Credit: biggabig_fotolia

Air Traffic Flow Management

Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi Airport is part of an ATFM trial.

Transforming Asia Pacific skies

Peter Cabooter, Vice President of Customer
Affairs for Airbus ProSky, describes an air traffic
flow management trial in Asia Pacific.
The air traffic management landscape in the Asia Pacific
region is changing and this June it is set to hit a key
milestone with the start of a new multi-nodal air traffic flow
management (ATFM) trial.

Airbus ProSky, to address and implement an ATFM solution

that will best meet their regions needs.

This innovative approach, which capitalises on a proven ATFM

solution and establishes a new regional methodology, is a
ground-breaking way for the eight participating ANSPs to
prepare their skies for tomorrow.

Attention turned to ATFM solutions due to the ability of ATFM

to redistribute capacity to meet air traffic demands. As piloted
by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) more than 15
years ago, ATFM is the coming together of stakeholders
through collaborative decision making (CDM) to utilise software
and procedural services to make air travel more predictable
and efficient.

With air traffic in Asia Pacific expected to increase by 5.7%

annually over the next ten years, and more than 50% of new
routes connecting to the region, according to the Airbus Global
Market Forecast, it is imperative that Asia Pacific begins to
conquer the issue of demand surpassing capacity for flights.
Key air traffic management stakeholders, including air
navigation service providers, airports, airlines and civil aviation
authorities, from China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Australia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam came together in
June 2014, under the guidance of CANSO, IATA, ICAO and
18 QUARTER 2 2015

AIRSPACE

Why ATFM?

Through the sharing of information from ANSPs, aircraft

operators and air traffic control, ATFM systems are able to
create accurate predictions of future traffic demand and
identify capacity challenges.
These tools then allow traffic flow managers to take proactive
actions to make sure traffic flows remain as efficient as possible,
preventing airborne delays.

ATFM has subsequently been implemented in Europe, Australia

and South Africa with the United Arab Emirates, Colombia,
DC-ANSP and Mexico all following suit and the results are
evident. ATFM lowers airborne holdings, reduces fuel burn,
decreases CO2 emissions and saves operational dollars.

Innovative approach
While the majority of air traffic within mature markets such as
the United States and Europe is essentially domestic, in Asia
Pacific, there is a wide variety. There are hubs where 100% of
the air traffic is international and countries with a large domestic
demand. Therefore, stakeholders must have visibility to traffic
outside of their airspace. Collaboration and data sharing with
neighbouring countries is key to improving this visibility.
Unlike any of the other operational ATFM systems, the eight
Asia Pacific nations are coming together to test a multi-nodal
approach, which will increase the visibility of cross-border
traffic that will impact each nations airspace.
The concept outlined includes creating traffic management
initiatives for the region, which will allow demand and capacity
predictions. If an airport is deemed to be constrained,
arrival slots will be allocated to airlines. The airlines are then
responsible for specifying how to absorb the delay, be it holding
passengers at the gate, on the aircraft on the ground or in-flight.
Since the initiative kicked off in June 2014, there has also been
a number of human-in-the-loop (HITL) scenarios, which brings

together all stakeholders to discuss any issues that could arise

after implementation. Lessons learned included that controlling
city-pair traffic alone is not sufficient.
So controlling Singapore-Bangkok, for example, will not help
alleviate capacity issues for all of Singapore. Flights need
be examined in the entire airspace not just from hub-to-hub
to provide effective flow management during peak times.
Communication between ATC and weather services is also
imperative and stakeholders must follow the agreed upon rules.
As such, the participating ANSPs are more prepared for the
operational trial.

Challenges and readiness

All of the actions thus far put the region on a path towards
an eventual successful implementation. That is not to say that
challenges do not exist.
The success of the multi-nodal approach is contingent on each
partners willingness and readiness both to share data and
to have installed ATFM systems. So the trial in June 2015 will
not consist of all the elements that a fully operational system
would deploy.
Instead, the focus consists of addressing the demand-capacity
balancing for aircraft at select airports covered by participating
ANSPs. Addressing balancing with sectors and airspace will
be a subsequent step in future trials. The purpose of the trial
will be to study the effectiveness of ATFM and formulate
subsequent best practices.
The trial is unique as it will bring together ANSPs, airlines
and airports and will lead to a validation of a new concept of
collaboration to prepare the region for the growth in aviation.
The different stakeholders have shown great leadership to reach
this point. Each country has a specific environment and this
multi-nodal concept allows everyone to tackle those specific
challenges, while collaborating with the other stakeholders.
At the same time, the multi-nodal ATFM concept allows airlines
to decide how they will manage constraints and thus minimise
the impact on their operations and their bottom line.

Future implementation

Credit: Changi Airport Group

This six-month operational trial is the just the first step towards
ATFM implementation. The capabilities of each ANSP involved
needs to be understood, including the compliance of their
departure towers, with penalties for non-compliance based on
agreed-upon performance metrics.
However, the benefits that should be evident after the trial
will encourage all ANSPs to continue down the multi-nodal
integration path as they see the cost savings, environmental
benefits and increased capacity involved.
The trial is unique as it will bring together ANSPs, airlines and airports.

By doing so, they will be getting a glimpse of the more efficient

skies that await in their future.
AIRSPACE

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