Press release

Civil and military air traffic control in Belgium to be managed with a single air traffic management system

Belgium – As from December 2019, the military air traffic controllers of the Belgian Ministry of Defence and the civil air traffic controllers at EUROCONTROL’s Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) will all be using the upgraded MUAC air traffic management system – a concept known as the Shared ATS System (SAS2). Site acceptance testing - the last major milestone before the system goes live next December – has been successfully completed.

Air traffic control services in the airspace of Belgium and Luxembourg are provided by three different organisations: the Belgian Ministry of Defence for military Operational Air Traffic (OAT) and skeyes and MUAC for civil General Air Traffic (GAT) in lower airspace and upper airspace (from 24,500 feet) respectively.

The advantages of a Shared ATS System are many: enhanced coordination between civil and military controllers at both ends, enhanced safety and situational awareness, better communications, economies of scale, system commonality, shared tools, joint software/hardware upgrades – ultimately leading to enhanced performance.

Over the last two years, the SAS2 concept has been developed in order to integrate into MUAC's current Air Traffic Management system the specific functionalities required for military air traffic control. The required hardware was installed at the skeyes site in Steenokkerzeel and at the airbases of Beauvechain, Kleine-Brogel, Koksijde and Florennes. Recently the site acceptance test was successfully carried out - proof that the system can provide air traffic control services at the various military sites as well as for civil air traffic in various locations. This site acceptance test consisted of a series of technical tests conducted mainly at night to minimise the impact on MUAC operations. This means that the project is now in its final implementation phase.

The final phase of the project will concentrate on further developments to integrate the latest functionalities required, intensive training for the military air traffic controllers and technicians who will be using and monitoring the new system, and development of the remaining installations. The SAS2 system will initially be used for limited military air traffic control operations in early December 2019. Ultimately, the SAS2 system will support all military air traffic control by March 2020.

The commissioning of the SAS2 system by the Belgian Ministry of Defence coincides with the move of the military Air Traffic Control Centre (ATCC) from Semmerzake to the skeyes site in Steenokkerzeel. In parallel, a study was launched by the Ministry of Defence, MUAC and skeyes to assess the feasibility of implementing the Shared ATS System concept at skeyes - the SAS3 - by 2025. This would allow the three organisations responsible for Belgian/Luxembourg airspace to use a single air traffic control system for both civil and military traffic and to enhance cooperation and synergies, thereby contributing to the development of the Single European Sky.

EU co-financed
SAS2 is co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), a European organisation. The CEF is part of the EU Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA).

For further information:

EUROCONTROL's Maastricht UAC

Mireille Roman
Tel: +31 43 366 1352
Email:[email protected]

Belgian Defence - General Directorate Material Resources (DGMR)

Johan Lievens, Head of Communications DGMR,
Tel.: +32 (0)2 4 419 419
Sebastien Haverals, Material Manager ATM,
Tel.: +32 (0)2 44 16249

Email: [email protected]

Note to editors

About Belgian Defence

The General Directorate of Material Resources (DGMR) is responsible for the implementation of Defence material resources and for their integrated management during their complete lifecycle and for all technical and logistical support (weapons systems, communication and information systems, infrastructure, equipment and support products). The equipment made available to the Components must be modern, efficient, available in sufficient quantity, and adapted to the circumstances in which it will be used, while being managed in an economical and sustainable manner. The principles adopted by DGMR to achieve these objectives are to acquire equipment already in use from our partners and requiring little or no additional development (commercial/military off-the-shelf - COTS/MOTS). This makes it possible to limit the risks related to development (costs, delays, technical problems during the first implementations, etc.) and ensures a high degree of interoperability during operational deployments. The acquisition of certain equipment in an international context also provides Defence with access to high-tech equipment at a reasonable cost. Vehicles, flying equipment, ships, armament and protection, communication systems... All our equipment will be presented to you on www.mil.be

About MUAC

Operated by EUROCONTROL on behalf of four States, EUROCONTROL’s Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) provides civil and military cross-border air traffic control in the upper airspace of Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and north-west Germany (from 7.5 km or 24,500 feet). Some 1.9 million flights pass through MUAC’s area of responsibility each year, making it the third busiest air traffic control facility in Europe in terms of traffic volume. During the summer, peak days see over 5,700 flights. MUAC’s international area of responsibility is a perfect example of the simplification and harmonisation of airspace in Europe and is fully in line with the objectives of the Single European Sky.

