Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - PJ07 OAUO (PJ07 Optimised Airspace Users Operations)

Teaser

The SESAR 2020 Optimised Airspace User Operations Project (OAUO) or PJ07 is an Industrial Research project that addresses both civil and military airspace users (AUs), by further improving their processes and tools in relation to their interaction with ATM Network Operations...

Summary

The SESAR 2020 Optimised Airspace User Operations Project (OAUO) or PJ07 is an Industrial Research project that addresses both civil and military airspace users (AUs), by further improving their processes and tools in relation to their interaction with ATM Network Operations, with at its heart an improved Collaborative Decision‑Making (CDM) process that takes into account the evolving business needs of airspace users.

PJ07 is addressing the following problems:

- A better view of actual demand is required at ATM Network level in order to improve the performance of ATM operations in a Trajectory Based environment;
- The decision processes of AUs and the resulting business priorities differ from AU to AU and from flight to flight in a single AU. Currently, the trajectory development and management processes used in ATM do not allow each individual user to incorporate specific flight priorities into the requested trajectory and to respect constraints in a way that best meets business priorities;
- Irregular operations impose additional costs on airlines and have a huge impact on the annual costs and revenue of airlines. Today, the ATM system allows AUs limited flexibility. A better recovery process incorporating the ability of the ATM system to follow the decision processes of AUs and accommodate their changing business priorities, could mitigate such impact considerably.
- Operational Air Traffic (OAT) flight plans are not harmonised on a European level and information is not disseminated to the Network. This results in a lack of awareness of military traffic intentions that can affect ATM Network performance (including safety), and makes for a lack of flexibility in the definition of cross-border exercises as well as limitations in terms of interoperability.

Importance for Society:

Most of the benefits of PJ07-OAUO are related to improved efficiency, flexibility and cost-effectiveness for the AUs, which will be translated into potentially substantial cost savings. According to the cost-benefit analysis carried out by the SESAR Joint Undertaking, this will result in potential savings of several hundreds of millions of euros over the next 20 years.

The overall project objectives:

• PJ07 Optimized Airspace Users Operations aims at improved Airspace Users’ participation - through their Flight/Wing Operations Centre - into ATM Network Collaborative Processes in the future Trajectory Based Operations (TBO) - and Collaborative Decision Making environment. The objective is to improve the planning of flights taking into account existing ATM constraints and to minimize impacts of deteriorated operations for all stakeholders including Airspace Users, in relation with the current ICAO approach on the establishment of a collaborative environment for flights & flow planning (FF-ICE).
• The PJ07 Optimized Airspace Users Operations project will include further evolution of the Airspace Users ATM processes and tools developed in SESAR1. The SESAR1 projects have established the basis for sharing more information (e.g. preferences) at planning phase between Flight/Wing Operations Centres and ATM stakeholders through the use of the Extended Flight Plan (EFPL) and the improved OAT Flight Plan (iOAT FPL). For the User Driven Prioritization Process (UDPP), Airspace Users have defined methods beyond slot swapping to protect important flights in capacity constraints.
• The co-definition and validation by Airspace Users and ATM stakeholders of the additional information in future trajectories and how it should be used (trajectory management processes), as well as the integration of UDPP within the Trajectory Management processes and the Demand Capacity Balancing (DCB) processes are the objectives of PJ07 together with PJ18 and PJ09. UDPP validation started in SESAR1 will be completed in PJ07 in collaboration with the ATM stakeholders in PJ09 and PJ04

Work performed

\"The work progressed in 3 solutions and the current status is hereafter described per Solution.

Solution 1.
The solution consists of 2 parallel threads: a low maturity level thread (V1) and a medium level maturity thread (V2). Both progressed according to planning in the Project Management Plan.
For the V1 thread, all planned activities have been completed and the achieved results are in correspondence with the expectations.
The OSED V1 and VALR have been completed and delivered to SJU with positive assessment. The results of the V1 validations have been presented at the PMB#6.
All V2 concept developments related to the FF-ICE planning service and the provision of Enriched DCB information to AUs have progressed according to schedule, in close coordination with the Airspace Users, the beneficiaries, PJ09, NM and ICAO.
A first iteration of the main validation exercise 07.01.02 (together with PJ09.03.02) ook place in April of 2018. A second iteration took place with all Airspace Users on 13 and 14 Dec.
Main achievement: successful concept development and 2 successful iterations of the main validation exercise.

Solution 2.
Solution 07.02 progressed well and progress is in line with the Project Management Plan.
The intermediate OSED, VALP and CBA versions have been delivered to SJU and approved by SJU.
The UDPP concept development and the validation exercise preparation are well advanced. The prototypes are developed and integrated. The operational validation platform was accepted at the beginning of Dec 2018 and the platform is declared ready for running the validation exercises.
In addition, successful tests took place on the Innove and APOC platform for the use of UDPP at the Zurich Airport for VLD exercise PJ25.
Main achievement: the concept is mature for validation, all prototypes are developed and integrated on the validation platform which is ready to be used for the operational validation exercises

Solution 3.
Solution 07.03 has progressed according to the delivery plan as defined in the PMP. The key tasks, such as the development of the operational concept document (OSED), a Validation Plan, the running of an exercise and the production of the Validation Report with as goal to reach the V2 level of maturity have all been achieved successfully.
A Full V2 data pack and all documents required for a V2 Maturity gate have been prepared, reviewed and uploaded on the H2020 portal and on Stellar. On 15-November Solution 3 passed successfully the V2 gate.
The first V3 exercise is being prepared.
Main achievement: The reaching of the V2 maturity level for Solution 07.03 and the start of the V3 campaign.

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Final results

There has been no progress beyond the state of the art.

The results expected at the end of the project are:
1. Validated operational concept of AUs\' Preferences related to DCB process, Absolute Priority, Congestion Level Indicator at initial level of maturity (V1)
2. Validated operational concept and process for AUs for pre-filing FPL with enhanced DCB information and What-If function close to medium level (V2) of maturity.
3. Validated operational concept and process for Usage of UDPP integrated in Airport processes close to medium level (V2) of maturity, enabling to reach V2 and V3 in Wave 2. Validated the integration of UDPP in the ATM network processes at initial level of maturity.
4. Validated the integration of iOAT Flight Plan in the ATM Network to reach V2 level of maturity and to start e first exercise at V3 level of maturity, enabling to reach a V3 stage in Wave 2.