With the EUROCONTROL Challenges of Growth 2018 study predicting 16 congested airports by 2040, enhancing runway throughput by managing runway occupancy time is a cost-effective opportunity to unlock hidden capacity.
The validations showed that using our Leading Optimised Runway Delivery (LORD) tool in combination with the Runway Occupancy Categorisation (ROCAT) concept and a wake vortex pairwise separation scheme (per aircraft type) was operationally feasible and acceptable during segregated runway operations, increasing the arrival runway throughput and bringing safety benefits – and reducing controller workload at the same time.
The tested concepts are deliverables in SESAR 2020 project PJ02 “Increased runway and airport throughput”, which aims at addressing capacity challenges at major airports. EUROCONTROL is leading the project, working with partners to develop operational solutions and advanced air traffic control (ATC) tools.
EUROCONTROL is working with the same partners on a Very Large-scale Demonstration (VLD) to perform a live trial using the same environment as a step toward implementing the concept tested in the validation exercise.