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For a number of years, NAV CANADA has been working with customers on introducing Perfor-mance Based Navigation (PBN) concepts in the Windsor-Toronto-Montreal (WTM) area, the busiest air traffic corridor in Canada, covering approximately 140,000 square kilometers.

The team has worked intensively, studying concepts and evaluating options to increase the efficiency and consistency of aircraft operations and reduce delays while maintaining or increasing the safety of the system.

In 2012, Phase I of the changes will be implemented, including new Area Navigation (RNAV) Standard Terminal Arrival Routes (STARs) at Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal airports, a new RNAV Standard Instrument

Departure (SID) structure at Toronto and an overhaul of the en route structure in the corridor between Toronto and Montreal.

En route changes“By leveraging the benefits of RNAV in the design of the new en route airway structure, we are able to avoid inefficiencies inherent in the current airway structure, which is built on ground-based navigational aids,” said Trevor Johnson, Assistant Vice President, Service Delivery.

Currently, pilots must flight plan on the lim-ited number of available airways. Air traffic controllers then manage the volume of arriv-als, departures and overflights by vectoring the aircraft to establish them on parallel

tracks. This method of control limits pilots’ ability to utilize aircraft Flight Management Systems (FMS) to manage aircraft energy and requires controllers to utilize static me-tering on individual routes.

When the changes come into effect, four additional routes will be added in the cor-ridor, adding capacity and enabling better segregation of overflights from climbing and descending portions of departure and arrival routes and reducing the overall requirement for in-trail sequencing.

Simulation results show that the new airways will reduce track miles for common routes and will save approximately one minute for a flight from Toronto to Ottawa and 75 seconds for a flight from Ottawa to Toronto. There will be further benefits for routes between Montreal and the East Coast.

Modernizing our airspace for more efficient flight operations

FALL 2011 Volume 6, Issue 2

Modernizing our airspace for more efficient flight operations

President’s Point of View

Polar routes—past, present and future

What in the world are we up to?

Collaborating towards tomorrow’s advanced tower environment

ENGAGE Project: Flight trials to reduce GHG emissions underway

Multilateration to be installed at Calgary International Airport

Ensuring compatibility between aviation and wind power

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New routes will save customers $4 million in fuel each year.

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Terminal ChangesNew RNAV STARs for all instrument-approach runways at Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal will come into effect on the same day, making the WTM airspace study the largest package of changes ever implemented at one time.

One of the most significant changes is the addition of a new bedpost east of Toronto to facilitate more efficient arrival sequencing for traffic arriving from the east and enabling better loading of the airport’s three parallel runways.

This redesign of the arrival structure will also enable improved descent profiles on all STARs and better harness the capability in some aircraft Flight Management Systems to reduce fuel burn by employing the aircraft’s VNAV (vertical navigation) capability. This function reduces fuel burn by optimizing the descent profile to be as efficient as possible within the programmed airspace management require-ments (speed and altitudes).

BenefitsThe airspace study team worked closely with customers to ensure changes were supported by careful analysis of their benefits. This was a highly iterative process and was essential to the success of the entire project.

All changes were extensively analyzed in both flight simulators and the NAV CANADA Total Airspace and Airport Modeler to asses their impact on traffic flows and fuel burn. This analysis indicated that the changes will have the following benefits:

› reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 14,300 metric tons – a reduction equiva-lent to the annual emissions from 2,800 passenger cars,

› reduce aircraft fuel burn by 5.4 million liters annually, resulting in a an annual savings of approximately $4.3 million in avoided fuel costs, and

› reduce cumulative flight time by over 10 hours daily based on current traffic volumes.

Next StepsImplementation of the Phase I airspace changes in the Windsor Toronto Montreal corridor is planned for early 2012 with Phases II and III, which are focused on en route structure south and west of Toronto, likely coming in winter 2012/13.

