Patent ID: 7702453

Claim:
A method for guiding an aircraft toward a stopping position within an aircraft stand of an airport, there being associated with the aircraft stand a passenger boarding bridge for supporting passenger loading and unloading operations and a visual docking guidance system (VDGS) for displaying instructions for guiding the aircraft toward a stopping position, the method comprising: receiving a radio frequency (RF) signal from a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag that is carried by the aircraft, the RF signal comprising aircraft-type data that is retrievably stored in an integrated circuit of the RFID tag, the aircraft-type data being indicative of a type of the aircraft; sensing a current location of the aircraft; based on the aircraft-type data and the sensed current location of the aircraft, determining instructions for guiding the aircraft from the current location thereof to a predetermined stopping position for the type of the aircraft; and, using the VDGS, displaying the instructions in human-intelligible form for being viewed by a user aboard the aircraft.