Europe’s vision to achieve high-performing aviation by 2035 builds on the idea of trajectory-based operations – meaning that aircraft can fly their preferred trajectory while minimising constraints due to airspace and service configurations. SESAR has introduced an early version which makes use of flight planning data sourced from airline operational control (AOC) to help controllers optimise aircraft flight paths.
This solution represents an initial step towards the extended flight plan solution and flight and flow information for a collaborative environment (FF-ICE). Access to flight planning data enables air traffic control to create more accurate trajectory predictors (TP) based on the intentions of the aircraft. The TP are used by advanced controller tools to detect potential conflicts and to develop efficient arrival and departure streams.
Eventually, when new datalink communications are universally applied, trajectory information will be exchanged directly between the aircraft and the ground, anticipated from 2025 onwards. The flight data provides information about aircraft climb and descent speed, and take-off mass, and can be used to help create trajectory profiles to meet five-minute up to two-hour time horizons. The data is particularly helpful when creating climbing and descending flight profiles, where current tools can encounter limited controller acceptance due to high false alerts and resequencing rates which result from the poor accuracy of trajectory predictions.
A real-time simulation in a complex terminal airspace resulted in a 10 % reduction in medium-term conflictdetection false alerts when the underlying technical profile is supported by AOC data. Air navigation service provision was improved since fewer false alerts meant controllers had to perform fewer unnecessary actions, and airlines consumed less fuel as a result of fewer level-offs. An initial implementation has take place in the UK.
SJU references: #67/Release 2
Benefits
-Increased predictability
-Increased safety
Datapack