SESAR focus: Airports - the ATM bottleneck?
Airports are the nodes of the air traffic world and as a consequence they are facing the highest traffic density of the entire network. If an airport is saturated, it will become a bottleneck delaying inbound and outbound flights. Flights will have to wait on the ground blocking airport resources or fly holding patterns in the air increasing fuel burn and thus emissions. As a result resources will be wasted and passengers will arrive late at their destination – an unsatisfactory situation for all parties involved.
That’s why in 2009 six major European airport operators formed the SEAC consortium to become a member of the SESAR JU. The six members – BAA Airports Ltd, Flughafen München GmbH, Fraport AG, Schiphol Nederland B.V., Aéroports de Paris and Flughafen Zürich AG – represent some of the busiest airports in Europe.
SEAC member airports are actively involved in topics related to airport design, infrastructure and operations. Work package (WP) 6 ‘Airport Operations’ has been designed to describe all the ATM related operational procedures at airports and integrate them into the concept of operations while WP12 ‘Airport Systems’ will then build the related system prototypes for validation. The consortium is for example leading sub work package ‘Collaborative Airport Planning‘ with the strategic projects Airport Operations Plan, Airport Capacity & Flow Management and Airport Operations Centre. These projects will set the framework for the integration of airports in ATM and the performance driven strategic planning at airports. Other projects will build on existing Collaborative Decision Making procedures and focus on the integration of turnaround and recovery management.
Reducing delays through SESAR
Thorsten Astheimer, SEAC coordinator and Senior Project Manager SESAR at Fraport, explains here below why SEAC is a SESAR member and how cooperation between the airports works.
1. SEAC is mainly involved in WPs 6 and 12 on Airport Operations and Airport Systems. What are the challenges in involving airports in the ATM chain?
Today there are more than 1,500 airports throughout Europe. They all differ from each other in terms of size, traffic mix, operating procedures, ownership and
business model. But all these airports are part of the ATM process chain managing the turnaround of aircraft between two flights. One of the SESAR goals is the introduction of new procedures and technologies to increase airspace capacity. This will only produce benefits for the passengers if the airports can handle that traffic efficiently. Consequently, airports have to be made a part of the ATM-Network integrating the local planning in the Network Operations Plan. Integrated planning and information sharing will be the basis for collaborative decisions and a performance driven airport management. However, there will not be one solution that fits all airports. The major challenge will be to reach these goals while at the same time giving each airport the room to account for its local situation and to pursue its individual business plan.
2. Where do you see early benefits for airports and passengers in the SESAR programme?
With SWIM (System Wide Information Management) and the development towards an Airport Operations Plan providing a more performance oriented planning, airport operators will get a much clearer view on the actual traffic situation. This will increase predictability of daily operations a lot which in turn will allow airports to make better use of their resources. The main benefit for the passenger will be reduced delays at airports and better flight information in cases of bad weather and other disruptions.
3. From a practical point of view, how is the SEAC team set-up and how does your collaboration look like?
SEAC is not a company with an own budget and employees. It is a consortium combining and steering the SESAR related efforts of the six member airports. The various SESAR projects are staffed by experts from the SEAC members. The consortium established a Supervisory Committee on top management level. In addition, SESAR project managers of each company together with several experts
meet on a regular basis in a technical coordination group. Over the past few years we have experienced a very constructive, open and trustful way of working together. SEAC has a small but very motivated team for the upcoming challenges.
Advancing telecommunication technology at airports
Communication between airport, air traffic control centre and aircraft on the ground is reaching saturation as existing data links can no longer handle the increase in traffic and new applications. Based on standard WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) technology, the Indra-led project 15.2.7 ‘Airport Surface Datalink’ (in association with project 9.16 which addresses the airborne side) aims at defining and testing a new generation of airport surface data link system fit for tomorrow’s aviation needs.
Providing airports and airlines with more bandwidth capacity is necessary to overcome the current bottleneck at airports. Nowadays, the speed in which information is transferred between airport, air traffic control centre, airline operation centre and the aircraft on the ground can be compared to a 56k modem while households already use broadband Internet connection.
With more capacity, information can not only be shared quicker but more information will be exchanged at lower cost. This is especially interesting for airlines as they will be able to feed their flights with the latest news from the airline operation centres. The project is in compliance with SESAR’s and NextGen’s Future Communication Infrastructure vision, to ensure that pieces fall in place on time.
Pressure is high on the project to advance quickly as it has tight links to other SESAR projects. The most prominent one is SWIM, the intranet for ATM, with interfaces to all new data links. While the first project prototypes are expected to be delivered end of 2011, standardisation of the new technology is a priority to ensure aircraft and airports can interoperate.
To adhere to this challenging time schedule, the project members need to shift WiMAX technologies to the allocated spectrum (5GHz band), a protected aeronautical band. Simulations and real airport measurements need to be run prior to actual prototyping. Additionally, mobility between base stations has to be met with appropriate handover procedures. Secure user registration via an access service network and quality of service are further current cornerstones of the project.
