Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - PJ24 NCM (PJ24 VLD Network Collaborative Management)

Teaser

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...

Summary

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. If STAMs were implemented at the top 10 delay-originating ATC centres in Europe a potential saving of €1 million per day could be achieved. 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.

Work performed

PJ24 GA amendment process started for the Amendment no. 2, budget and technical Amendment. All PJ24 partners updated PJ24 Annex 1 Part A and B & Annex 2 including the changes requests. They were submitted to H2020 and uploaded on ECAS on the 31/10/2018.
PJ24 NCM started in June the update of the D1.1 PJ24 DEMO Plan to include the latest information regarding the different demonstration exercises. It will include from the participation of partners in each of the tasks to Use Cases to be demonstrated and schedule of the different executions.
PJ24 Availability Note D1.3 was produced and delivered on the 30/04/2018. It includes information regarding the prototypes and platforms to be used in the 9 Exercises. As some of the exercise are to be executed in 2019, at the time of the delivery of this Availability Note, the document was not fully complete. With the purpose of finishing the document, the delivery was rejected to be again re-uploaded in Q1 2019.
D1.8 D1.9 D1.10 D1.11 Quarterly Progress Reports Q4/2017, Q1/2018, Q2/2018 and Q3/2018 were delivered to H2020 and uploaded on ECAS.
The relationship with Airspace User consortium (ATEAM) for the SESAR 2020 VLD NCM was consolidated during 2018 synchronising the timeline of the DEMO activities of the two projects (PJ24 and PJ25), as well as their deliverables and milestones. ATEAM consortia will participate actively in half of the project exercises.
Planning of communication activities was discussed with the PJ24 beneficiaries, one Press Release per each iteration is being planned. Communication activities are coordinated and planned collaboratively with the ATEAM.
Two projects F2F meetings for PJ24 took place during the period. Numerous discussions, webexes have been held to further detail the operational demonstrations and to prepare the planned exercises under the PJ24 workpackages. Local systems and NM systems have been changed and prepared to facilitate demonstration activities, specifically related to B2B data exchange.
Finally, 3 iterations of 2 different Demonstrations were already executed; they were successfully driven by DSNA, ENAIRE, MUAC:
- Joint EXE4 It3 & EXE6 It2 - Madrid-Bordeaux flows managed by LFBB and LECM ACCs
- EXE2a It 2 MUAC
All the other exercises are on schedule and in preparation phase to be executed in the coming months, which will help to fully accomplish the objectives.

Final results

The Network Collaborative Management functionality is expected to improve the quality and the timeliness of the network information shared by all ATM stakeholders, thus ensuring significant benefits in terms of Air Navigation Services productivity gains and delay cost savings by:
-Integrating local and network DCB procedures and to assess the impact of local and network solutions on network performance indicators
-Identifying, sharing and creating awareness of local and network issues for potential DCB imbalances.
-Demonstrating the link between network DCB processes and local tactical capacity management processes.
-Showing how ATC and ATFCM processes can benefit from users preferences and priorities information, by exchanging data and coordination.
-Achieving full airports-network integration through the timely AOP-NOP data exchange and Network coordination procedures.
By 2019 NCM is aiming to demonstrate a demand/capacity balancing environment not based on large rudimental measures but targeted and fine-tuned, on a flight-by-flight basis. The NCM demonstrations will significantly support the further deployment of finetuned and targeted DCB measures and processes.
The improvements in collaboration aim to reduce coordination workload and better integrate local with network operational processes. This will reduce flow manager’s and controller’s workload, improve flight efficiencies and, ultimately, better use capacity within the network. The ultimate customer, in terms of our demonstration, will be the airspace user, who will have better transparency of network issues and therefore able to improve decision-making. As a highly cooperative process, integrating all the planning systems of stakeholders will bring benefits for every stakeholder.