News

New traffic record set: 37,228 flights in one day

Activities

New traffic record set: 37,228 flights handled across the European aviation network.

Traffic continues to rise steadily across Europe’s busy skies, and the total number of movements handled across the European aviation network overseen by the EUROCONTROL Network Manager hit a new high last Friday, 28 June 2019, with 37,228 flights over the course of the day.

This broke the previous traffic record of 37,101 flights which was set on Friday 7 September 2018.

Ensuring smooth traffic flows with delays kept to a minimum – and actively working to reduce the environmental impacts of aviation – are core objectives for the EUROCONTROL Network Manager.

As Iacopo Prissinotti, EUROCONTROL’s Director Network Management, emphasises: “We work closely with our partners across Europe to accommodate traffic demand and make sure that traffic flows as safely and efficiently as possible, with routes designed to keep noise and emissions to a minimum”.

Overall, last year the European aviation network recorded over 11.0 million flights, carrying more than 1 billion passengers. The daily average was 30,168 flights per day, rising over the busy summer vacation period, when more than 1 million flights a month cross the network.

Historical data suggest that the next occasion this summer when the number of movements could surpass the new record will be Friday 6 September - the network's highest traffic days tend to be around the last weekend of June, reflecting the end of many school terms around Europe, and the end of August/start of September, as families return from leave.

News

BADA, ATM’s most comprehensive aircraft performance model, just got even better

At EUROCONTROL, we just improved the Base of Aircraft Data (BADA) - our aircraft performance database, which serves both research and operations.

Developed and maintained by EUROCONTROL, with active cooperation from aircraft manufacturers and operating airlines, our updated BADA Family 3 allows users realistically to reproduce in-flight aircraft behaviour for virtually all aircraft types operated in the ECAC area. And if users need highly precise data for modelling and simulating advanced systems and future concepts, BADA Family 4 currently covers 80% of air traffic. And we’ve now added a brand-new BADA category, Family H, dedicated to helicopters.

BADA is the most comprehensive aircraft performance model in the ATM world, used by more than 1,000 users from the aviation industry worldwide.

“We are proud to announce the largest ever update to the BADA Family 3. BADA is the international reference for aircraft performance modelling, and we do everything to provide the highest possible value to our international user community by not only constantly updating it with new models but also responding to changing user needs and requirements.”

Angela Nuić Simulation & Validation Infrastructure team EUROCONTROL

BADA Family 3 now contains 250 original aircraft models, while 1,159 additional aircraft types are covered by so-called synonyms.

The new BADA Family H is dedicated to rotoraircraft. Since the flight dynamics of helicopters are fundamentally different from those of airplanes, we have over several years of research and development developed a specific theoretical model accompanied by a dataset containing parameters for 20 helicopter models.

"The initial release of BADA Family H is just a start: we are looking forward to the feedback from the user community to further validate and improve this model.”

Vincent Mouillet BADA technical lead EUROCONTROL

BADA is also an important enabler of smooth operations of the EUROCONTROL Network Manager’s systems.

“The updated version of BADA will help us improve the accuracy of 4D flight profiles, which are the basis of all NM activities needed to perform ATFCM. Among all the parameters that are taken into consideration to compute a flight profile, precise information on aircraft performance is crucial. This is necessary to create an accurate picture of all traffic, based on around 32,000 flight plans a day.

The EUROCONTROL NM is certainly one of the most demanding customers of BADA because of its specific operations business. For the last 20 years, we have been relying on the BADA team’s expertise and proactivity to provide us with advanced up-to-date data to the benefit of all our partners.”

