Air Navigation Service Research Articles

South East Common Sky Initiative Free Route Airspace - implementation aftermath

In a short period since South-East Axis Free Route Airspace (SEAFRA) and Slovenian Austrian Cross-Border Free Route Airspace (SAXFRA) were established, during 2018 these two Free Route Airspace (FRA) areas operationally merged into South East Common Sky Initiative Free Route Airspace (SECSI FRA). Nowadays, SECSI FRA represents a joint venture with the aim of sustainable future development of European Air Traffic Management (ATM). It’s a good example of regional cooperation since it includes stakeholders from six adjacent states and four Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs). Also, successful deployment of SECSI FRA have led to the creation of one of the largest areas with applicable FRA concept. Therefore, that represent a major step towards achieving a 2022 plan - implementation of FRA concept across whole Europe. This research aims to assess deployment effects of SEAFRA, SAXFRA and SECSI FRA and based on quantitative research it provides information on hypothetical question how did implementation of South East Common Sky Initiative Free Route Airspace (SECSI FRA), and its earlier versions - SEAFRA and SAXFRA, reflected on the performances at South East Axis in terms of airspace complexity. In addition, this research is based on the computation of real data obtained from Performance Review Unit (PRU) and it covers period from 2014 till end of 2018. Lastly, deployment impacts have been analysed and compared in relation to other European ATM network’s performances and presented throughout this research paper.

Reflection of commercialization in organizational and ownership structure of Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH (DFS)

This paper considers the on-going commercialization trend within air navigation service providers (ANSPs) with specific focus on German national provider Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH (DFS). The first part of the paper contains an overview of scientific research regarding air navigation service providers commercialization. The second part of the paper analyses the portfolio of DFS services with a focus on both regulated and commercial segments. The paper also examines the organizational and ownership structure of whole the DFS group in terms of their joint-ventures and subsidiaries. The paper also studies revenues structure of whole DFS group with focus on revenues from commercial activities. Conclusion of the paper shows that DFS is strongly oriented towards commercial activities with annually increasing revenues from commercial businesses. Means of conducting such activities are similar to the other commercially focused ANSPs (e.g. NATS, ENAIRE, LFV) with wide structure of subsidiaries and joint-ventures under the DFS Group parent company dedicated to providing various commercial services and products.

System approach to organization of aeronautical air traffic service

The article substantiates the need for technological, organizational and economic modernization of the domestic system for the provision of air navigation services. The characteristic of the organization of air navigation services for air traffic as a high-tech system that is ergatic in nature is given. It is shown that ergatic functions serve as the basis for the professional activity of an aviation dispatcher, providing a reduction in the uncertainty in the relationships between the intra-system elements and external conditions in order to minimize risks during flights. The importance of creating an adequate job post for the dispatcher based on the SHEL model is disclosed. The measures of maximizing the approximation of operational training of duty dispatcher shifts to the conditions of actual flight operations are substantiated. It is proved that for a systematic solution to the problems of organizing state air navigation services, it is necessary to supplement their heterogeneous regulatory acts with the development of a full-fledged Federal Law «On Air Navigation Services in the Russian Federation».

Does ANSP size and scope matter in the European ANS market? A multi-product stochastic frontier approach

This paper assesses the existence of economies of scale and cost complementarities in the European air navigation services (ANS) industry to provide policymakers and air navigation service providers (ANSPs) insight into the economic viability of possible industry-led consolidation and unbundling opportunities. While previous studies using parametric methods made abstraction of the multi-product nature of the ANS industry, this paper tries to fill that gap by estimating a stochastic multi-product translog cost frontier. The existence of economies of density and scale is evaluated from the estimated cost frontier at the sample means as well as for individual ANSPs in the panel. The results suggest that during the period from 2006 to 2016 the European ANS industry faced economies of density and produced at constant economies of scale in the sample means. However, cost complementarities do not seem to be present.

Prediction of Domestic Passengers at Kualanamu International Airport Using Long Short Term Memory Network

Domestic passenger forecasting provides key input into decisions of daily operation management and infrastructure planning of airports and air navigation services and for aircraft ordering and design. Planning for the future is one of the most important keys to success, forecasting is the way. The goal of this study to predict the number of domestic passengers at Kualanamu International Airport. The time-series data were employed from Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS). The result is then discussed in the context of the potential use of the proposed for a new perspective for the predicting of domestic passengers at Kualanamu International Airport, Indonesia. The machine learning approach using long short term memory (LSTM) presents a useful way of observing the domestic passenger predict the passenger time series.

ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL ASPECTS OF AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT IN POLISH AIRSPACE

The article discusses selected provisions of EU aviation law concerning economic issues of air traffic management. This process in European airspace is carried out by air navigation service providers, which, unlike airport operators and air carriers, have a monopolistic position and do not operate under market conditions. Consequently, the lack of competition between air navigation service providers replaces the common charging system for airspace users established by European Union law. In order to increase the cost-effectiveness of the services provided while maintaining a high level of safety of air operations, the navigation charges system was linked to the parallel implementation of the Single European Sky performance scheme for air navigation services in 2010. In 2019, the rules governing both systems were consolidated into a single legal act. The study also looks at the basic indicators of economic efficiency of air traffic management based on the example of the Polish Air Navigation Agency.

Aircraft trajectory optimization with dynamic input variables

The increasing demand for efficient and environmentally sustainable flight profiles requires innovative operational concepts. Short-term trajectory adaptations, considering dynamic input variables constitute a reliable solution. According to current air traffic regulations, flight trajectories are planned ground based and submitted to Air Navigation Service Providers for an overall validation according to airspace and sector capacity constraints. This initial flight plan often relies on static atmospheric forecasts for the entire flight. Sudden changes of atmospheric parameters such as wind speed and wind direction cannot be predicted precisely and are not considered in today’s flight operations, except of severe weather phenomena. This paper investigates the benefit of en-route weather updates and subsequent short-term trajectory optimization. The resultant benefit of dynamic optimization during flight is assessed for varying shares of flights equipped with this novel capability within 1 hour of Europe’s air traffic. Therefore, fuel, engine emissions and controller task load are used as assessment indicators. 75% of the frequently optimized trajectories gained in overall fuel savings with an increased task load of 5.4%.

Business models for flight-centric air traffic control

This article explores the impact that flight-centric air traffic control (ATC), a concept under development, has on ATC market structure and ATC business models. Flight-centric operations bring forth changes in how the stakeholders adapt their roles to the emerging ATC market. We compared current ATC and market structures with the emerging flight-centric concept and analyzed the market changes in structure and competition from the emergence of flight-centric operations using Porter’s five forces model. Four potential business models for flight-centric ATC are identified and described: current air navigation service providers adapt, vertical integration by airlines, new ATC providers, and the network manager as capacity-demand manager. In the final chapter, we briefly describe the future regulation of the market for flight-centric operations. We conclude that new concepts and technologies, such as flight-centric operations, create the necessary dynamics for change in the current market structure by unbundling of the market.

АНГЛІЙСЬКА МОВА, ЯК ОДНА ІЗ ОФІЦІЙНИХ МОВ МІЖНАРОДНОЇ ОРГАНІЗАЦІЇ ЦИВІЛЬНОЇ АВІАЦІЙ

The article aims to address the problem of becoming English as one of the official languages ​​of the International Civil Aviation Organization. To study the main tasks and trends of the presenters of modern aviation English recommendations and programs. To study the main objectives and criteria related to aviation English language training identified by ICAO. The process of training future aviation professionals is guided by regulations Ukraine on air navigation services in accordance with the standards and recommended practices of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO); ICAO regulatory documents, regulatory documents of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA); Code of Regulatory Requirements of the Joint Aviation Authority of Europe (JAA); the contents of the Chicago Convention on international civil aviation. All this necessitates future aviation specialists English language training as the essential part of flight personnel educational process. It was analyzed the documents that determine the necessity of English language studying for different categories of future aviation professionals. ICAO has identified specific features, content and methods of teaching English to students of two categories of future professions. Attention is given to the content of English language materials relevant to the professional language orientation. The work deals with the fact that the preparation of an interpreter capable to work in the field of civil aviation, carried out in aviation educational institutions, using training programs for each specialty. The author describes the teaching methods of students studying at aviation universities, who are taught in English according to ICAO standard regulations.

Editorial for: Remote Sensing Methods and Applications for Traffic Meteorology

Recently, remote sensing for traffic and especially aviation meteorology has become a focus of attention by the aviation industry and air navigation services [...]

A Data-driven Framework for Long-Range Aircraft Conflict Detection and Resolution

At the present time, there is no mechanism for Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) to probe new flight plans filed by the Airlines Operation Centers (AOCs) against the existing approved flight plans to see if they are likely to cause conflicts or bring sector traffic densities beyond control. In the current Air Traffic Control (ATC) operations, aircraft conflicts and sector traffic densities are resolved tactically, increasing workload and leading to potential safety risks and loss of capacity and efficiency. We propose a novel Data-driven Framework to address a long-range aircraft conflict detection and resolution (CDR) problem. Given a set of predicted trajectories, the framework declares a conflict when a protected zone of an aircraft on its trajectory is infringed upon by another aircraft. The framework resolves the conflict by prescribing an alternative solution that is optimized by perturbing at least one of the trajectories involved in the conflict. To achieve this, the framework learns from descriptive patterns of historical trajectories and pertinent weather observations and builds a Hidden Markov Model (HMM). Using a variant of the Viterbi algorithm, the framework avoids the airspace volume in which the conflict is detected and generates a new optimal trajectory that is conflict free. The key concept upon which the framework is built is the assumption that the airspace is nothing more than a horizontally and vertically concatenated set of spatio-temporal data cubes where each cube is considered as an atomic unit. We evaluate our framework using real trajectory datasets with pertinent weather observations from two continents and demonstrate its effectiveness for strategic CDR.