“This represents a substantial leap forward to modernizing how our airspace is structured and matching it to current volumes and the navigational and energy management capability in the modern cockpit.” said Rudy Kellar, Vice President, Operations. “It made sense to start in the busiest airspace in Canada but we know the job doesn’t end there.”

The Alberta Airspace and Services Project is the next focus. This project is well underway examining the airspace in central and southern Alberta with a firm deadline of Spring 2014 when the new runway at Calgary International Airport is scheduled to open.

employees have responded to the challenges that have come along the way.

Looking forward another 15 years, or even just the next 15 months, we can be certain that the future will hold its own set of challenges. But I believe that if we, as an industry, see the challenges of the industry as our own we will come through them stronger than ever.

Good work is being done, in Canada and around the world, and I am encouraged by the level of collaboration I see in customer and other international forums.

Many of the stories in this edition of Direct Route speak to the collaborative projects being undertaken by NAV CANADA and its customers and partners. I remain immensely proud, looking back over the past 15 years, of those collaborative relationships and believe they have helped to shape the company we have become more than any other factor.

President’s Point of View

On November 1, 2011, NAV CANADA employees celebrated the 15th anniver-sary of the government’s transfer of the civil ANS to the company.

I remember the nervous excitement of that day well. At the time we were the first privatized air navigation service in the world and had much to prove.

Today, we’re humbled and honoured to have been named the best Air Naviga-tion Service by IATA three separate times in the past 15 years. We are enormously proud of our safety record, the primary product we produce.

We are excited about the enhanced ATM tools that we have developed with our employees and how they are enabling us to provide even better service to our customers, and thrilled that technology developed in Canada by our employees is being used by air navigation service providers in other countries.

Much has changed in 15 years and I am proud of how NAV CANADA

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When United Airlines flight 895 first flew from Chicago to Hong Kong in July of 1996, it was the longest scheduled passenger flight in the world.

With a “Great Circle Route” that tracks over the Canadian Arctic, this flight was always intended to operate on the Polar routes—but they didn’t become available until 1999, and then only for demonstration purposes.

United completed 12 demonstration flights on the Polar routes in 1999, and they officially opened in 2001.

In order to reach its destination non-stop, UAL895 normally departed with numerous seats purposely not sold and with no cargo. It could only operate in the summer due to upper level winds. This flight was so “fuel critical” that it was towed to the runway in Chicago to conserve fuel.

The increased availability of Russian airspace in the 1990’s, along with the introduction of aircraft with the required range capability —particularly the long range variants of the Boeing 777 and Airbus 340 – made the concept of Polar flights a reality.

International cooperationThe challenge then became to bring together international airlines and ANS providers from the U.S., Canada, Russia and Iceland to promote seamless, efficient and safe air traffic services throughout the Polar region.

The initial framework for these flights was organized through RACGAT (Russian American Coordinating Group for Air Traffic Control). RACGAT resulted in great progress, including the opening of Cross Polar routes through Russian airspace.

RACGAT concluded in October 2003, but the continued need for international cooperation, improvements and efficiency resulted in the formation of the Cross Polar Trans-East Air Traffic Management (ATM) Providers Working Group (CPWG).

The CPWG first met in the spring of 2006 in Anchorage. The first two meetings proved to be an effective forum for continued cooperation, and the working group has continued to meet bi-annually ever since.

It has grown to include ANS providers from Japan, China, Norway and, most recently, Kazakhstan, as well as the International Air Transport Association, Jeppesen, and all airlines operating Polar flights. The last

meeting was held in St. Petersburg, Russia, in June 2011 with 53 representatives in attendance.

Improvements in service deliveryNAV CANADA and Edmonton Area Control Centre (ACC) have played an active role in the CPWG since its inception and we have made many improvements to service delivery for Polar flights.

The phased implementation of Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum (RVSM) in Canada was critical for these flights, as it was elsewhere, effectively doubling the number of available altitudes. The ability to random route though Canadian airspace has given the airlines flexibility to deal with daily changes in the upper air winds and changes to forecasted air temperatures, turbulence and space weather.