Thibaud Hadey EUROCONTROL’s Directorate Network Management

Access to BADA is facilitated through a web licencing platform enabling efficient processing of licence requests.

Find out more about BADA

News

EUROCONTROL Network Manager stops providing the repetitive flight plan service

Airplanes docks at airports gates

As of 29 March, the EUROCONTROL Network Manager (NM) repetitive flight plan (RPL) service is no longer being provided in the Flight Information Regions (FIRs) of the EUROCONTROL NM area of operations.

In November 2018, the Network Directors of Operations meeting endorsed the decision to stop providing the RPL service; this decision was subsequently confirmed by the Network Management Board. As of 27 March 2020, the service is now no longer being provided in the FIRs of the EUROCONTROL Network Manager area of operations.

The phase-out of the NM RPL service is in-line with the mission of ICAO’s Global Navigation Plan for CNS / ATM Systems (Doc. 9750) which is to cope with the worldwide growth in air traffic demands in the coming years. It will also allow pertinent information to be captured timely and accurately to facilitate prompt provision of air traffic services to enhance safety and efficiency.

With the termination of the NM RPL service, Airlines that previously used the service are required to file individual flight plans for each of their flights to the EUROCONTROL NM Integrated initial flight plan processing system (IFPS). This is to ensure that essential information such as aircraft registration, 24-bit aircraft address, capability / status of on-board communication, navigation and surveillance equipment, etc. is provided to the IFPS for distribution to ATS Units.

News

Transferring business-critical ATM data reliably, securely and safely: NewPENS migration project picking up pace

NewPENS, the new pan-European network service, will form the backbone for reliable and secure cross-border data and voice communications between air traffic management (ATM) stakeholders.

Once the transition project from PENS, the former solution put in place in 2012, to NewPENS is complete, around 100 locations across 47 countries, and 41 air navigation service providers (ANSPs) in the EUROCONTROL area and neighbouring countries, will be connected. That is scheduled for the end of the year – and good progress is being made, with Naviair and Austro Control becoming the first ANSPs to migrate to NewPENS in mid-June 2019, closely followed by PANSA and skyguide, Avinor, EANS and Slovenia Control. And on 1 July, a new first for NewPENS was recorded, as skeyes became the first ANSP to share successfully ATM data with the EUROCONTROL Network Manager (NM).

NewPENS offers users an ultra-resilient network managed by BT Global Services. It builds on the success of PENS, which since 2012 has allowed EUROCONTROL and its stakeholders to exchange a wide variety of ATM information via a private IP network. 

The new PENS network provides a wide variety of stakeholders – from ANSPs to ATM providers, airlines, airports, the military and meteorological services – with increased capacity, allowing them to transfer business-critical ATM data reliably, securely and safely in a cost-efficient way. Its architecture is also designed to support future ATM applications developed through SESAR, such as SWIM.

The transition from PENS to NewPENS is a major migration project that has required intensive coordination between the different stakeholders including EASA, the European Aviation Safety Agency. The project covers the design of new activities, the deployment of new infrastructure, the migration of services from the previous PENS provider to BT, and the decommissioning of the old PENS infrastructure.

News

A big welcome to Iacopo Prissinotti, our new Network Management Director

Iacopo Prissinotti

A new era for the EUROCONTROL Network Manager starts today, as Iacopo Prissinotti takes over from Joe Sultana as Director Network Management.

EUROCONTROL is delighted to announce the appointment of Iacopo Prissinotti as our new Director Network Management, taking over from Joe Sultana.

Iacopo brings a wealth of experience to the role. He comes to EUROCONTROL from ENAV, the Italian air navigation service provider (ANSP), where he has amassed considerable experience over the years, starting as an air traffic controller, and rising to the position of Head of International Strategies.

He is highly experienced at working on large and complex system changes (Co-flight, 4-Flight), advanced technology (Aireon), European ANSP coordination (A6) and technology programme roll-outs in Italy, and was a key driver in the formation of the SESAR Deployment Manager. He has considerable experience with change management, and was directly involved in the IPO of ENAV as well as its Centre Consolidation Programme.

