Article

Advancing trajectory-based ATM in Europe with digital connectivity

Hugues de Beco

Skyway talks to Hugues de Beco, Head of Multi-Programme Projects and ATM at Airbus, to find out how air-to-ground digital connectivity contributes to introducing trajectory-based operations in European airspace, and the role of Airbus in that transformation.

How will improving digital connectivity between air and ground lead to more efficient operations for airlines, and what are the key elements in the ground-to-air digital network to optimise trajectory-based operations?

Air-to-ground digital connectivity is a fundamental element of trajectory-based operations (TBO). TBO is a key enabler for more efficient operations, aimed at reducing the air traffic management (ATM) environmental footprint, in particular CO2 emissions. A recent EUROCONTROL study estimates an ATM- related benefit pool of 9.3% (in CO2 emissions) for the EUROCONTROL area in 2023. This is significant. TBO will play an important role in addressing this benefit pool.

Air-to-ground connectivity is a technological and operational support that enables the removal of unnecessary buffers while continuing to improve the level of safety of operations. It is a matter for the aircraft to provide reliable, accurate and trustable digital information to the air traffic controllers.

Digital connectivity also means a “digital closed loop” between the aircraft and the air traffic controller (ATC). This complements voice exchanges with a means of communication that supports very reliable and more sophisticated exchanges between the flight crew and their aircraft systems and the active controller and the entire ATC/ATM system. This digital enabler will allow active control centres to better control and manage the flow of aircraft, avoiding non-necessary manoeuvres, enabling more direct routings or more optimised level changes. This will help to reduce tracked miles, and to allow each aircraft to fly as close as possible to its optimal trajectory. Progressively equipping more and more aircraft with the required enablers will contribute to the optimisation of the entire airspace all along the trajectories to destination.

Is this research or reality? Both! The research has already delivered. Digital air-to-ground connectivity has started in European continental airspace with the deployment of “Aeronautical Telecommunication Network Baseline 1” (ATN B1) – i.e. CPDLC – and has made a very significant step ahead with the introduction of the latest ATN B2 EPP and CPDLC A320 and A330 avionics combined with early mover ANSPs. The EUROCONTROL Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) is a forerunner in using and taking more and more advantage of this technology. Operations are showing both the huge potential of such technologies and demonstrating tangible benefits from using it.

How has Airbus contributed to current operations and future research, and what are the key programmes that Airbus is currently working on?

Airbus has indeed contributed extensively to the advancement of TBO. The Airbus “Albatross” project has revealed key elements in the search to improve European ATM efficiency. The project showed the importance of bringing all the actors together around the same, shared goal of achieving “a perfect flight”. ATM is a very complex eco-technical system involving a large variety of actors, each playing a key role in its operations, safety and efficiency. Sharing each actor's “pieces” in the big pictures allowed ATM stakeholders to identify and stress the value of having a global system with more information sharing, dynamicity and predictability. Concrete results of this are the emphasis put on the Dynamic Route Availability Document (RAD), the very important Letters of Agreement (LoAs) between en-route centres and, finally, the start of future research into bringing these concepts more upstream into the process, from flight planning to integration within the flight management system (FMS).

The recent confirmation of the mandate for the ATM Function 6 of the Common Project 1 implementing rule is a key milestone in the effective deployment of TBO in European airspace. As research moves forward, Airbus is proud to continue to contribute to SESAR to prepare for the future. TBO projects (ATC TBO and Network TBO), are defining additional use-cases and benefits in using the air- to-ground digital closed loop. Future Datalink Communication Infrastructure (FCDI) is exploring communication means and layers to complement the VDL Mode 2 - which is becoming saturated - and the very recent ATC IRIS L-Band satcom connectivity.

It is also worth mentioning the Highly Efficient Green Operations (Heron) project which continues on from Albatross, grouping many actors and combining different technologies. Among these, air-ground digital connectivity will be experienced in different operational scenarios. Furthermore, the Green Aviation – Lean Arrivals And Dynamicity (GALAAD) project is exploring an advanced concept for dynamically allocating required navigation performance (RNP) routes in the terminal area. In particular it aims to improve energy management in the climb and descent phases.

How do you see the digitisation of airspace management helping to reduce pilot workload and transform the role that pilots will play in the future?

Air-to-ground ATC digital connectivity will transform the current tactical way of managing traffic into a more strategic one in continental airspace. A keyword that digital crew-controller communication will support is “anticipation”. There will be more anticipation in the exchanges between the active controller and the flight crews. Thanks to the EPP (2), the controllers will be able to better predict the evolution of the traffic in their respective sectors with extremely accurate and reliable information. This will reduce the number of non-necessary manoeuvres and will improve the decision-making and task execution.

Digital clearances provided by CPDLC (instead of voice exchange between the pilot and air traffic controller) will become more sophisticated and error-free thanks to the possibility of automatically loading them in the aircraft’s flight management and radio management systems. This increased level of sophistication will improve prediction and enhance the aircraft’s ability to fly close to its optimal trajectory.

In particular, this will greatly help ATC in very dense traffic situations, in bad weather, or to avoid military zones, and overall to maintain safe aircraft separation distances while optimising the use of the airspace.

Digital information sharing will be extended from the active control centres to those that are downpath of the aircraft's trajectory. This will support more collaborative decision-making between the flight crew and the overall ATC system. More accurate information sharing will improve air-to-ground and ground-to-ground coordination for more efficient and safer operations.

Spool forward 10 years – how will the airspace architecture of Europe differ from today?

Traffic increase will pull the demand for changes. From today’s 35,000 flights/day in peaks, European airspace will see 50,000 by around 2035 . There is no other choice than to implement changes to meet the challenges of coping with this traffic increase while reducing aviation's footprint towards 2050 carbon neutrality. TBO is one of the pillars to answer that challenge. In the next 10 years, TBO will become more and more of a reality. This will require changes in technology, operations, procedures and in the way ATM stakeholders cooperate.

Available solutions, such as those of the Common Project 1 European implementing rule, are being deployed. At the same time, SESAR 3 is maturing the solutions that will be deployed in a next step, which include new air-ground ATC communications links, as well as an increasingly elaborated use of ATS B2 designed to maximise its full potential. Ground-to-ground technology and operations will also change towards a more ‘service-oriented architecture’ in the direction of the recommendations made by the Airspace Architecture Study .

This will result in a change in the way the sky is shared, going beyond the ATC controller-flight crew relationship to encompass the entire system, involving all ATM stakeholders from those focused on airspace design to organisations involved in strategic planning and tactical control. This will support and will require an increased cooperation and trust between ATM stakeholders. Throughout all of this, the human remains at the centre of ATM operations, whether in the cockpit or in the control centre. A shared structured and coordinated deployment plan will go alongside technological deployment to ensure a smooth and efficient transition.

Hugues de Beco

Hugues de Beco

Hugues de Beco has 36 years’ experience in the aerospace industry, in particular in aircraft systems. He started as an avionics engineer at Sextant Avionics (Thales) in 1987 and then joined Airbus in 1992. Hugues held in various positions in aircraft systems, engineering, procurement and programme management. Hugues is now heading the Multi Programme Projects and ATM organisation at Airbus.

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