Close co-operation between airlines, airports and ATC can increase airport efficiency
Eurocontrol says trials of an airport departure management system (DMS) prove that, if it were adopted by airport operators, it could increase the movements rate, improve safety, and reduce noise and fuel consumption. Simulations of mixed-mode and segregated-mode runway operations have produced the same good results, says Eurocontrol's DMS project head, Volker Huck.
A DMS is designed to ensure the airlines, the airport and air traffic management (ATM) operate as a totally co-ordinated system. This entails "collaborative information sharing" (CIS) between all parties, with the result that each aircraft gets pushback exactly when the airline has predicted it will be ready; the aircraft is able to taxi without delay to the holding point; the runway will become clear for a take-off just as it arrives there; and air traffic control (ATC) is ready to receive the aircraft into its system.
Real-time simulated trials of Stockholm Arlanda's airport segregated take-off operations [one runway for take-offs, the other for landings] have been run by Swedish air navigation services provider LFV, and have shown the potential for fuel-consumption savings of 5,000kg/h (11,000lb/h) per runway. Huck also claims "considerable reductions in controller workload".
Trials of a DMS designed by the Netherlands National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) using its ATC simulator yielded similarly good results, but this time for mixed-mode operations [a single runway used for take-offs and landings], Huck says.
Eurocontrol's head of airports and environment management, Ken Reid, says the eventual plan is for airlines, airports and the ATM system to operate as if they were a unit, which would go beyond managing departures only. The system would depend on a CIS system that enables collaborative decision-making. Reid likens the system for dynamic co-operation to the network-centric system the military uses for battlefield command and control.
The US Federal Aviation Administration has agreed to join a Eurocontrol project to define a common computer interface standard for air traffic control ground systems, clearing the way for a single international interface.
Currently, different suppliers' systems interpret and process data in slightly different ways, relying on code translators when transferring data between systems. The project will eventually be extended to flight-control systems.
DAVID LEARMOUNT/LONDON
Source: Flight International