“Old” but Modern Problems of International Air Law

The article provides a comparative analysis of the provisions of the 1919 Convention onthe Regulation of Aerial Navigation and the 1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation.The analysis identified imperfections of the 1944 Convention still remaining the majorinternational legal act on the regulation of air navigation processes. It is proposed recommendationsto improve key areas of international air law regulation. Special attention ispaid to the activities of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in the developmentof draft international treaties, adoption of standards and recommended practicesaimed at unifying national air laws establishing permits for aircraft to enter other statesand regulate the procedure of designation prohibited and dangerous zones. In consequenceof the comparison difference in the legal status of annexes to both Conventionsmentioned is established. The problems of the international legal classification of aircraft,the legality of the use of weapons against civil aircraft that violate the state border orused for illegal purposes that are incompatible with the provisions of the 1944 Conventionare analyzed in details. The facts of the realization by coastal states of jurisdiction in airnavigation in the flight information areas established on the basis of the relevant regionaltreaties, have been studied as the confirmation of the international legal custom. The articlecontains recommendations for all users of the airspace to creation of a commoninternational legal regime of flights of aircraft, rocket launches, guided missiles, ascentsand descents of space objects. It is substantiated a necessity of determining internationallegal responsibility of states for damage caused as a result of an illegitimate act inrelation to civil aviation, by amending the 1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation.It is described possible international legal procedures for interaction between search andrescue and air navigation services of the states realizing jurisdiction outside sovereign territories, and makes the suggestions to bring them in line with practice of relief operationson the sea. Also the article focuses on analyzing issues of international legalregulation of investigations of accidents and incidents aimed at identifying true causesof the incident and communicating results of investigations to air transport operators andaircraft manufacturers to prevent similar catastrophes in the future.

Analysis of cost-effectiveness in the provision of air navigation services at functional air blocks

The Single European Sky (SES) legislation is intended to have a major impact on the fragmentation in the European Air Traffic Management and Communications, Navigation and Surveillance (ATM/CNS) system. A fundamental aspect of the SES initiative is functional airspace blocks (FABs), which have the goal of reducing the inefficiencies—in terms of safety, capacity, and cost—that result from the fragmentation of European airspace. FABs are seen as an explicit bottom-up first step toward the ultimate integration of European airspace. In this article, we focus on the analysis of the evolution of the cost-effectiveness in the provision of ATM/CNS services at FABs. We proceed in two stages. First, we develop a theoretical framework that allows us to decompose the change in cost-effectiveness of FABs into its basic sources. Second, we use stochastic frontier analysis techniques to estimate the cost equations and decompose the change in the cost-effectiveness of the nine European FABs into several components. Our analysis sheds light on (1) the drivers of changes in the air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and FABs cost-effectiveness from 2006 to 2016, (2) the role that FABs play in enhancing cooperation between ANSPs to obtain operational efficiency gains, and (3) the existence of economies of scale in the European ATM/CNS service provision.

Analysis of cost-effectiveness in the provision of air navigation services at functional air blocks:

The Single European Sky (SES) legislation is intended to have a major impact on the fragmentation in the European Air Traffic Management and Communications, Navigation and Surveillance (ATM/CNS) sy...

Collaborative decision making for air traffic management: A generic mathematical program for the rescheduling problem

We propose a model which can be utilized within a collaborative decision making (CDM) framework for rescheduling of arrivals and departures. The proposed mathematical program is expected to be utilized by major stakeholders, namely airlines and air navigation service providers. After providing the constraints, we list possible performance measures to be used as the objective function by a stakeholder. Performance measures include the ones that represent equity, as well as efficiency. We suggest guidelines to utilize the model for any stakeholder within CDM. Finally, a case study is prepared using publicly available data to demonstrate possible benefits.

Efficiency losses through fragmentation? Scale effects in European ANS provision

Fragmentation has been suspected of contributing to inefficiencies in the European Air Traffic Management (ATM) system. Heterogeneities between providers may contain multiple aspects, such as airspace structure, staff rostering, or systems used for flow management. Applying the scientific approach of data envelopment analysis, this article provides a new outlook on the relationship between airspace fragmentation and efficiency in the admittedly complex and highly dynamic environment of European ATM. We show that there are airspaces that might benefit from economies of scale, but that there is a tipping point where diseconomies of scale occur. Subsequently, the current approach of functional airspace blocks might inhere inefficiencies for some air navigation service providers.

