Situation Awareness in Aircraft Ground Handling: The Impact of Auditory and Visual Notification Cues

In aircraft ground handling, ramp agents manage the teams on the airport apron who prepare aircraft for the next takeoff. We examined the impact of using auditory and visual notification cues (NC) in an information system for supporting ramp agents, measuring the users’ situation awareness (SA), task performance, and perceived ease of use. Eighty-eight participants took part in a laboratory experiment and performed a realistic dispatching task of a ramp agent. Results showed that auditory cues facilitate superior SA compared with the application of visual cues or their absence. Our findings may serve as a foundation for future work aiming to design more effective notification systems to support SA.