Razvan Bucuroiu

EUROCONTROL is taking a pivotal role in leading the deployment of a radically transformative air traffic management programme, explains Razvan Bucuroiu, Head of Airspace and Capacity Division at EUROCONTROL

“The trajectory based operational (TBO) concept is probably the most important air traffic management concept since the introduction of radar services,” said Razvan Bucuroiu, Head of Airspace and Capacity Division at EUROCONTROL. “It involves all stakeholders working together from planning to operations, along with the implementation of datalink and air-ground trajectory exchanges, allowing a realtime exchange of the latest situation of the aircraft’s trajectory, including intentions.”

TBO has for years been recognised globally as the next major technical advance in air traffic management (ATM), improving predictability, increasing capacity and reducing aviation’s environmental footprint in all parts of the world. For Europe, it should mean a 100% increase in average sector capacity, going up from the current 45 flights per hour in many sectors to 97 flights per hour while reducing the average working time to manage 100 flights by 50%, according to figures presented at the Global TBO Symposium held in EUROCONTROL’s headquarters in June 2024 (see below: EUROCONTROL hosts first Global TBO Symposium ).

Implementing TBO is a complex global challenge and one in which EUROCONTROL is playing a pivotal role. The final concept of operation needs to be agreed globally. Air-ground datalink technologies will need to be refined to allow for real-time trajectory and intent information to be shared between all the operational stakeholders. Then the roll-out programme will have to be managed across all stakeholder groups: air navigation service providers (ANSPs), airspace users, airports and computer flight planning service providers (CFPSPs), among others.

“In Europe we are moving faster than many other regions,” said Razvan Bucuroiu. “We already have an agreed vision of what TBO should look like, aligned with ICAO’s vision, and shared between technical and political European institutions. The concept is fully embedded in the Single European Sky vision and the European ATM Master Plan. There is still some R&D and standardisation work to be done before implementation. But we can see from some of the work the Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) is doing on developing the first steps of a more enhanced datalink that controllers and pilots can work with these new procedures and the network benefits calculated during our simulation exercises are not just wishful thinking.”

This vision is also encapsulated in the Network 4D Trajectory Concept of Operations, developed by the EUROCONTROL Network Manager (NM) and its partners in 2023 to take into account the future conceptual evolutions related to TBO. At its heart is the concept of a single referenced trajectory, calculated by NM and exchanged with all operational stakeholders, continually updated with ANSP updates and data downlinked from the aircraft.

Europe is also the first region of the world to plan a stepwise implementation of TBO, with the implementation of Flight and Flow Information (FFICE) Release 1 for implementation across Europe from 31 December 2025. This involves a complete change of the flight plan format with additional information being provided by airspace users to enable a more accurate calculation of the trajectory.

“The concept of operations was developed over two years and we are proud of the way we have implemented it in the NM system,” said Razvan Bucuroiu. “The standards and recommended practices (SARPs) needed for the evolution of FFICE and the NM system upgrade planning were done in parallel. All the necessary documentation has been approved by the Network Management Board including representatives of ANSPs, the military, airspace users, the European Commission, EASA, etc.”

TBO possible European Network benefits

TBO possible European network benefits

NM has already fully implemented FFICE Release 1 capabilities and NM is also translating flight plan information from the new format in previous formats. “We are also working with CFPSPs, airlines and ANSPs on moving to FFICE R1,” said Razvan Bucuroiu. “LIDO – a CFPSP which provides services to many European airlines – has implemented FFICE and we can now integrate its data into our systems.”

Synchronised deployment of TBO technologies and procedures is also part of the SESAR Deployment Manager’s Common Project 1. According to Olivia Nunez, Head of Technology and Master Planning at the SESAR Joint Undertaking, speaking at the June 2024 TBO event, SESAR research on TBO is currently focused on pre-departure and flight planning, trajectory revision, airborne time constraints and trajectory synchronisation, as well as the use of automation and AI to enhance trajectory predictions, support clearances and separation management, and reduce uncertainty.

One of the most important institutional and technical challenges facing TBO programme managers in Europe is coordinating the upgrade of ANSP flight data processing systems to the new TBO concept, which will allow for more precise trajectory calculations. The scale of the work involved will mean that the 2025 target date for implementation is unlikely to be met – but EUROCONTROL and SESAR Deployment Manager (SDM) experts are working on mitigations.

