Air traffic flow management

Last updated

Air traffic flow management (ATFM) is the regulation of air traffic in order to avoid exceeding airport or air traffic control capacity in handling traffic (hence the alternative name of Air Traffic Flow and Capacity Management - ATFCM), and to ensure that available capacity is used efficiently. [1]

Contents

Airport capacity

Because only one aircraft can land or depart from a runway at a given time, and because aircraft must be separated by a certain distance or time to avoid collisions, every airport has a finite capacity; it can safely handle only so many aircraft per hour. This capacity depends on many factors, such as the number of runways available, layout of taxi tracks, availability of air traffic control, and current or anticipated weather. [2] The weather can cause large variations in capacity; strong winds may limit the number of runways available, and poor visibility may necessitate increases in separation between aircraft. [3]

When an air traffic control unit that will control a flight reaches capacity, arriving aircraft are directed towards holding patterns where they circle until it is their turn to land. However, aircraft flying in circles is an inefficient and costly way of delaying aircraft, so it is preferable to keep them on the ground at their place of departure, called a ground delay program. [1] This way, the delay can be waited out on the ground with engines off, saving considerable amounts of fuel. The careful calculation of en route time for each flight and traffic flow as a whole, which aims to minimize overall delays in the air traffic system, is highly dependent on computers.

Operation in Europe

All IFR flight plans are tracked by the Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU). Every airport and air traffic control sector has a published maximum capacity. When capacity is exceeded, measures are taken to reduce the traffic. This is termed regulation. The aim is to use capacity effectively, keeping the average delay as low as possible, while ensuring capacity is not exceeded. [4]

For example, if two flights are scheduled to arrive at an airport at exactly the same time, and the airport can handle one aircraft every five minutes, the aircraft may be assigned delays to ensure that the second aircraft arrives five minutes after the first. Similarly, the first aircraft will be required to depart on schedule and not allowed to depart late. This way, the second aircraft will not need to enter a holding pattern before landing.

See also

Related Research Articles

In aviation, visual flight rules (VFR) are a set of regulations under which a pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better than basic VFR weather minima, i.e., in visual meteorological conditions (VMC), as specified in the rules of the relevant aviation authority. The pilot must be able to operate the aircraft with visual reference to the ground, and by visually avoiding obstructions and other aircraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Airport</span> Facility with a runway for aircraft

An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface such as a runway for a plane to take off and to land or a helipad, and often includes adjacent utility buildings such as control towers, hangars and terminals, to maintain and monitor aircraft. Larger airports may have airport aprons, taxiway bridges, air traffic control centres, passenger facilities such as restaurants and lounges, and emergency services. In some countries, the US in particular, airports also typically have one or more fixed-base operators, serving general aviation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Air traffic control</span> Public service provided for the purpose of maintaining the safe and orderly flow of air traffic

Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airspace. The primary purpose of ATC worldwide is to prevent collisions, organize and expedite the flow of air traffic, and provide information and other support for pilots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stockholm Arlanda Airport</span> Airport serving Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm Arlanda Airport is an international airport located in the Sigtuna Municipality of Sweden, near the town of Märsta, 37 kilometres (23 mi) north of Stockholm and nearly 40 kilometres (25 mi) south-east of Uppsala. The airport is located within Stockholm County and the province of Uppland. It is the largest airport in Sweden and the third-largest airport in the Nordic countries. The airport is the major gateway to international air travel for large parts of Sweden. Arlanda Airport was used by nearly 27 million passengers in 2017, with 21.2 million international passengers and 5.5 million domestic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Air traffic controller</span> Aviation specialist

Air traffic control specialists, abbreviated ATCs, are personnel responsible for the safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of air traffic in the global air traffic control system. Usually stationed in air traffic control centers and control towers on the ground, they monitor the position, speed, and altitude of aircraft in their assigned airspace visually and by radar, and give directions to the pilots by radio. The position of air traffic controller is one that requires highly specialized knowledge, skills, and abilities. Controllers apply separation rules to keep aircraft at a safe distance from each other in their area of responsibility and move all aircraft safely and efficiently through their assigned sector of airspace, as well as on the ground. Because controllers have an incredibly large responsibility while on duty and make countless real-time decisions on a daily basis, the ATC profession is consistently regarded around the world as one of the most mentally challenging careers, and can be notoriously stressful depending on many variables. Many controllers, however, cite high salaries, and a large, unique, and privileged degree of autonomy as major advantages of their jobs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Airfield traffic pattern</span>

An airfield traffic pattern is a standard path followed by aircraft when taking off or landing while maintaining visual contact with the airfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warsaw Chopin Airport</span> Airport in Warsaw, Poland

Warsaw Chopin Airport is an international airport in the Włochy district of Warsaw, Poland. It is Poland's busiest airport with 18.9 million passengers in 2019, thus handling approximately 40% of the country's total air passenger traffic. The airport is a central hub for LOT Polish Airlines as well as a base for Enter Air and Wizz Air.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princess Juliana International Airport</span> Airport on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin, Sint Maarten

Princess Juliana International Airport is the main airport on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin. The airport is located on the Dutch side of the island, in the country of Sint Maarten, close to the shore of Simpson Bay Lagoon. In 2015, the airport handled 1,829,543 passengers and around 60,000 aircraft movements. The airport serves as a hub for Winair and is the major gateway for the smaller Leeward Islands, including Anguilla, Saba, Saint Barthélemy and Sint Eustatius. It is named after Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, who landed there while she was heir presumptive in 1944, the year after the airport opened. The airport has very low-altitude flyover landing approaches because one end of its runway is extremely close to the shore and Maho Beach. While Princess Juliana International is the primary aviation gateway to the island, there is also a smaller public-use airport on the French side, in the French Collectivity of Saint Martin, called Grand Case-Espérance Airport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flight planning</span>

