SESAR recently made progress towards more automated  flight planning in Europe. Bringing together experts representing European airlines, air navigation service providers, industry and the Network Manager, the programme tested prototype systems and services for sharing consistent and accurate flight and trajectory data in real-time.

Today, airspace users file their plans without knowing the future evolution of traffic. It is only when the plan is filed can the Network Manager respond to inform them of the traffic situation and any measures that have been put in place to address congestion.

To improve the flow of traffic, SESAR members have developed a digital solution allowing airspace users to access information about the predicted traffic situation and congestion in real time, enabling them to file plans that avoid congestion or hotspots.

The prototypes and services tested by SESAR members and partners showed how access to the information enables airspace users to make more informed decisions about their preferences and priorities, as well as optimise aircraft trajectories in the flight planning phase.

Further testing of the solution is planned by the end of the year. The tests were conducted within the context of two SESAR projects: Optimised airspace user operations (PJ07 OAUO) and Advanced demand-capacity balancing (PJ09 DCB)