Technology’s roleTechnology has played a major role in improving service to Polar flights. ADS-C (waypoint reporting) has significantly reduced controller workload, allowing staff to focus more on service delivery versus manually copying position reports.

ADS-B has brought over 900,000 km2 of surveillance coverage to areas of Canada’s north that previously had none. This has allowed aircraft to operate closer to optimal altitudes, for longer periods than was previously possible.

The past 10 years have seen the addition of 14 PALs (Peripheral VHF frequencies) in the Canadian Arctic, along with several more that were converted from shared PALs to independent PALs.

Perhaps the most significant was the Hudson Bay PAL 132.075, which actually consists of three separate transmission sites and allows nearly full VHF coverage over Hudson Bay —approximately 550,000 km2 of additional coverage. The implementation of these PALS has allowed the application of reduced separation standards for all aircraft.

And last, but by no means least, there are the direct and tangible benefits that the Canadian Automated Air Traffic System (CAATS) has brought to Polar flights.

The inclusion of a “planning function” in CAATS has allowed for more effective long range traffic planning and the ability to implement solutions much earlier—some-thing the airlines had been requesting. This has

Polar routes —past, present and futureBy Bryon Carlson—North High Supervisor, Edmonton AOC

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allowed controllers in Edmonton to effectively plan and sequence Polar flights on a scale covering more than 2,500 nautical miles and over five hours of flight time.

Congruent with CAATS implementation was the introduction of automated estimate passing with Anchorage ARTCC and between internal ACC specialties, all in non-radar airspace.

The introduction of CAATS automation has also allowed a consistent implementation of reduced longitudinal separation from 15 minutes to 10 minutes, and in some cases to as little as five minutes, further supporting airline demands for User Preferred Routings.

Recent enhancementsRussia and China have implemented a myriad of internal changes and enhancements. Both countries have continued to add additional routes and entry points—all resulting in more efficiency and flexibility in planning optimum

routes, which has increased payload, reduced flight time and reduced fuel use.

Russian routes were not initially open 24 hours per day and in some cases were not open seven days per week up until 2005. This had a negative effect on Polar flights, but today all Russian facilities operate “24/7” allowing full route flexibility.

Next major improvementsThe next major improvement will come this fall when Russia and Mongolia implement RVSM. What is currently a cumbersome (and inefficient) transition from our “standard” 1000-foot flight level allocation, to Russian 500m Metric flight levels, will become virtually seamless between Canada, the U.S., Russia and Mongolia.

Anchorage Center recently re-designated its northern airspace to RNP10, and the northern part of Canadian airspace will soon be re-designated to RNP10 as well. This will

allow the harmonized application of reduced lateral separation from 60 nautical miles to 50 nautical miles.

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Polar routes growthTraffic on Polar routes increased more than ten-fold between 2003 and 2010:

› 2003 – 884 › 2004 – 2053 › 2005 – 3731 › 2006 – 5308 › 2007 – 6930 › 2008 – 8017 › 2009 – 8549 › 2010 – 9683 › 2011 – will be more than 10,000

by end of year

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RNP10 implementation also leads to further reduced longitudinal separation standards once Controller Pilot Data Link Communica-tions is implemented in the Edmonton Air Operations Centre over the next 12 months. What was once a longitudinal standard of 15 minutes will become a 50 nautical mile longitudinal standard.

Gene Cameron, Manager, Global Support Flight Dispatch with United Airlines, has been involved with Polar flights since they were a just a concept. He said, “The Chicago to Hong Kong operation in a 747-400 continues to occasionally have payload or fuel limited challenges over the Polar routes, however it continues to be a great success story, considering what we started with in 1996.”

And the flight operates 365 days a year and no longer needs to be towed to the runway!

Since the 12 flights that United started with in 1999, Polar operations now total over 10,000 flights per year, with several million dollars per year aggregate savings to the airline industry.

today. Our challenge will be to ensure we have the appropriate interfaces between States/Service Providers with respect to ATM equipment and information exchange, as we move forward with Blocks 2 and 3”.