His appointment follows the European Commission’s decision to reappoint EUROCONTROL as the Network Manager (NM) for the next decade with a strengthened mandate, and Iacopo will play a key role in driving the evolution of the EUROCONTROL NM to meet its new tasks.

News

Mission trajectory validation promises optimised civil-military coordination in busy airspace

More flexible civil-military cooperation is increasingly key to maximising the use of airspace and helping meet the capacity demands of the future. The recent successful Mission Trajectory-driven Processes validation exercise carried out by EUROCONTROL, Airbus Defence & Space and Air Navigation Services of the Czech Republic has taken an important step towards deploying a key SESAR deliverable that aims at sharing data between civil and military systems, integrating military traffic intentions into the European ATM network overseen by the EUROCONTROL Network Manager (NM), and improving en-route capacity and network predictability as a result.

Teams from the EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre in Brétigny, France; Airbus Defence & Space in Immenstaad, Germany, and Air Navigation Services of the Czech Republic in Prague, successfully proved the feasibility of improved Operational Air Traffic Flight Plans (iOAT FPL) that are fully compliant with the complete set of civil aviation rules and restrictions, without however compromising military mission needs (where this was not possible, the use of existing exemption mechanisms was successfully validated in order to protect mission needs).

Running from 20 to 22 May, the teams at the three different sites called upon the EUROCONTROL Network Manager (NM)’s adapted IFPS and ETFMS client (EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre); an ATC and Flow Management/Tactical Capacity Management position (Czech ANS control centre); and a Wing Operations Centre (WOC) (Airbus Defence & Space).

The exercise demonstrated that a military WOC can produce complex military flight plans that respect EUROCONTROL NM restrictions, that the exemption policy works well, and that the concept is viable for further validations in the V3 phase (Pre-Industrial Development & Integration). In the exercise, iOAT FPLs were correctly distributed via NM’s B2B services to the corresponding ATC flight data systems. Furthermore, NM Enhanced Tactical Flow Management System (ETFMS) information extended with military flight plan information were successfully shared with local flow management position systems.

Integrating iOAT Flight Plans into the ATM network is expected to advance civil-military coordination, facilitate cross-border operations and contribute to a more complete picture of the pan-European civil and military air traffic situation. The Mission Trajectory Driven Processes package is part of SESAR Solution PJ07.03, the Optimised Airspace User Operations project (OAUO), with tasks contributed by PJ18.01a. The V3 validation phase will, once successfully completed, be followed by the V4 phase (Industrialisation).

News

Early conflict resolution method could reduce controller workload

Real-time simulation by EUROCONTROL and partners demonstrates how controller workload can be reduced by adapting the work method for early conflict resolution. The simulation has also shown how the adapted method can be seamlessly integrated into existing operations, as well as accepted by air traffic controllers (ATCOs).

The adapted working method for ATCOs is based on Medium-Term Conflict Detection (MTCD) and data link communications. It is a part of the SESAR 2020 PJ10 solution entitled “Increased Performance in the Provision of Separation” aiming to improve the air traffic controller’s conflict detection and resolution tools, principally by increasing the accuracy of the 4D Trajectory Prediction (TP).

EUROCONTROL and partners had previously conducted a modelling study to determine whether improved TP would contribute to reducing controller workload.  The study revealed that an important potential benefit of the improved TP is in reducing the number of low-probability conflicts, allowing the controllers to reduce the size of their notional “uncertainty buffers”, and thus reducing the number of potential conflicts to be analysed and monitored.

The study also revealed that enhanced TP could lead to earlier resolution of potential high-probability conflicts. This would be possible by adapting the controller team working method, whereby the planner controller would resolve conflicts, where appropriate, using route clearances sent to the aircraft via Controller-Pilot Datalink (CPDLC), either directly by the planner, or through coordination with the upstream controller. If this resolution action is taken before a possible conflict enters the executive controller’s “tactical horizon”, it will relieve the executive controller of the workload associated with analysing the conflict.

