in weather forecasting and IT capability over recent years, the Met Office's Airline Briefing Service is a powerful new and affordable choice to optimise your route planning and operational efficiency.

  • Improve flight operations
  • Make safety-critical decisions
  • Online and easy to use

From standard WAF charts to fully interactive graphical forecasts, our packages are competitively priced to meet your needs. Our unique and ground-breaking graphical forecasts within the Gold package cannot be found elsewhere.

More about the Airline Briefing Service

Aircraft de-icing forecast service

This unique service offers forecasts of aircraft de-icing conditions for airports worldwide, together with a tailored guide to holdover times, and proactive alerts to ground staff, enabling improved planning of de-icing operations and reduced departure delays.

More about the Aircraft de-icing forecast service

Advanced Weather Service with SITA

Developed in partnership with SITA, the Advanced Weather Service is the ground-breaking online briefing service which integrates weather information with flight routes.

More about Advanced Weather Service

Consultancy

With more than 90 years of experience in the aviation industry, the Met Office is well equipped to provide accurate and timely consultancy on any aspect of aviation meteorology.

  • Operational weather sensitivity
  • Expert witness in legal cases
  • International standards and conventions such as cost recovery
Training

Who better to deliver comprehensive aviation meteorology training in line with your exact needs? Training can be conducted either at the Met Office College or a site convenient to you.

For instance, our one-day 'Flight Planning Met.' course is designed to broaden and enhance the flight dispatcher and planner's knowledge of aviation weather in relation to flight planning and safety. The course is aimed at those involved in short- and long-haul flight planning and encompasses topics such as aviation hazards and the interpretation of significant weather charts.

Alternatively, our self-teach, interactive Aviation Meteorology CD-ROM, developed in conjunction with Oxford Aviation Training, is a cost-effective training resource and reference tool. Bulk-buy discounts and licences are available on request.

Climate and historic data

Airlines require historic information for a variety of reasons.

  • Route development and route clearance, i.e. the likelihood of operating minima being exceeded.
  • New departure or destination airport analysis, i.e. likelihood of aircraft icing overnight, landing approach direction and go-around probability.
  • Weight and balance decision making.
  • Fuel loads.
  • Publication on customer-facing web sites.

We can ensure you have the best information available.

More about climate and historic data

For more information about our aviation services, please contact our 24-hour Customer Centre or 
e-mail aviation@metoffice.gov.uk.