With over $US 120 Billion expected to be invested on new technology and systems over the next 10 years, a coordinated international effort is essential to maximize interoperability and harmonization worldwide.

In late September, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) held the Global Air Navigation Industry Symposium in Montreal.

Over 500 representatives from around the world including civil aviation authorities, air navigation service providers, aircraft and aviation system manufacturers and interna-tional associations such as IATA and CANSO, attended this three and a half day event.

Achieving a globally interoperable aviation system requires a collaborative and multidisci-plinary approach to capacity and efficiency investments. The symposium provided a unique forum for global and regional industry partners to share latest technological develop-ments and to focus on challenges regarding future interoperability and harmonization of 21st century air navigation systems.

Several states made presentations on their current and planned improvement programs including the USA, Europe, Japan, Russia, Australia, India and Canada.

Rudy Kellar, Vice President of Operations provided a comprehensive overview of NAV CANADA’s modernization program.

The Symposium gave ICAO the opportunity to seek industry feedback on the Aviation System Block Upgrade (ASBU) concept.

What is the ASBU concept?ASBU provides a vision and a set of modular targets in an incremental framework that captures and identifies specific targets to foster future planning and implementation.

For the near-term, it identifies a set of air traffic management solutions or upgrades that leverage current equipage (and stan-dards) on the aircraft and ground systems and establishes a transition plan to foster global interoperability.

The ASBU is organized around four perfor-mance improvement areas and four block upgrades (numbered 0 to 3) each with

their own set of modules, as shown in the diagram below.

The block upgrades have a timeframe that reflects the availability or ability to use the module in an operational manner and generate operational benefits. It is not a one size fits all program but one that recognizes the fact that regional disparities will dictate what modules are required, when and where.

Block upgrades include such areas as improved and optimized airport accessibility, improved runway safety, improved traffic flow through runway metering, and service improvement through digital Aeronautical Information as well as others. NAV CANADA modernization plans address many of these modules already.

The ASBU will be incorporated into the Global Air Navigation Plan together with communication navigation and surveillance, avionics and aeronautical information management roadmaps to be presented to the 12th Air Navigation Conference in November 2012 for endorsement.

Participating on an industry panel, Rudy Kellar remarked that “We need to focus now on implementing the Block 0 and 1 modules, as there are significant benefits to be realized

What in the world are we up to?NAV CANADA participates in Global Air Navigation Industry Symposium (GANIS)

Rudy Kellar, Vice President of Operations provides an overview of NAV CANADA’s modernization program at the Global Air Navigation Industry Symposium held in September.

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Expertise in implementing new technologiesNAV CANADA was able to provide a unique perspective related to implementing new technologies.

“We are one of the few air navigation service providers that develop air traffic management solutions in-house. This has provided us with expertise on how air traffic control technologies are considered from development to operational readiness.”

An example of a technology that will become available in the near future is video technology developed by NAV CANADA’s partner Searidge Technologies. The company has developed video tools that can fully integrate into ATC and other displays that can be used for eliminating blind spots, enhancing ground surveillance and increasing situational awareness.

By participating in the symposium, interested parties can discuss how to best integrate these technologies to ensure that maximum benefits are extracted.

New technologies or procedures often require an iterative process where they are being continuously tested and revised as close to the operational environment as they can safely be. The more participants can share on this process, the more quickly and smoothly new adopters can overcome challenges implement-ing them in their own environment.

“The bottom line is that we all share a need to find ways to better serve our respective customers and make our own operations safer and more efficient. The symposium offers us a chance to look at things pragmatically, by turning over every rock – and that provides potential for new ideas and collaboration.”

Recent technology advances in the tower environment have significantly enhanced the safety and efficiency of aircraft operations in and around airports. With several new technologies and best practices continuing to be developed, there is plenty of potential for additional gains.