The transformation process will require ANSPs to move away from their customised FDPS technologies to open architecture technologies to ensure more harmonised and faster implementation processes. “An open architecture solution with a cloud-based technology will make significant changes and savings in terms of systems evolutions,” said Razvan Bucuroiu.

The implementation of full air-ground integration will be a further technical challenge but there are also institutional issues which will need to be resolved in Europe, especially in terms of the constraints imposed by national boundaries. And airspace users in Europe will only start to realise the real benefits of TBO once 90% of European airspace has introduced the new procedures.

"The concept of operations was developed over two years and we are proud of the way we have implemented it in the NM system."

According to Andreas Boschen, Executive Director of SESAR JU, speaking at the TBO conference: “We need a roadmap because there are so many elements that have to be implemented by so many different stakeholders. It has to be as simple as possible, comprehensive as necessary,” he said, reminding the audience about the plan in Europe to make TBO a reality progressively by 2040, as outlined in the upcoming European ATM Master Plan.

EUROCONTROL hosts first Global TBO Symposium

The first-ever Global TBO Symposium was held at the EUROCONTROL Brussels headquarters between 4 and 6 June 2024.

Jointly organised by the European Commission, European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), EUROCONTROL, SESAR Deployment Manager and SESAR Joint Undertaking, the symposium brought together 300 participants and 3,000 viewers online representing 90 organisations from 36 countries worldwide. They discussed the enabling technologies, ongoing research, real-world applications of TBO, as well as military needs and the regulatory and standardisation efforts required for full implementation of TBO globally.

At the heart of the discussions was establishing a common understanding of what is meant by TBO. Iacopo Prissinotti, Director Network Management at EUROCONTROL, noted that there is a growing appetite for travel; traffic in Europe is back to 2019 levels with 20% less airspace and 10% more passengers. We need to accelerate our modernisation efforts to keep up with the speed of aviation growth, he said.

Global TBO symposium

In his keynote address, Filip Cornelis, Director for Aviation at the European Commission, said that TBO could revolutionise aviation, just like the arrival of GNSS transformed navigation. TBO is about being “global”, “collaborative” and “sharing”, and is key to allowing aviation to grow better while reducing the environmental impact of the industry, he underlined.

Addressing the symposium, Pascal Luciani, Deputy Director at the Air Navigation Bureau of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), said that TBO cannot be conceived as a one-nation initiative and requires continued effort over time by stakeholders to transition to TBO and deliver a seamless air navigation system for enhanced safety, capacity and sustainability.

Anna von Groote of European standards organisation EUROCAE noted that there are standards already available or in the pipeline for TBO that are fit for purpose. The focus now is on establishing even closer links between SESAR deployment priorities coming out of the European ATM Master Plan campaign and the EUROCAE technical work programme. We need to leverage ICAO’s leadership to ensure global implementation, she stressed. Luc Tytgat of EASA said that the next steps will be the certification of the technologies in the pipeline to confirm that they are safe and meet the expected performance requirements.

Christine Berg, Deputy Director for Aviation and Head of the Single European Sky unit at the European Commission, said that frameworks like SESAR were helping to engage stakeholders both in Europe and globally to build momentum and advance ATM modernisation. She noted that roll-out takes time and so it is essential that stakeholders stay energised for the duration. She concluded that there are high expectations for a gear change to deliver the transformation that will keep aviation safe and sustainable. It’s a global challenge that requires a global answer.

Meanwhile, ICAO finalised and adopted the global SARPs Amendment for FF-ICE in November 2023 and they will come into force in November 2024.

“The next step will be FFICE Release 2, which will combine planning and the tactical phase of operations and the negotiation protocols this will involve; ICAO has started working on the SARPS for this and these should be ready by the end of the decade,” said Razvan Bucuroiu.

“Everybody will need to be part of the programme or there will be no continuity,” said Razvan Bucuroiu. “If you do not have the necessary capacity in the entire network to deliver the best possible trajectories you will not realise the environmental benefits because airlines will try to avoid bottlenecks with longer, less efficient routes.”

Razvan Bucuroiu
Razvan Bucuroiu
Head of Airspace and Capacity Division
EUROCONTROL

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