Enhanced Arrivals and Departures

Project Information

PJ01 EAD

Grant agreement ID: 731864

DOI

10.3030/731864

Project closed

EC signature date 27 October 2016

Start date 1 November 2016

End date 31 December 2019

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 33 878 058,66

EU contribution

€ 16 934 063,99

Coordinated by

NATS (EN ROUTE) PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - PJ01 EAD (Enhanced Arrivals and Departures)

Reporting period: 2019-01-01 to 2019-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

PJ01 EAD addressed the development of concepts, tools and procedures to increase the capacity of Extended TMAs (E-TMAs) to meet forecast traffic growth in a safe, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable manner. This was achieved by taking advantage of the latest technological developments from both an airborne and a ground-system perspective and through secure sharing of data.

This work of Project PJ01 EAD provided a major contribution in the operational efficiency and environment areas from advances in Terminal Manoeuvring Areas (TMAs).

PJ01 EAD focused on operational improvements to increase airspace capacity and cost efficiency, improve safety, predictability and punctuality and provide greater fuel efficiency and environmental sustainability. To progress these operational improvements, PJ01 EAD had the following overall objective:

• To undertake validation of operational improvements to provide evidence of the impact of the improvements on the key performance areas defined for SESAR 2020

This was achieved through the development and validation of the concepts defined in the operational improvements to achieve a V2 or a V3 maturity level. The project had the following six objectives:

• Objective A: Investigation of Benefits of Extended Queue Management techniques
• Objective B: Investigation of Benefits of the use of Arrival and Departure information for Traffic optimisation within the E-TMA
• Objective C: Investigation of Benefits of Dynamic use of Routes within the E-TMA
• Objective D: Investigation of Benefits of Required Navigation Performance (RNP) for Parallel Approach Operations
• Objective E: Investigation of Benefits of better integration of Rotorcraft and General Aviation (GA) operations in the TMA
• Objective F: Investigation of Benefits of Airborne Sequencing and Merging and Assisted Visual Separation

The above objectives were addressed through seven separate work packages (solutions). This was achieved through the development and validation of the concepts defined in the operational improvements to achieve a V2 or a V3 maturity.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The work on PJ01 was completed against the plan. All Datapack deliverables were completed and the formal maturity gates for all solutions were also completed and all the maturity assessments undertaken against the respective target maturity for Wave 1. All Milestones were achieved. The specific status at project end for each of the technical WPs is as follows:

WP1: PJ.01-01
• The solution conducted a number of modelling, FTS, RTS exercises and assessments
• The Datapack consisting of all the required deliverables were submitted
• The maturity assessment and maturity gate was undertaken against the target V2 maturity
• The solution as a whole has not achieved full V2 maturity and was assessed as V2 ongoing. However, some elements have achieved results that can be considered as non-blocking for V2

WP2: PJ.01-02
• The solution conducted a number of modelling, FTS, RTS exercises and assessments
• The Datapack consisting of all the required deliverables were submitted
• The maturity assessment and maturity gate was undertaken against the target V2 maturity
• The solution as a whole has not reached full V2 maturity and hence was assessed as V2 ongoing. However, some elements have achieved V2

WP3: PJ.01-03A
• The solution conducted a number of modelling, FTS, RTS exercises and assessments
• The Datapack consisting of all the required deliverables were submitted
• The maturity assessment and maturity gate was undertaken against the target V2 maturity
• The solution has achieved it's target V2 maturity

WP4: PJ.01-05
• The solution conducted a number of modelling, FTS, RTS exercises and assessments
• The Datapack consisting of all the required deliverables were submitted
• The maturity assessment and maturity gate was undertaken against the target V2 maturity
• Solution has achieved the target V2 with a number of acceptable risks due to a number of partial non-blocking criteria that were not fully met. The gap needs to be covered in case of the future research. The solution demonstrated quantitative benefits and feasibility

WP5: PJ.01-06
• The solution conducted a number of modelling, FTS, RTS exercises and Flight Trials
• The Datapack consisting of all the required deliverables were submitted
• The maturity assessment and maturity gate was undertaken against the target V2 maturity
• The Solution has achieved the target V3 including the optional HMD enabler

WP6: PJ.01-07
• The solution conducted a number of modelling, FTS, RTS exercises and assessments
• The Datapack consisting of all the required deliverables were submitted
• The maturity assessment and maturity gate was undertaken against the target V2 maturity
• The solution has achieved the target V2 maturity with acceptable risks linked to some safety and security aspects and due to the CBA and performance assessment that have room for improvement

WP9: PJ.01-03B
• The solution conducted a number of modelling, FTS, RTS exercises and assessments
• The Activity pack consisting of the connected deliverables were submitted
• The maturity assessment and maturity gate was undertaken against the target V2 maturity
• The project progress was accepted as good and in line with the expectations for V2-ongoing. The presented base for continuation to V2 is very clear with promising initial outcomes

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The impacts described in the Grant Agreement number 731864 were achieved subject to the limitations documented in the final maturity assessments.

The project PJ01 EAD objectives included:
• Environmental Sustainability / Fuel Efficiency (Fuel Burn per Flight)
• Airspace Capacity (Throughput / Airspace Volume & Time)
• Airport Capacity (Runway Throughput Flights /hour)
• Predictability (Flight Duration Variability, against RBT)
• Cost Effectiveness (Direct ANS Cost/Flight)
• Safety (Total absolute number of fatal accidents with ATM contribution)

Different types of European TMA environments were considered. For low to medium density/complexity TMAs the driver was to exploit the environmental benefits achieved from Continuous Climb Operations, Continuous Descent Operations and improved arrival sequencing. For the capacity-constrained high-density/complexity TMAs, particularly including multiple airports, the focus is to minimise delays and improve resilience alongside providing environmental benefits. Thiswas achieved by enhancing arrival and departure management by the dynamic use of precision navigation routes. The project looked to optimise traffic flows by improving the integration of the management of arrivals with departures and by improving the capability to balance traffic demand and available capacity across the network and airports.

To provide increased resilience in poor weather and a reduction in go-arounds, investigation assessed the use of tools that display traffic information in the cockpit. This will help manage airborne spacing, sequencing and merging with other aircraft, under the overall control of Air Traffic Control in systemised airspace.

PJ01 EAD Logo