Industrial Research & Validation for Capacity-on-Demand and Dynamic Airspace

This topic covers the industrial research required in support of the scalable capacity concept, which requires agility and flexibility in providing capacity where and when it is needed, particularly to maximise the use and performance of limited resources (i.e. airspace and ATCOs). It includes both an increase in the volume of air traffic that can be safely managed per volume of airspace and increased flexibility in the allocation of the controller workforce to offer ATC capacity where it is needed through the virtualisation of ATC provision. The increased capacity will not result in reduced flight efficiency (i.e. the optimisation of trajectories will be possible even at busy periods).

The introduction of dynamicity in the management of airspace and the capacity-on-demand service will unlock performance benefits in the following areas.

• Environment. More precise trajectories for arrival and departure will make it possible to reduce noise impact.
• Capacity. Capacity is measured in terms of either ATFM delays (lack of capacity) or throughput. En-route capacity aims to maintain ATFM delays at 0.5 minutes per flight or less. TMA and peak runway throughput will be increased according to traffic forecasts. A more stable and predictable level of capacity will be achieved in all-weather operations. In addition, by providing capacity dynamically where and when it is needed and reconfiguring the airspace to match traffic flows, overall system resilience will be significantly increased.
• Cost-efficiency. Dynamic airspace configurations, capacity on demand and ATCO training programmes will provide scalability. ATCO productivity is expected to increase significantly.
• Operational efficiency. Trajectory management and dynamic airspace configurations will provide further improvements in vertical flight efficiency and cruising/taxiing fuel consumption when flights are subject to queueing. Overall improvements in capacity and trajectory management and use of dynamic airspace configurations are expected to reduce the average delay in block-to-block times by 4 minutes per flight.
• Safety. Safety levels will be maintained.

To achieve the expected outcomes, all or some of the following should be addressed.

• Applications for resilient, cross-border, on-demand ATSs and dynamic airspace management. This will involve the development of applications leveraging state-of-the-art technologies to deliver resilient, cross-border, on-demand ATSs and dynamic airspace management (R&I needs: on-demand ATSs; ATM continuity of service despite disruption). It includes, for example: 
  • flexible allocation of resources to where they are required based on traffic demand, irrespective of the controller’s physical location in Europe, while taking into account network optimisation needs;
  • reconfiguration/consolidation of cross-border dynamics and remote ATSs, including the development of operational plans for flexible and dynamic sectorisation taking into account basic complexity indicators based on specific shapes of demand, network flight efficiency needs and existing ATC technology-enabled capabilities, and the application of the virtual centre concept, as well as the operation in real time of the concept;
  • a network performance management cockpit that supports CDM to improve the current monitoring process, combining collected local performance indicators and the use of advanced data science and prediction techniques allowing the identification of unattended business opportunities and the anticipation (and better management) of disruptive operational situations across the network;
  • cross-border flow-centric operations, including full reconciliation of ATFCM measures with other measures/advisories and multiple constraint management., as well as dynamic sector configurations that satisfy traffic flows and are adaptable and proportionate to variable traffic demand;
  • increased flexibility in ATCO validations for a generic pan-European capacity-on-demand service;
  • a resilient ATM system that continues to provide services despite disruption, for example during capacity bottlenecks, adverse weather or national system breakdowns;
  • system health monitoring, tools and procedures for resilience and containment of potential cascade failures in geographically distributed interconnected and interdependent systems.