Draft Concept of Operations (CONOPS) for CS#1- FASCentralised service on Flight Plan and Airport Slot Consistency (FAS)

Matthis BirenheideProject Manager FAS

11 October 2013

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Flight Plan and Airport Slot Consistency Service - FAS

Today, 97 airports are coordinated in EUROCONTROL Member States covering between 85% to 95% of all traffic

Coordination means more demand than capacity

Airport slots are allocated by independent Coordinators to balance agreed capacity and demand

Planning is not normally taken into account in flow management

The airport slot is not referenced in the flight plan

Flow managers and ATC do not take the agreed airport slots into account

The consequence is unexpected over-demand leading to:

ATFM regulations

Delay for a number of flights over a certain period instead only to the flight that creates the problem

Less predictability in the system

FAS context

FAS – Flight Plan and Airport Slot Consistency Service

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Scope of the FAS

The service will be proposed for all EUROCONTROL Member States 40 Member States as from 2014 Currently 21 States have at least

one coordinated airport

The role and responsibilities of Airport Coordinators remain unchanged

The responsibilities of Member States remain unchanged

Responsibility for the Flight Plan remains unchanged with the Airspace Users

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Proposed level of service

Warning messages will be issued if no or an incorrect airport slot (e.g. off-slot or syntax error) are identified

No general rejection of flight plans, unless a Member State specifically requests it and mandates the Agency accordingly

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Components of the FAS (1)

A central and dynamic database will be established within the service Storage of the airport slot information

for the matching process Providing slot information for

statistics

Coordinators will feed this database with all relevant information on airport slots allocated and any changes thereto Coordinators will be required to

enable their local systems providing live updates on all changes

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Components of the FAS (2)

A matching service will be developed

Requires algorithms to match flight plan data with airport slot information

High accuracy level envisaged

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Components of the FAS (3)

The Initial integrated Flight Planning System (IFPS) will be upgraded to:

Feed the matching service with required flight plan data

Issue warning messages to airspace users triggered by the matching service, copy to Coordinators and Airports (A-CDM systems)

Reject flight plans where a Member States specifically requests this and mandates the Agency accordingly (no manual suspensions or rejections are foreseen due to high workload)

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Components of the FAS (4)

A post-operations statistical function will be developed within the FAS and will:

Be fed with the matching history, and

Be fed by the NM data warehouse information on e.g. ATFM regulations applied

Provide initial information on potential violations

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FAS information flows

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Roles and responsibilities (1)

Member States will have to ensure that:

Coordinators are connected to the FAS

BA/GA traffic is included in the slot allocation, where this is not the case

Inform the NM if they wish to exercise their right to reject flight plans and mandate the NM accordingly

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Roles and responsibilities (2)

Airport Coordinators will have to:

Enable their local allocation systems to provide live information on any slot allocation and changes thereto

Provide the detailed national allocation schemes for developing the correct algorithms

Inform on cases where an airport slot ID is used at national level and for which kind of traffic

Provide the local slot tolerances for post-operations statistics

Ensure that slot allocation performed during out-of-office hours will be input in their local systems immediately

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Roles and responsibilities (2)

The Network Manager (NM) will:

Enable its systems to provide all required flight plan data for the matching process

Enable its systems to hold flight plans until the matching result is provided from the FAS (within reasonable time limits)

Enable its systems to issue warning messages to airspace users and Airport Coordinators

Enable its systems to reject flight plans in case a Member State wishes to exercise its right to do so

Enable its systems to provide ATFM information to the service for post-operations statistical services

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Roles and responsibilities (3)

Airspace Users will:

Ensure that their operations centres are aware of the relevant allocated airport slots for flights to/from coordinated airports.

Contact the Airport Coordinator in case of a warning message received and rectify the mismatch

Re-file flight plans once the mismatch is rectified, where needed

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Roles and responsibilities (4)

The FAS service provider will:

Ensure the 24/7 operations of the service

Establish and maintain a Quality and Safety Management System

Ensure that the post operational data and statistics are available during office hours.

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Future possible evolutions (1)

Enhancing the matching accuracy

Introduction of European-wide harmonised Airport Slot ID

Mandatory use in the Flight Plan (field 18 first, later possible dedicated field)

Benefits

One means of compliance with existing and future regulation

Less operating cost for FAS

Less complexity concerning GA/BA and code-shared flights

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Future possible evolutions (2)

Harmonised application of rejections

In case of NO Airport Slot

Same application in all States

Harmonised tolerances

Benefits

Fair system (one affected not many)

Network performance improvement

Higher predictability

Reduced ATFM delays

Better effectiveness on out-of-area traffic

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