- European CDM -

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- European CDM -
In-Flight Traffic Management
This presentation illustrates the principle of a
collaborative process for flight-plan changes
en-route, enabling the flight to be re-optimised
in response to any changes in its environment...
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...taking into account the needs of both the
Airline and Air Traffic Management.
Collaborative Decision Making
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Introduction
The Airlines and Air Traffic Management (ATM)
have complementary roles in the operation of Air
Traffic

• The Airline Operations Centre (AOC) and the pilot
  aim to optimise individual flights and the
  flights of their schedule.

• ATM is tasked to produce a safe, orderly and
  expeditious flow of traffic.

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In order to optimise flight efficiency while
meeting constraints en-route, both these
viewpoints are required.
These complementary viewpoints are already
partially brought together in the strategic and
pre-tactical timeframe, through the existing
interaction between Flow Management and Airline
flight planning.
A number of improvements to that interaction are
in train (e.g. What-If Re-routing), and others
(e.g. Slot Swapping) are highlighted in the Flow
Management scenarios on the CDM Portal.
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In-Flight Traffic Management concerns bringing
together the two viewpoints for optimisation of
the flight plan in flight in particular
re-optimisation in response to changes of
environment en-route.
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Some reasons for flight plan changes en-route

• Meteo information update
• ? Change flight plan to take advantage of
  favourable winds, or to avoid severe weather.

• Airspace update e.g. CDR3 becomes available
• ? Change flight plan to take advantage of CDR...
• ...or of a sector with spare capacity as a
  result of other traffic diverting onto the CDR.

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• Arrivals Management at destination airfield
• ? Change speed or path to arrive earlier or
  later.
• (This links in with the Collaborative
  Optimisation of Arrivals application described in
  a separate scenario.)

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• Disruption at destination airfield
• ? Divert to another airfield or change speed
  or path to arrive earlier or later.

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• Change in airline priorities for a flight as a
  result of some operational event
• e.g. the flight has become time-critical because
  the aircraft is required due to technical
  problems with another aircraft, or because of a
  change to the next assignment of the crew.
• ? Fly faster or change path to arrive earlier.

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• Local airspace congestion some local problems
  get through the filter of Flow Management
• ? Resolve local problems collaboratively between
  ATC planners and AOCs/pilots.

The next two slides focus on two of these
examples to illustrate the envisaged In-Flight
Traffic Management process ...
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Scenario 1 - A change initiated by AOC
AOC receives new meteo information.
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AOC re-optimises the flight plan to take
advantage of favourable tail winds, and proposes
the new flight plan to the ATC Planner.
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ATC Planner and CFMU assess the impact on the
current and downstream sectors, and respond with
approval, counter-proposal or rejection.
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A new flight plan is agreed and flown.
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CFMU traffic predictions are updated, together
with downstream sectors advance
information. In-flight updates for CFMU are
already being implemented through the Enhanced
Traffic Flow Management System (ETFMS) project.
Approval / Counter-proposal / Rejection
New flight plan
New flight plan agreed
Proposed new flight plan
favourable tail winds
co-ordination
update system information
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Scenario 2 - A change initiated by ATC

• ATC highlights short term local congestion to AOC
  and/or pilot, along with options
• en-route hold,
• re-route around the problem area,
• descend and fly below it,
• fly slower to arrive at the problem area later.

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Pilot/AOC assess options and respond with their
preference for this flight.
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Change to flight plan is agreed CFMU and
downstream sectors are updated.
AOC
preferred avoidance option
area avoidance options
ATC Planner
traffic congestion area highlighted
agreed flight plan changes
Q
Q
CFMU
Q
Q
Q
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Notes
In-Flight Traffic Management assumes an ATC
planning function.
The proposed exchanges are between the ATC
Planner and the AOC or Pilot. It is not proposed
that the task of assessing Airline requests
should fall to the Tactical (radar) Controller
responsible for the tactical separation of
flights.
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In-Flight Traffic Management concerns in-flight
changes to the Flight Plan.
It is not proposed that tactical manoeuvres,
which are time-critical, should be negotiated
with the airline or the pilot.
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Adequate information provision is essential to
the In-Flight Traffic Management process.
A common situational awareness will allow all
parties to recognise and understand the change
that has occurred in the flights environment,
and to assess the available options and their
impact.
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The proposed In-Flight Traffic Management process
will need to be trialled to establish detailed
rules and procedures to ensure fairness and
transparency. For example, must requests and
preferences be dealt with on a first-come,
first-served basis, or is another kind of
prioritisation more suitable?
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Summary
In-Flight Traffic Management will allow
re-optimisation of flight plans en-route in a way
that is not currently possible...
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? improving the efficiency of individual flights
and schedule operations for Airlines
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? improving the responsiveness of the air traffic
system to deal with congestion and to make
best use of free capacity on a smaller scale
and on a shorter time-scale than Flow Management.
- End of Presentation -