GALAAD, short for “Green Aviation – Lean Arrivals And Dynamicity”, is a new three-year project which aims to develop and validate a concept for dynamically allocating required navigation performance (RNP) routes in the terminal area. This approach aims to enhance flexibility and the sustainability of arrival operations. GALAAD is a collaborative effort involving a consortium of nine companies from five different countries, all highly specialised in aviation.

Lean Arrivals And Dynamicity. The GALAAD project introduces an innovative solution for dynamically allocating RNP routes within the terminal area. This initiative aims to improve the sustainability, resilience, responsiveness, and adaptability of air traffic control (ATC) operations in response to changing operational conditions such as traffic density, airspace availability, environmental constraints, and weather conditions. The primary objective is to move from fixed RNP arrival route structures towards a flexible approach capable of swiftly adapting to shifting operational conditions within the terminal area. To achieve this, GALAAD will explore the evolution of decision-support tools, to support the dynamic utilisation of RNP routes, thus enhancing traffic management during climb and descent phases.

To assess the project’s success and expected benefits, GALAAD will investigate improvements in human performance, flight efficiency and environmental sustainability resulting from changes to airspace structure and operations, while maintaining or enhancing safety. The project will explore dynamic airspace structure changes using structural route patterns already widely deployed in Europe such as, ‘trombone’ and point merge system (PMS) route structures. This approach also considers the potential benefits for other stakeholders, accommodating current and new propulsion aircraft types like hydrogen- or electric-powered aircraft.

“ENAV is honoured to lead this challenging project,” says Fabio Mangiaracina, project coordinator of GALAAD. Improving operations by applying the innovative concept of dynamic RNP route allocation in the terminal area represents a priority for ENAV. Our goal is to advance today’s management and systems towards greener, more flexible and efficient operations by enabling agile responses to operational variations like traffic density, airspace availability, and environmental constraints.

Toward sustainable aviation. Aligned with the European Green Deal, GALAAD aims to contribute to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. To accomplish this, GALAAD facilitates aircraft in flying closer to their most fuel-efficient 4D path, thereby optimising environmentally friendly flight routes while maintaining or even improving capacity, safety, and cost-effectiveness.

In this way, GALAAD will generate significant operational enhancements within the terminal airspace.

The consortium. The group working on the project will be guided by ENAV – Italian Air Navigation Service Provider and includes the following partners:

• Honeywell international Sro;
• Honey Aerospace;
• Frequentis Orthogon GmbH
• Eurocontrol
• Nextant application & innovative solution Srl;
• Leonardo Spa;
• Deep Blue Srl;
• Airbus;
• Airbus operation Sas.

For more information, join GALAAD on LinkedIn.