Smart Landing AI System Optimizes Runway Selection to Cut Aircraft Operating Costs

Every time an aircraft lands, pilots make critical decisions about which runway to use and how much braking force to apply. These decisions profoundly affect operating costs-different runways require different braking intensities, which directly impact maintenance costs and fuel consumption. Currently, pilots make these choices based on experience, available runway length, and flight procedures. This patent describes an intelligent system that analyzes all available runway options and recommends the one that minimizes total operating cost, accounting for braking force, taxi-in times, and maintenance expenses. For airlines operating hundreds of flights daily, this optimization across every landing represents significant cost savings.

The Problem

Landing an aircraft safely requires stopping the aircraft within available runway length-a straightforward constraint that dominates most landing decisions. However, operational costs extend far beyond just getting safely stopped. Brake applications generate heat and wear, requiring more frequent maintenance and replacement. Different runways located at different distances from the gate or parking areas require different taxi distances, consuming fuel and crew time. Some runways offer better approaches for weather or wind conditions.

Currently, pilots optimize based on available information and procedures, but they’re working with incomplete data about total cost implications. A runway that’s barely long enough requires heavy braking, accelerating maintenance costs. A runway with a longer taxi adds fuel consumption. A closer runway might be less ideal from a wind perspective but offer lower overall costs. There’s no systematic tool that evaluates all these factors simultaneously and recommends the optimal choice.

For airlines operating a thousand or more flights monthly across multiple aircraft, even modest per-flight optimization compounds into substantial cost savings. But achieving that optimization requires real-time computation of multiple variables: runway characteristics, aircraft conditions, weather, maintenance cost projections, and fuel calculations.

What This Invention Does

This patent describes an apparatus and method that evaluates landing options comprehensively and makes cost-optimized recommendations. The system performs multiple analytical steps: the system determines all runway exits physically reachable by the aircraft given its current speed, weight, and fuel state. Second, for each reachable runway, it calculates the braking force required to achieve a safe landing. Third, it predicts taxi-in times to reach gates or parking areas from each runway. Fourth, it projects maintenance costs based on the braking force required at each runway. Fifth, it calculates overall operational costs incorporating braking maintenance, taxi times, and fuel consumption.

Based on this comprehensive analysis, the system determines which runway option has the minimal overall cost and presents this recommendation to the pilot. The system operates as part of the aircraft’s flight management systems, providing decision support during the landing phase.

The innovation is particularly elegant because it shifts from pilots making binary decisions (can I land safely on this runway?) to making optimized decisions (which landing minimizes total operational cost while remaining safe?). The system’s recommendations account for the complex interaction of multiple cost factors that manual analysis would struggle to weigh correctly.

Key Features

Comprehensive Cost Analysis. Rather than considering single factors like available runway length or brake wear, the system evaluates the full operational cost impact including braking maintenance, taxi distances, and fuel consumption.

Real-Time Computation. The system operates during landing, calculating and presenting recommendations to pilots while they still have decision-making authority. This ensures recommendations reflect current conditions and aircraft state.

Multi-Factor Optimization. The system weighs competing considerations-a longer runway might reduce brake wear (saving maintenance) but increase taxi distance (consuming fuel)-and identifies the genuine optimum across all factors.

Scalable Economics. Airlines operating multiple aircraft types and frequent flights across different airports can apply this system consistently, ensuring every landing decision is economically optimized.

Pilot-Centric Design. The system provides recommendations but maintains pilot authority. Pilots retain ultimate decision-making responsibility, with the system providing decision support rather than automation.

Who Is Behind It?

The Boeing Company, based in the United States and the world’s largest aerospace manufacturer, developed this system with two inventors: Marco Gaertner and Jendrick Westphal. This represents a divisional patent application from an earlier application (2020210221), indicating Boeing’s sustained development of aircraft optimization systems with progressively refined embodiments and claim structures.

Why It Matters

Commercial aviation operates on extraordinarily thin profit margins. A typical airline’s operating margin is 2-5%, meaning that cost reductions compound directly into profitability. Fuel costs alone represent 20-30% of airline operating expenses, and maintenance is another significant component. A system that genuinely reduces combined maintenance and fuel costs through better landing decisions has immediate and measurable economic value.

The system applies universally across commercial aviation. Every airport, every aircraft type, and every flight has multiple runway options. Every landing incurs costs related to braking and taxi distance. The optimization opportunity exists on every single flight, making this a pervasive solution to a pervasive problem.

Beyond economics, the system enhances decision-making quality. Pilots are highly trained but operate under information constraints and time pressure during landings. A computerized system that systematically evaluates all cost factors provides superior decision support, potentially identifying optimal strategies that human analysis might miss.

As aviation increasingly emphasizes efficiency and environmental responsibility, tools that reduce fuel consumption align with fuel efficiency and sustainability goals. The optimization inherent in this system reduces fuel burn across the flight operations community.

The IPC classifications (G06Q 10/00, B64F 1/00) confirm this as a business/optimization system applied to aircraft operations, recognizing the significance of the innovation in commercial aviation decision support.

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AU 2026201414 was published in the Australian Official Journal of Patents on 19 March 2026 and is open for public inspection. Patent applications represent inventions that are sought to be protected and do not necessarily reflect commercially available products.

Related Concepts

Aircraft runway selection during landing involves a complex interplay of safety, operational, and economic factors. Flight management systems already assist pilots with fuel calculations and route optimisation, but landing cost optimisation has historically been left to manual judgment. By integrating brake wear projections, taxi-distance fuel costs, and runway availability into a single recommendation engine, Boeing’s patent extends the scope of automated decision support into a previously unoptimised phase of flight operations, with direct benefits for fuel efficiency and maintenance economics.