Introducing Free airspace, a way to solve Europe’s airspace capacity issues.

Abstract

In the past decades aviation within Europe has continued to grow in volume. With the increase in volume, traffic delays have increased as a result of bottlenecks that originate from traffic flow design decisions made when European air traffic volumes were a lot smaller and delays were not of a major concern. In order to ease the strain on the situation a European wide solution has been developed known as the single European sky agreement. The idea of this agreement is to reduce airspace congestion and increase efficiency whilst utilizing the available capacity to its fullest. This led to the formulation of the following question: What potential solution could be formulated in order to accommodate the increases in traffic volume, lack of efficient use whilst taking into consideration the considerable number of hurdles that prevent such optimization. Further attention will be given in this article to the following topics which have a major influence on the efficiency and use of airspace in Europe. Functional airspace blocks (FAB’s) will be investigated in order to define what they are and how their use limits capacity in European airspace. The appropriateness of the use of “entry points’ to airspace sectors and consideration of alternative structures (systems). The benefits and disadvantages of routes (flying from waypoint to waypoint) versus flying direct routings (shortest great circle distance). Analysing the usage of standard instrument departures and standard terminal arrivals and what role they play in flight operation, and their influence on efficiency. The effects of topography, geopolitical and environmental variables on the factors described above. By answering these questions, the aim is to create a solution for European airspace capacity issues. As well as stimulating the debate on how the current issues can best be tackled and above all find a solution which decreases the number of delays, increases efficiency and by doing these things also reduces excess fuel burn and the unnecessary emission of carbon dioxide and other pollutants.