With that in mind, representatives of several air navigation service providers, airport operators, technology firms and the military gathered in Montreal for the second edition of the Advanced Tower Symposium, hosted by NAV CANADA.

The purpose of the symposium, held in late September, was to allow industry stakeholders

to share and discuss best practices and plans for future technologies related to air traffic control tower operations.

“This symposium was a follow-up to the successful symposium held in Malta last year,” says Bill Crawley, Director of ATS System Integration, and symposium organizer. “It gives organizations like NAV CANADA, its ANS counterparts, industry partners and others the opportunity to talk about what practices and technologies they are in the process of implementing or plan to implement to enhance air traffic operations.

“Each participant has unique operational realities that have allowed them to develop expertise in certain areas of airport control and related tower operations.”

A number of topics were presented and discussed at the symposium. They included an update on the Federal Aviation Administration’s NextGen Tower Program; the approach to military operations practiced by Skyguide in Switzerland; best practices for contingency operations in the UK; the delivery of tiered ANS services; and best practices for technology implementation in Canada.

“When we combine all that expertise and look at best practices and technologies that other organization are using to improve safety and efficiency, we can find ways of enhancing our existing services as well as opportunities to collaborate on new projects,” says Crawley.

Collaborating towards tomorrow’s advanced tower environmentAdvanced Tower Symposium provides participants with opportunity to discuss plans for future technologies, best practices.

Symposium attendees discussed video tools that can be used to eliminate blind spots, enhance ground surveillance and increase situational awareness.

Advanced Tower Symposium: Participating Organizations

› Canadian Department of National Defence

› Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS) › EUROCONTROL › Federal Aviation Administration › INFRAERO › Irish Aviation Authority › Massachusetts Institute of

Technology › Mitre › National Air Traffic Services › NAV CANADA › Searidge Technologies › Serco › Skyguide Switzerland › W.E.Payne & Associates

The Advanced Tower Symposium allows industry partners to discuss best practices and technologies that are being used to improve safety and efficiency.

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ENGAGE Project: Flight trials to reduce GHG emissions underway

NAV CANADA has begun flight trials, with its consortium partners NATS of the UK and Air France, to demonstrate new procedures to improve fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for flights transiting the North Atlantic oceanic airspace.

The trials are part of the ENGAGE Project co-sponsored by the SESAR Joint Under-taking (SJU).

The ENGAGE flight trials are measuring fuel and emissions savings through the use of two procedures: progressive or continuous altitude change; and a corresponding change in aircraft speed (Mach), within an approved airspace block.

The trials began on August 9 with an Air Canada A330 flight travelling from Frankfurt to Toronto. In addition to Air Canada, participants include Air France, British Airways, Delta Airlines, and United Airlines.

Preliminary results are very encouraging. As this issue of Direct Route goes to press, data from 15 completed trials show an average per-flight reduction in fuel consumption of nearly 500 litres and of 1,300 kilograms of GHG emissions. This translates to a savings of approximately $420 per trial.

Initial estimates had predicted a saving of approximately 250 litres of fuel and 650 kilograms of GHG emissions com-pared to normal operations on similar trans-Atlantic flights.

Trials are continuing until late November with a target of 30 flights. The full ENGAGE results detailing the fuel savings and GHG reductions will be released in a report upon completion of the trials.

ENGAGE is being undertaken as part of the SJU “Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions” (AIRE) Program. AIRE is a program which aims to reduce GHG emissions and accelerate the pace of change by taking advantage of air traffic manage-ment (ATM) best practices and capitalising on present aircraft technology. AIRE is an important part of the green component of the SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) program and the SJU is responsible for its management from a European perspective.

This will help meet NAV CANADA and the Calgary Airport Authority’s goal of improved efficiency.”

Saab Sensis multilateration uses multiple low-maintenance, non-rotating sensors to triangulate aircraft locations based on transponder signals to provide air traffic controllers with precise aircraft position and identification information. With a higher update rate and greater positional accuracy than traditional radar, multilateration provides effective surveillance for increased safety, capacity and efficiency of ground and airspace movements.