Effects of fragmentation on route charges

The European Air Traffic Management (ATM) system is highly fragmented. It consists of 37 air navigation service providers (ANSPs) whose areas of responsibility are, in most cases, limited to national borders. ATM fragmentation impacts air traffic operations in Europe in several ways. One of them is reflected through the current route charging system, which is designed and adapted to the fragmented ATM system to recover air navigation service provision costs at the level of individual ANSPs. Differences in unit rates have led to the phenomenon of aircraft taking detours around expensive charging zones, resulting in additional fuel consumption and emissions, as well as traffic shifts caused by varying unit rates. In this article, we analyze the differences in the unit rates across Europe and their evolution over the past few years. The main focus of the article is the analysis of the route charge variability on an airport-pair level, measured by an airport-pair variability indicator, which we suggest as a metric. We show the route charge variability for different flight distances, geographic areas, and flight directions, and we also identify airport pairs with the highest route charge variability. Finally, we discuss selected alternatives to the current route charging system, such as the uniform charge method and different approaches to airport-pair charging.

Transparentnost a aplikace IAS 20 v podmínkách evropských poskytovatelů letových provozních služeb

Poskytovatele letových provoznich služeb, ANSP, jsou monopolni a regulovane podniky. Soucasti jejich regulace, vyplývajici z Nařizeni EU 550/2004, je povinnost mit ucetni výkazy dle mezinarodnich ucetnich standardů. Větsina evropských ANSP pobira statni dotace z projektu SESAR. IAS 20 urcuje pravidla pro uctovani statnich dotaci. Předmětem clanku je transparentnost, tedy dodržovani pravidel Nařizeni 550/2004 zveřejňovani informaci dle IAS 20 v letech 2015-2017, kdy ANSP cerpaly významne castky dotaci. Cilem clanku je prozkoumat dodržovani požadavků na transparentnost z hlediska obou norem, zejmena s ohledem na dopady dotaci do cenotvorby ANSP. Dle publikovaných výrocnich zprav z těchto let je prozkoumano 17 ANSP, patřicich do aliance A6. Výsledkem zkoumani je nižsi mira dodržovani těchto pravidel, různorodost ve formě a obsahu ucetnich zavěrek a nizka ucinnost regulace vyplývajici z programu Jednotneho evropskeho nebe.

Traffic management for drones flying in the city

Air Traffic Management (ATM) is designed based on the notion of a pilot navigating an aircraft from within the aircraft. Increasing demand for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) usage and its safe integration into segregated/non-segregated airspace, on the other hand, have raised a question on the adoption of the current ATM for the UAS Traffic Management (UTM). The Procedures for Air Navigation Services-Air Traffic Management (PAN-ATM) and Procedures for Air Navigation Services - aircraft operations (PAN-OPS) rules are both developed for manned flight operations. Therefore, this work (i) defines the UTM system and describes its envisioned functionalities; (ii) performs an exploratory research to identify the distinctions between a manned and an unmanned flight operation and consequently the possible challenges to implement UTM with regard to the ATM; (iii) discusses potential Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) technologies to support the UTM system; and (iv) proposes an architectural framework for UTM based on the findings. It is important to highlight that this work is developed based on the assumption that the UAS will operate in the class G airspace (500 ft and below) in urban areas where the UAS are exposed to various obstacles such as static objects: high-rise buildings, trees, lamp posts, over-ground rail tracks and dynamic objects: cranes.

EU Emissions Trading scheme in aviation: Policy analysis and suggestions

Effectively addressing the impact of aviation on climate change may prove a major challenge for policymakers. Τhe European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is one of the main instruments used to reach the statutory reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. This paper examines policy issues regarding the implementation of the EU ETS in aviation. A two-round Delphi study was undertaken based on a sample of 31 experts from Airlines and the International Air Transport Association; Air Navigation Service Providers; Civil Aviation Authorities; Government Institutions; and informed individuals (consultants and academics). The different allocation methods of allowances; the linking of EU ETS to similar schemes in other counties/continents; and the interconnection of the scheme with related environmental policies in Europe are found to significantly affect the efficiency of the EU ETS. Simpler monitoring, reporting and verification processes; streamlining and increased transparency of the auctions and penalties revenue policy; and achievement of balance in the allowance market are recommended to rectify caveats of the EU ETS from a policy perspective. • The inclusion of aviation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) has not realised its full potential so far. • Issues of concern are the: allowance allocation; implementation process; Monitoring, Reporting and Verification mechanism. • The linking of EU ETS to other emission schemes is feasible if grounded on factors identified in the paper.