The route clearance takes the form of “CLEARED TO <abc> VIA <xyz>”, where <xyz> is a geographical point that is inserted in the aircraft’s route, and <abc> is a point where the aircraft will rejoin its original route. The benefits of such a clearance over an assigned heading are many:

  • The controller does not have to issue a further instruction for the aircraft to resume own navigation
  • When used for separation, the separation achieved is far less dependent on when the aircraft starts the manoeuvre
  • The ground track of the aircraft is not influenced by changing wind
  • Predictability is improved for both the controllers and aircrew.

EUROCONTROL performed the real-time simulation to validate the study findings in partnership with the Air Navigation Services of the Czech Republic (ANS-CR) and Thales. The goal was to address the acceptability of the adapted working method by the controllers, as well as to assess issues such as the teamwork of the planner and executive controllers, their shared situational awareness, and additional system requirements to assist the controller in deciding the resolution clearances.

The simulation took place in Prague over four days, followed by an open day for visitors. Ten controllers from ANS-CR took part, working as executive and planner controllers in two sectors and a feed sector. This allowed the team to explore planner and executive controller teamwork within a sector as well as inter-sectoral aspects.

As a next step, EUROCONTROL plans to increase awareness of this solution among airspace users and develop cockpit guidelines with aid for pilots, so that implementation of the “CLEARED TO... VIA…” clearance by Air Traffic Control can take advantage of the increasing number of datalink-equipped aircraft.

ANS Czech Republic Video Poster
Learn more

Zapojení řídících do PJ.10-2a

Watch this video made by the Czech Republic's ANSP on PJ10-2a to learn more.

News

50 years of training to support aviation at our Institute of Air Navigation Services in Luxembourg

Activities
Eamonn Brennan, Director General of EUROCONTROL, Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxembourg

Eamonn Brennan, Director General of EUROCONTROL and Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxembourg celebrated the 50th anniversary of IANS.

26 June 2019 saw Eamonn Brennan, Director General EUROCONTROL, and Alex Wandels, Head of IANS, welcome to the IANS site the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel; Marc Reiter, Government Attaché, Ministry of Mobility and Public Works of Luxembourg; and Levan Karanadze, Director of the Civil Aviation Agency of Georgia, and other high-level guests, as part of the celebrations to mark a notable milestone - 50 years of training to support aviation.

These huge numbers pay tribute to the ongoing excellence of EUROCONTROL’s Institute of Air Navigation Services (IANS), which celebrated today a half-century of providing cutting-edge air traffic management training.

700,000

students trained

103,000

ATCO candidate assessed via FEAST

20,000

pilots and ATCOs tested via ELPAC

Looking back, Eamonn Brennan paid tribute to almost 60 years of close links between Luxembourg and EUROCONTROL – from December 1960 when Luxembourg became one of EUROCONTROL’s 5 founding members, to December 1967 when the EUROCONTROL Permanent Commission took the crucial step to establish IANS to offer advanced and specialised air traffic services training, standardised staff training, and the training of ab initios.

Since 1969, the Institute has been delivering training excellence, continuing to evolve its portfolio over those 50 years to continue to offer a comprehensive range of high-quality training courses, tools and services in air traffic management. While ab initio training came to a close in 2012 with over 1,000 ATCOs successfully trained, IANS has continued to innovate and evolve. Today’s Institute boasts a superb portfolio of 125 classroom courses and 50 e-learning courses – the latter having seen 576,000 students complete training since their introduction in 2003, bringing the total number of students trained to over 700,000.

This year, over 90,000 aviation professionals are expected to be trained, a number that continues to rise every year, drawn from our 41 Member States, 2 Comprehensive Agreement States and beyond. Today IANS supports over 240 organisations drawn from the airline industry, air navigation service providers (ANSPs), governmental agencies, industry, the military, international and intergovernmental organisations, and many more.