The installation at Calgary will include coverage of the new runway and associated taxiways being constructed by the Calgary International Airport Authority for opening in 2014.

This is the fifth multilateration deployment in Canada. Wide Area Multilateration systems are already operational in Fort St. John and Vancouver Harbour and are in the process of being installed in Kelowna. Multilateration for surface surveillance is being used at Montreal Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport.

NAV CANADA is deploying multilateration system for surface surveillance at Calgary International Airport. Multilateration will provide complete coverage of the runways, taxiways and terminal areas of the airport for improved all-weather surface situational awareness.

As part of the project, being undertaken by Saab Sensis, vehicles operating on the airport’s

surface will be installed with VeeLo NextGen vehicle locators.

“Saab Sensis multilateration is a field-proven airport surface surveillance technology,” said Kim Troutman, NAV CANADA Vice President, Engineering. “The addition of Saab Sensis multilateration and vehicle locators at Calgary will complement existing surface movement radar to give NAV CANADA’s air traffic controllers improved situational awareness.

MLAT sensors are being deployed for surface surveillance at Calgary International Airport.

Multilateration to be installed at Calgary International Airport

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A lot of time was spent discussing the toolbox of available mitigations that can be used to reduce safety risks when wind farms interfere with radar signals. This toolbox is expanding with new research and development and increased experience around the world. Responsibility for the costs of implementing mitigation was also a discussion point over the two days.

Over time, it is expected that existing conflicts between wind power and aviation safety will be further reduced through technological advancement and collaboration.

Aviation is becoming less dependent on ground-based surveillance and navigational aids as the industry evolves to using satellite-based systems that are not affected by wind turbines. These changes are already happen-ing, but unfortunately, not fast enough, given the growth in wind power.

In the interim, close and early collaboration with wind power developers is essential to ensuring that green power developments happen in a way that is compatible with aviation.

The push for green energy has resulted in significant growth in the wind farm industry in Canada. That growth is causing issues for the ANS.

When primary radar signals reflect off a moving wind turbine, they generate a track on a radar screen that can’t be easily distinguished from an aircraft.

When a group of wind turbines are located together, subsequent sweeps of the radar can show a target jumping from turbine to turbine and resembling an aircraft transiting the airspace above the turbines and then coasting beyond the boundaries of the wind farm. Taken together, the number of non-aircraft targets that a group of wind turbines creates can generate clutter on radar screens.

Actual aircraft in the area of the wind farm may not be detected accurately, or at all, either because of the clutter, because the signal becomes desensitized in the area, or because the radar interprets the track of the aircraft inaccurately given the number of other targets close by.

Wind turbines can also affect the accuracy of VORs, causing signal distortion even when they are located several kilometres away from the navigational aid, and their height can necessitate changes to obstacle clearance minimas on airways and approaches.

NAV CANADA is working actively with the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) and wind farm developers across the country to ensure that the growth in wind power does not have negative safety impacts for aviation.

In late June, CanWEA hosted an international wind and radar forum in Ottawa where wind farm developers, radar users and radar and turbine manufacturers got together for two days to discuss their experiences with wind/radar interference.

It was an important opportunity to share international experiences and discuss technology in place and under development to help mitigate the impact of wind turbines on radar effectiveness, as well as how we can better work together to ensure that the public’s expectation of aviation safety and public goals for renewable energy are compatible.

The conference was well attended not just by air navigation service providers in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. but other radar users such as Environment Canada, DND and the U.S. Departments of Defence and Homeland Security.

NAV CANADA spoke as part of various panels throughout the two day forum, outlining our Land Use process for assessing proposed developments, and discussing the potential safety and operational impacts of radar interference, and new surveillance technolo-gies and how they may affect this issue.

Ensuring compatibility between aviation and wind power

Over time, it is expected that existing conflicts between wind power and aviation safety will be reduced through technological advancement and collaboration.

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