The aim of MANTEA is to develop integrated telematics decision-support tools to improve airport surface traffic management. One set will help planners boost airport capacity to support the increasing volume of European traffic. Another will aid tower controllers in difficult traffic planning and monitoring conditions, such as bad weather or strikes. Detection and resolution of traffic conflicts will be a further project activity. Tools will be validated in real-life situations at major international airports. MANTEA will encourage smoother aircraft arrival and departure, saving on time and fuel and enhancing the public image of air travel.

The objective of the MANTEA project is to develop decision support tools dedicated to the improvement of surface traffic management in airports.

Two integrated sets of tools will be developed each oriented towards a different type of user. The first set aims at providing automated assistance to airport authorities in the task of planning and simulating evolution of airport infrastructure in order to optimise its capacity to support the growing flow of flights in the European areas. The second set is devoted to the tower controller. It will help him to carry out tactical decisions in the processes of traffic planning and monitoring under nominal and critical situations (bad weather conditions, strikes, ...). Detection of traffic conflicts and their resolutions will also be handled. Particular attention will be paid to the ergonomic display of the results to achieve the final user acceptance.

Two independent demonstrators will be built in order to show complete decision elaboration processes which will be validated with real examples drawn from current situations at the Schiphol, Aéroports de Paris and Milano airports. The Milano Linate airport, Roma and Orly-Paris airport which are part of the project consortium will lead the validation process using their own premises.

During its time frame, the MANTEA project will cover market and user requirement analysis, specification, design, development and validation of decision support tools at user sites. The project will deliver two validated prototypes and an updated exploitation plan for the two following years.

The use of decision tools for ground management permits to expect a better flowing of the arrival and departure, and as a consequence great benefits on taxiing delays and fuel consumption. The use of tools will benefit the air carriers both in terms of reduced delays and fuel consumption, and in terms of image towards the end users. This in turn will improve the profitability and competitivity of the European carriers, helping them to face the challenge of the incoming deregulation.

In the safety domain, another area of benefit exists with the introduction of the conflict detection function. Runway incursion detection and resolution will be a priority theme in part 1 of the MANTEA project.