To many airspace users the current measures taken by the ANSP’s and the Network Manager (NM) to avoid congested hotspots - where the number of flights planned to pass through a particular airspace sector or airport is greater than the controller’s capability to handle them – can often appear unduly invasive to their finely-tuned flight schedules. Using filed flight plan and real-time update information the NM often has to delay the take-off times of many flights to avoid a predicted overload hours. But what if the NM could surgically target individual flights - a minor rerouting, an altitude cap for example – to prevent the development of congested hotpots minutes, rather than hours, before they are predicted to occur?
By applying short-term air traffic flow capacity management (ATFCM) measures (STAMs) flow managers and controllers can flexibly introduce traffic-overload prevention measures in response to the actual demand on the system. Via cooperation between flow managers, controllers, pilots and airport operators it is possible to target individual flights with a STAM measure - such as a minor ground delay, flight level cap, or minor re-routing - using locally preferred solutions, rather than applying a regulation to a group of flights some time in advance.
SESAR 1 trails have shown that STAM measures are an effective way to solve hotspots and reduce complexity problems. For airports, information on target times for arrival and departure, as well as taxiing and turnaround times captured with the airport operations centre, along with other measures, will be consolidated within the NM’s Network Operations system. More accurate data on flight punctuality will reduce the amount of flight planning “buffers” needed to cope with uncertain capacity loads, increasing airport capacity by up to 5.3%, reducing reactionary delays and saving airspace users up to 3% on their fuel bill.
The VLD Network Collaborative Management PJ24 project aims to demonstrate in a network collaborative environment the following objectives:
• optimization of the traffic delivery into sectors and airports.
• optimization of the use of Air Traffic Flow and Capacity Management (ATFCM) measures.
The demonstration scope is to prove that the performance targets and expectations at the network and local level could be better achieved through a collaborative synchronized effort of all the involved actors. An important part of improving the performance of network and airport operations is the effective and efficient planning of network (including ground) resources, by linking local optimization processes (including airport processes) with network optimization processes, taking into account stakeholders’ preferences where possible. This facilitates also the innovative usage and application of fine-tuned tailored measures (including target times) to further enhance performance and predictability.
