ABX · Technical specifications

Under the hood of ABX.

An enterprise-grade, end-to-end billing platform for ANSPs, civil aviation authorities and airport operators, built for mission-critical environments.

01

Architecture

ABX uses a client/server web architecture. Users work in a browser with no client installation, connected to a central application server and a replicated database. ABX can be deployed in the cloud or on-premise.

Core components

  • Web and application server
  • Relational database with hot-standby replication
  • Browser-based client for desktop and mobile
  • REST API for external systems
  • Flight Builder engine

Business logic modules

  • Security and configuration
  • Operations and flight data
  • Invoicing and statistics
  • Reports and dashboard
02

Data interfaces

ABX automatically ingests, normalizes and correlates flight data from multiple sources. It is entirely passive and has no impact on the operation of connected systems.

AMHS / AFTN / AIM

  • P3 messaging
  • ICAO Doc 4444-compliant FPL and ATS messages
  • Automatic cross-checking and enrichment of FPL data

ATM / FDPS

  • Proven integration with Thales TopSky ATC, Raytheon Autotrac, Indra ManagAir, Adacel Aurora, Intelcan Skycontrol ATM and other vendor systems
  • Vendor-specific flight strip formats
  • Real-time extraction of movement and control logs

Radar and surveillance

  • ASTERIX multi-radar track data
  • Used to refine route and distance calculations

Tower, ATC and manual

  • Tower and ATC movement logs
  • Passenger data
  • Manual entry and CSV upload, which keep billing running during upstream outages
03

Flight Builder

The Flight Builder is the core automation engine. It assembles every report of a flight into one validated flight record, and guarantees that every complete flight is billed once, even when it appears in several sources.

Correlation

  • Matches reports of the same flight across sources
  • Identifies duplicates, incomplete flights and missing information

Route calculation

  • AIXM data for aerodromes, airways, fixes and airspace
  • FIR entry and exit points, crossing distances, nominal route substitution

Parameters

  • MTOW resolution
  • Flight category (domestic, international, overflight and more)
  • Account and aircraft association

Billing triggers

  • Charges recalculated after every data update
  • Billing completeness validated before invoicing
04

Charge engine

A configurable rules engine built to meet national regulations and ICAO policies. Flight categories can combine flight type, scope and operator nationality, and charges are defined per category using user-customizable formulas.

Supported charges

  • Enroute, approach (TMA) and aerodrome (landing)
  • Early, late and peak arrival and departure
  • Parking, passenger and security
  • TASP (Temporary Air Service Permit)

Formulas

  • IATA weight (W) and distance (D) factors
  • Nominal or calculated distances
  • MTOW, aircraft class, times and aerodrome category
  • Multi-currency rate structures

Exemptions

  • By aircraft registration, type or class
  • By account, flight number or route segment
  • By ICAO Item 8 and Item 18 codes (e.g. HOSP, HUM, SAR, STATE, TRAINING)
  • Small aircraft and short flights
  • Any combination of charges, at configurable percentages
05

Invoicing & accounts

Invoices

  • IATA, non-IATA, debit note and non-aviation invoices
  • Batch or single-flight generation
  • Invoice currency set per account, with daily exchange rates
  • Unique invoice numbering per billing center
  • Custom invoice and receipt templates

Payments & accounts

  • Payment recording and reconciliation
  • Receipts and credit notes
  • Prepaid accounts, credit limits and overdue flags
  • Optional blocking of flights for blocked accounts

Prepaid flight registration

  • Public web portal for operators to register flights and see the cost
  • Online payment to fund the account
  • Flight plans refused when credit runs out

Customer portal (optional)

  • Operators view invoices, balances and statements
  • Downloadable invoice history
06

Reporting & analytics

Reports

  • Account statements and customer account status
  • Debtor and defaulting customer reports
  • Revenue summaries and movement reports
  • Passenger-based reports
  • Export to PDF and CSV

Statistics & dashboards

  • Flight volumes and revenue, filtered and grouped by period, operator, aerodrome, category or charge type
  • Bar and line charts, saved views
  • KPIs for revenue, flights and account performance
  • Live workload: missing flights, delayed payments, queue depth
07

Security

A multi-layered security model covering access, data and transport.

Access

  • OAuth 2.0 authorization
  • Two-factor authentication by email on new devices
  • Salted, hashed passwords
  • Full role-based access control, down to dataset-level read/write for UI and API
  • Automatic logout and prevention of simultaneous logins

Transport & audit

  • TLS/HTTPS with 256-bit certificates
  • Secure REST API endpoints
  • All logins logged, successful and failed, with source IP
  • Every data change logged with user, time, source IP and before/after values
08

Availability & continuity

Redundancy

  • High-availability cluster with redundant billing servers
  • Streaming database replication
  • Redundant network paths
  • Automatic failover of web, API and database services, typically in under 30 seconds

Continuity

  • Scheduled and on-demand backups
  • Near real-time standby synchronization
  • Optional off-site cloud backup
  • Manual and CSV fallback if AMHS, ATM, radar or passenger feeds fail
09

APIs & integration

REST API

  • Full dataset access, read and write, by API key
  • Same privileges and security rules as UI users

Third-party systems

  • AMHS (X.400) and AFTN gateways
  • ATM and FDPS systems
  • External accounting systems
10

Standards

ICAO

  • Doc 9082: Policies on Charges for Airports and Air Navigation Services
  • Doc 9161: Manual on Air Navigation Services Economics
  • Doc 9880: ATN technical specifications
  • Doc 4444: PANS-ATM

IATA

  • A-SSIM specification
  • Airport Handling Manual AHM 780

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