Refined Flow Management - An operational concept for Gate-to-Gate 4D flight planning

Refined Flow Management - An operational concept for Gate-to-Gate 4D flight planning

de Jonge, H.W.G.

National Aerospace Laboratory NLR

2002-02-28

One of the most urgent problems of ATM is to reduce delays and to improve the punctuality of air traffic arriving at congested hub-airports. Layered planning with refinement and convergence in time and space, as proposed by EATMP [European ATM Programme], could give the required support for better use of these scarce resources. Refined Flow Management, a concept to support gate-to-gate 4D flight planning, could be one of the most significantly contributing elements to an enhanced layered planning system. Success of such a concept should take into account the interests and competencies of all actors participating in the applicable operations, while the necessary information needs to be made available to enable them to act as expected and committed. The most essential conditions for a feasible and short-term implementation of this 4D planning concept, are: • The system should be beneficial towards the main requirement from operators to improve punctuality and should be flexible enough at the same time to be able to cope with unexpected events. • The system, supporting a 4D planning concept, should be robust and manageable. • Present-day roles and competencies of ATC, AOC [Aircraft Operations Centre], pilots and the CFMU [Central Flow Management Unit], tasked to perform Flow and Capacity Management at an ECAC-wide scale, are to be respected. • The impact on tactical operations and on executive control services should be minimal so that the impact on safety can be minimal as well. 4D capability at an airborne level is under development now and can be expected to become mature technology within a few years. However, it is less clear how to develop an operational concept for ATM on the ground that provides the complementary functionality required to support air-ground integrated 4D planning and control. A concept for 4D gateto-gate flight plEinning is presented here which aims at offering significant benefits, but which does not incorporate safety-critical aspects of the use of guidance support by the aircraft's 4D FMS [Flight Management System]. It is considered that the most significant benefits from 4D can be obtained when the Airline's AOC is able to plan an RTA [Required Time of Arrival], and when the CFMU (in the European context) can perform a process of Refined Flow Management to provide ensured capacity with sufficient accuracy (a few minutes) for a punctual and undisturbed arrival. Downlinked 4D trajectories, to be stored in a data repository, will provide the information necessary to perform Refined Flow Management. The required reliability of this flow management process is ensured by regularly updating trajectory predictions produced by the aircraft's 4D FMS. The pre-departure exchange of planning information and the accurately determined departure time constraints, imposed by the CFMU, are the means to obtain benefits. The effect should be a regulation of arrival traffic flows at congested destinations and the avoidance of bunching effects. The starting conditions of the Arrival Management process will be improved, but the process itself is considered as a local process just as today, performed by local ATC, following the usual procedures and using downlinked 4D trajectory prediction data in the best case as reliable planning data. Furthermore, there will be an incentive for Airline Operators to contribute as much as possible to Refined Flow Management and to keep the planning of their flights up-to-date and reliable, when flights arriving in time will be prioritised by ATC. Different projects within the Framework programmes of the EU are stimulating the development and validation of 4D capability such as AFAS, MA-AFAS and Gate-to-Gate. NLR will support the development of an operational concept, based on the principles described above, and aims at validating parts of this concept by their participation in these projects.

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Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium

Campus only

NLR Technical Publication TP 2002-057

Aerospace Engineering Reports

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(c)2002 National Aerospace Laboratory NLR