Air Traffic Management / Human Factors / Safety / Environment / Airport Processes

Arrival, Ground and Departure Management

This area contains all expertise in relation to managing arrival, ground and departure traffic. It ranges from high level concepts to specific operational procedures and tools.

Challenges

One of the major bottlenecks in the air transport system is the traffic on and in close vicinity of airports, specifically at hub-airports. Many airports have no possibility to expand their capacity by building new runways. Extra capacity should be found by optimization of the current operations. The overall goal is to increase punctuality and reduce delays and operational cost.

Activities

Typical activities in this field within AT-One are the investigation of local practices, develop new procedures, design support tools and validate the results. The work is oriented at providing practical results and solutions are implemented using prototypes. Operational procedures and tools are thoroughly tested and validated in our advanced simulators involving experienced Air Traffic Controllers and other professional staff. Of course, performing benefit analyses is an integral part of the work. After successful simulations, procedures and tools are tested by conducting shadow mode and life trials at actual airports.

AT-One also works on innovative long-term research to provide answers for the problems of tomorrow. Examples are highly automated Air Traffic Management systems and towerless ATC.

Examples

• Trajectory based arrival management (4D AMAN).
• Departure management (DMAN).
• 4D en-route management (EMAN) for departing traffic (DM).
• Ground management advisory and planning tools (SMAN).
• Runway configuration management.
• Runway allocation management.
• CDM tools for other parties, especially Airlines, Handling Agents etc.
• Co-ordinators for AMAN DMAN, DMAN-SMAN, DMAN-EMAN.
• Tools for pre-tactical planning of runway configuration and assignment, capacity and flow planning.
• Standard interfaces and data formats for basic management data, like flight plans, planning data, and configuration data

Airspace and En-Route

This area of expertise covers all knowledge about processes involved in managing en-route air traffic including organisation of airspace.

Challenges

In 2004, the European Commission adopted the Single European Sky (SES) legislation to pave the way for the anticipated growth in air traffic. Major challenges are to increase the safety level in more crowded air space, reduce cost and make air traffic more environmental friendly. Also, new types of aircraft, like unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) will have to be accommodated.

Activities

• Fast time simulations for en-route sectors
• Development of Medium Term Conflict Detection tools
• Development of Conflict Resolution Advisory Tools

Validation

This area of expertise contains the extensive AT-One knowledge and infrastructure to validate concepts, procedures, technology and tools for operational use. In that sense it supports many of the other activities within AT-One.

Challenges

Developing concepts, procedures and tools is one thing, but putting them into operation is another. Many processes in air transport are safety critical and need involvement of different groups of actors. Another important factor is the adaptation of the people that have to work with the new procedures and tools. Validation plays a vital role in bringing developments into real operation. Moreover, defining the right validation strategy itself and performing them in such a way that they are a good representation of circumstances in real life is a science by itself.

Activities

The main activity is setting up and performing validation experiments to demonstrate safety, feasibility, operational benefits and human interaction. Documenting and evaluating validation results form an integral part of the validation. This is done in accordance with existing ATM validation standards. Another important activity is  maintaining a state-of-the-art validation infrastructure and keeping it in line with future ATM developments.

Examples

• Large scale validations in European R&D programs
• Validation of controller support tools

Air-Ground Integration

Air Ground Integration comprises the operational and technical know-how about concepts, procedures and tools related to the integration of airborne and ground ATM systems.

Challenges

Strategic Studies of the future Air Transport System – as the European “Vision 2020″ – clearly have indicated that there is a need to further integrate airborne and ground functions in order to cope with the increasing requirements regarding safety and capacity. The current air traffic operations are based on the principle that more or less the same level of service is provided to any aircraft regardless of its capabilities and equipment. Development and integration of new systems and functions into the aircraft will therefore not directly result into a more efficient Air Transport System. In order to provide a response to the present airport capacity and future environmental constraints, additional procedures and operational concepts as well as technology and systems need to be developed and implemented.  This must be done wherever required. Major benefits can be expected especially in areas with high density of traffic like the TMA. Based on the exchange of information between aircraft and ATC via data link, trajectory based traffic management can take into account user preferred trajectories. It can also be used for more accurate predication of aircraft movements.

Activities

The activities in this field are the R&D into new concepts and procedures to benefit from new enabling technologies that further integrate ground and airborne functions. Also new airborne functions and decision support tools for air ground co-operative ATM are being developed. This area of expertise contributes to the development and implementation towards a time based (trajectory based) ATM with shared responsibilities between air and ground for separation and 4D guidance. This will include Higher Automation (HA) and new Communication, Navigation, Surveillance (CNS) functions.

4D trajectories that describe precisely aircraft’s position over time allow a strategic planning of each phase of flight. Potential conflicts can be detected well in advanced and consequently be avoided in an efficient manner. Data link communication with ATC as well as with other aircraft will provide the pilots with a comprehensive awareness of the traffic situation. This will enable them to perform delegated spacing and separation tasks and to ensure better adherence to ATC separation minima in en-route, terminal, and approach airspace.

Examples

• New airborne functions
  • Airborne Separation Assistance Systems (ASAS) functions
  • Advanced FMS and HMI (e.g. RTA, interactive navigation display, head-up and head-worn displays)
  • Automation concepts (auto-flight, auto-land, auto-taxi, auto-takeoff)
• New ground functions
  • GBAS
  • CPDLC and related Data-Link application
• New procedures
  • “late-merging-point”-concept
  • Continuous Descent Approach CDA
  • New low visibility procedures