Flight planning is the process of producing a flight plan to describe a proposed aircraft flight. It involves two safety-critical aspects: fuel calculation, to ensure that the aircraft can safely reach the destination, and compliance with air traffic control requirements, to minimise the risk of midair collision. In addition, flight planners normally wish to minimise flight cost through the appropriate choice of route, height, and speed, and by loading the minimum necessary fuel on board. Air Traffic Services (ATS) use the completed flight plan for separation of aircraft in air traffic management services, including tracking and finding lost aircraft, during search and rescue (SAR) missions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pilot error</span> Decision, action or inaction by a pilot of an aircraft

Pilot error generally refers to an accident in which an action or decision made by the pilot was the cause or a contributing factor that led to the accident, but also includes the pilot's failure to make a correct decision or take proper action. Errors are intentional actions that fail to achieve their intended outcomes. The Chicago Convention defines the term "accident" as "an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft [...] in which [...] a person is fatally or seriously injured [...] except when the injuries are [...] inflicted by other persons." Hence the definition of "pilot error" does not include deliberate crashing.

Boryspil International Airport is an international airport in Boryspil, 29 km (18 mi) east of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. It is Ukraine's largest airport, serving 65% of its passenger air traffic, including all its intercontinental flights and a majority of international flights. It is one of two passenger airports that serve Kyiv along with the smaller Zhuliany Airport. Boryspil International Airport was a member of Airports Council International.

Ashgabat International Airport, formerly known as Saparmyrat Türkmenbaşy International Airport, is one of five international airports in Turkmenistan. It is located within the city limits of Ashgabat (Ashkhabad). The old airport, with its air traffic control tower and a 3,700-metre-long (12,000 ft) precision approach runway (12L-30R), opened in 1994 and was named after the country's first president, Saparmyrat Niyazov. The new airport terminal opened in September 2016, after being completely redesigned and rebuilt and after the south runway was moved and lengthened to parallel the north runway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Non-towered airport</span> Airport without an air traffic control tower

In aviation, a non-towered airport is an airport without a control tower, or air traffic control (ATC) unit. The vast majority of the world's airports are non-towered. In the United States, there are close to 20,000 non-towered airports compared to approximately 500 airports with control towers. Airports with a control tower without 24/7 ATC service follow non-towered airport procedures when the tower is closed but the airport remains open, for example at night.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mangalore International Airport</span> Airport in Mangalore, India

Mangalore International Airport, is an international airport serving the coastal city of Mangalore, India. It is one of the only two international airports in Karnataka, the other being Kempegowda International Airport, Bangalore. Mangalore International Airport is the second busiest airport in Karnataka. In addition to domestic destinations, flights depart daily for major cities in the Middle East. The airport was named Bajpe Aerodrome, when it opened on 25 December 1951 by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru arrived then on a Douglas DC-3 aircraft.

An air traffic control ground delay program or FAA Flow Control is a traffic flow initiative that is instituted by the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the National Airspace System.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Illinois Airport</span> Airport in Jackson County, Illinois

Southern Illinois Airport is a public airport in Jackson County, Illinois, United States. It is located three nautical miles (6 km) northwest of the central business district of Carbondale and east of Murphysboro. This airport is included in the FAA's National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2015–2019, which categorized it as a general aviation facility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport</span> Airport in Lebanon

Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport (Arabic: مطار رفيق الحريري الدولي بيروت, is the only operational commercial airport in Lebanon, which is located in the Southern Suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, 9 kilometres from the city center. It is the hub for Lebanon's national carrier, Middle East Airlines and was the hub for the Lebanese cargo carrier TMA cargo and Wings of Lebanon before their respective collapses.

The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) is an ongoing United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) project to modernize the National Airspace System (NAS). The FAA began work on NextGen improvements in 2007 and plans to finish the final implementation segment by 2030. The goals of the modernization include using new technologies and procedures to increase the safety, efficiency, capacity, access, flexibility, predictability, and resilience of the NAS while reducing the environmental impact of aviation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Air Traffic Organization</span>

The Air Traffic Organization (ATO) is an air navigation service provider in the United States of America. The ATO is the operational division of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast</span> Aircraft surveillance technology

Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) is a surveillance technology and form of Electronic Conspicuity in which an aircraft determines its position via satellite navigation or other sensors and periodically broadcasts it, enabling it to be tracked. The information can be received by air traffic control ground stations as a replacement for secondary surveillance radar, as no interrogation signal is needed from the ground. It can also be transmitted and received point-to-point by other aircraft to provide situational awareness and allow self-separation. ADS-B is "automatic" in that it requires no pilot or external input. It is "dependent" in that it depends on data from the aircraft's navigation system.

References

  1. 1 2 Traffic Flow Management in the National Airspace System (PDF) (Report). Federal Aviation Administration. October 2009. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  2. AC 150/5060-5 - Airport Capacity And Delay (Report). Federal Aviation Administration. 23 September 1983. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  3. Klein, Alexander; Kavoussi, Sadegh; Lee, Robert (2009). Weather Forecast Accuracy: Study of Impact on Airport Capacity and Estimation of Avoidable Costs (PDF). Eighth USA/Europe Air Traffic Management Research and Development Seminar. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  4. "CFMU Objectives". Archived from the original on 17 November 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2008.