Modelling air travel could prove critical for health organizations and
government agencies preparing for the upcoming flu season
OAG, the leading provider of global
airline data and intelligence, has developed a prototype to assist
health organizations and government agencies in preparing their
strategies to combat the spread of pandemic diseases, including the H1N1
virus and other flu strains.
The tool will allow responsible government departments and health
organizations to visualize and model in elapsed time:
* How a disease can spread from any single airport in the world, on any
day within the future schedules time-frame
* Which cities and airports could be alerted of potential impact as
elapsed time from original departure time increases
* Which carriers should be alerted at down-line connection points
* Which carriers may already be impacted
* How many (maximum) passengers could be exposed to a disease as time
passes
John Weber, Senior Vice President, OAG Aviation, said: „The world is now
truly a global village where it is possible to reach almost any other
point on the planet by air within just one day. Flu bugs don’t buy
their own tickets; they travel with passengers at the same speed as
aircraft. Understanding the logical path of travellers over a global
network of connecting flights could be a major milestone in helping to
minimize the escalation of any new epidemic.“
Weber continued, „We have been working on this prototype since the first
outbreak of the H1N1 virus and are now in a position to engage more
fully with organizations to help them with their preparedness plans.
Our initial discussions with government departments have confirmed our
view that there is real value in using our data to predict where a virus
may travel over the commercial air lanes. What we bring to the party is
the reliability of our global schedules data, our experience with data
integration and applications, and a very useful tool that allows
planners to visualize the data in terms of global geography. Our
technology is very flexible so planners can lift user defined portions
of OAG data into an existing work environment.“
The product will contain flight schedules data for all direct flights
and connections for every airport around the globe. Each flight is
based on actual future flight schedules, and each connection reflects
industry standard minimum connect times which vary from carrier to
carrier and airport to airport. The application, which allows planners
to define and view progressive global connectivity, is a user-friendly
tool requiring only a few minutes of explanation. A unique feature of
the tool allows planners to define any origin point, and by using a
slider bar for elapsed time from origin point departure, lets the user
see how far a flu bug could spread in minutes or hours. The tool
presents the results either as a graphic display or in data table format
that can be exported for further analysis.
The OAG airline schedules database is widely regarded as the most
complete and accurate information available, with the most up-to-date
direct and connecting flight details of more than 900 airlines and over
3,500 airports.
