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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Airline Team xStream (Airspace User Support to Arrival Management)

Teaser

Summary

More than one billion air travellers were transported in 2017 in Europeâ€™s airspace alone. This phenomenal air traffic volume was an increase of 70 million over the previous year. During the busy summer vacation period in particular, this creates bottlenecks not only in the airspace sectors, but also at the airports on the ground.
Almost every passenger has at least once experienced their flight being delayed or even cancelled with all the associated problems, especially if they have a connecting flight. It was to contribute to the problem-solving here that the PJ25 xStream consortium teamed up under the EU-funded SESAR programme. And in early 2018, a group of five major European airlines joined the Very Large-Scale Demonstration (VLD) project as the Airline Team 2020 xStream consortium.
CURRENT SITUATION:
At several major European airports, the demand from landing traffic currently exceeds the airportâ€™s maximum landing capacity for several hours every day. Aircraft approaching these airports will be directed into holding patterns or onto long flight patterns to the runway. These procedures are normally carried out close to the airport and at low altitudes, and result in unnecessary higher fuel burn and higher CO2 emissions.
In addition to this, the main goal of any hub airline at a major European airport is to provide connecting flights for its passengers and for all airlines to ensure sufficient time for turnarounds. Air Traffic Control currently handles approaching aircraft on a first come, first served basis â€“ even though a particular airspace user may prefer a different sequence for their own landing aircraft, depending on the number of connecting passengers each inbound flight is carrying and how short their hub transfer times are for their connecting flights.

Work performed

AIRLINE PARTICIPATION:
Five major European airlines â€“ the Lufthansa Group (including Swiss International Air Lines), Air France (including Hop! and Transavia France), Ryanair, British Airways and EasyJet â€“ accounting for 80% of European air traffic formed the Airline Team 2020 (ATEAM) consortium to contribute to SESAR activities such as the xStream VLD project. Led by the Lufthansa Group, these airlines are working closely with the PJ25 xStream consortium to develop, trial and implement tools and processes to help improve air traffic management in Europe. This work includes (shadow-mode) simulations as well as flight trials in all regions of their networks.
LIVE TRIALS:
The xStream ATEAM has taken part, in close cooperation with PJ25, in scenarios and trials with differing levels of completion: design, development, execution and result analysis.
A large number of qualified flights have been conducted so far, spread over four different exercises which took place in 2018.
Three different flight trials took place in Paris:
- Exercise 7-1: Extending the Arrival Managerâ€™s horizon to 300NM around Orly Airport.
- Exercise 7-2: COP Sequencer at Charles de Gaulle Airport, where the delay information is converted into delay minutes and the speed advisory is passed on to adjacent en-route sectors.
- Exercise 7-3: Development of a collaborative decision-making method between ATC and airspace users to establish the optimum arrival sequence, and demonstration of how the use of Target Times of Arrival (TTAs) can improve arrival planning management. This exercise took place at both Lyon and Paris Charles de Gaulle airports.
A further flight trial was conducted for Zurich Airport:
- Exercise 8-3: Integration of the Network Manager into the iStream concept, enabling the Network Manager to have a clearer picture of capacity and predictability.
Shadow-mode trials have also been conducted where live trials would not have been feasible. In addition, extensive simulations and evaluations have been performed, to quantify the benefits of these shadow-mode trials and to develop new concepts that are safe and efficient and can be used throughout the industry.

Final results

EXTENDED HORIZON OF THE ARRIVAL MANAGER (XMAN):
The current industry standard is that the Arrival Manager looks approximately 80-100NM around the airport. Within this horizon the Approach Controller adapts the speeds of the approaching aircraft, depending on the arrival traffic.
A major part of xStream is to research a possible extension of the arrival management horizon out to 300NM around the arrival airport (which is equivalent to a remaining flight time of an hour). This project will demonstrate how arrival constraints can be computed and supplied to upstream Area Control Centres (ACCs), in order to slow down aircraft if necessary as early as the cruise phase of flight. The arrival sequence computed here will use all available data: trajectory updates from the Network Manager and upstream units, local radar detection, user preferences from airlines and situation updates from airports. This will have the advantage that a possible delay can already be absorbed in cruise flight, increasing predictability and contributing to environmental sustainability, e.g. by reducing holding patterns.
IMPROVED ARRIVAL MANAGEMENT PLANNING:
As mentioned earlier, the sequence of landing aircraft is currently based solely on ATC decisions. xStream aims to develop a collaborative decision-making method between ATC and the airspace users to establish the optimum arrival sequence, to provide a better service and greater flexibility for airspace users which in turn will improve passenger connections.
A-FLEX (Arrival Flexibility) and UDPP (the User-Driven Prioritization Process) should help engineer increased predictability. A-FLEX and UDPP describe different concepts that provide arrival slot flexibility for airspace users, in that they can swap slots based on their operational needs. This takes place within a collaborative decision-making process among all the ATC units and airspace users involved.
An additional approach is the use of the Target Time of Arrival (TTA) concept to improve arrival planning management and to close the gap between ATFCM and tactical arrival management.
EXPECTED RESULTS:
xStream demonstrations are expected to improve flight efficiency and flight predictability, reduce environmental impact and reduce the workload of air traffic controllers in the approach sector. These smarter measures are expected to ensure better use of existing capacities, and thereby contribute to reducing the impact of ATFM measures on airspace users and their passengers.