Two standout products developed by IANS and delivered globally are FEAST and ELPAC. FEAST, the First European Air Traffic Controller Selection Tool, has since 2004 seen over 100,000 candidate controllers tested via a high quality, thorough selection test that guarantees a high success rate in controller training. Used by 50 ANSPs in 40 countries, FEAST is a global success story – as is ELPAC, the English Language Proficiency for Aeronautical Communication, which debuted in 2007. ELPAC is heading for its own new milestone, shortly, the 20,000th test administered. Around 60 organisations use ELPAC, which helps aviation actors (ANSPs, aircraft operators, CAAs, training orgs) meet the ICAO language proficiency requirements.

About our training courses

News

New metrics for terminal operations: Latest research presented at two international conferences

As part of its R&D activity, EUROCONTROL is developing a new set of metrics for arrival operations in terminal areas.

In four new research papers, we assess vertical efficiency, sequencing and separation, with the aim of recommending new metrics to help ANSPs analyse current arrival operations in TMA and prepare for the deployment of new route structures and operating methods.

The latest developments have been presented at the FAA-EUROCONTROL ATM R&D Seminar in Vienna and at the AIAA Aviation Forum in Dallas, with four papers in total.

The objective is to portray current operations, identify best practices, potential inefficiencies and improvement areas, and assess the impact of potential changes on future operations.

For vertical efficiency, to assess the potential for improvement, the papers consider the vertical deviations to best descent profiles of each airport, in relation with the additional time (level of congestion). For the top four European airports in a 50NM radius area and for more than 200,000 flights, the key results are:

  • profiles are generally 2,300ft below the best corresponding profile (median vertical deviation);
  • some profiles may be 4,300ft below the best corresponding profile for a same additional time (95th percentile).

One of the papers presented in Vienna reveals a significant variability of vertical efficiency among airports. For instance, below FL70 and at high congestion levels, London-Heathrow shows constant performances while Amsterdam Schiphol shows significant variability.

A paper presented in Dallas includes a detailed analysis per runway and per flows, allowing the identification of potential issues and improvement areas.

For sequencing, to characterise the convergence of arrival flights, we consider the spacing deviation (inter aircraft spacing compared to required spacing) and the sequence pressure (density of aircraft in the sequence compared to a runway slot) at different time horizons. For four busy European airports that are representative of different sequencing techniques, focusing on peak periods, up to 15 minutes to final approach, for 14,000 aircraft pairs, the key results are:

  • spacing deviation is ±3 minutes at 10 minutes to final approach (90% containment);
  • sequence pressure varies from 1 to 3 aircraft at 10 minutes to final (90 seconds slot, 95th percentile).

There are significant differences among airports (e.g. high pressure close to final for Dublin Airport vs low pressure for Paris-Charles de Gaulle), reflecting the impact of the traffic presentation and traffic mix, sequence ordering and sequencing technique. To learn more download the paper “Spacing and Pressure to Characterise Arrival Sequencing”.

For separation, to characterise the aircraft proximity and dynamicity (time pressure), we consider the exposure to small 3D distance and low closure time (respectively below 2x separation and 2 minutes) in relation to the additional time (level of congestion) and at different time horizons. For five busy European airports, in a 50NM radius area, with 300 000 flights, the key results are:

  • exposure of 4.0 minutes for small distance (95th percentile);
  • exposure of 3.8 minutes for low closure time (95th percentile).

There are differences among airports (e.g. higher distance exposure for London-Heathrow vs higher closure time exposure for Frankfurt Airport) reflecting the nature of operations (single vs parallel landing runways, holding vs tromboning).

For more information, download the paper entitled “Proximity Versus Dynamicity - An Analysis of Traffic Patterns at Major European Airports”.

This R&D activity started back in mid-2016, building upon and extending existing metrics and challenging the new metrics on varied environments and large sets of data. We also started developing a computing capability at the EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre using our 150 real-time simulation workstations and disseminating results, resulting in eight papers published at international conferences.

The next step for EUROCONTROL is to support a service provider in analysing current operations or in preparing for the deployment of a new route structure or a new operating method, while reinforcing research activities towards new applications and using advanced data science.