Two new SESAR Solutions recently got the green light that will improve collaborative decision making (CDM) between airspace users, local flow managers, and the Network Manager. Delivered by the Optimised Airspace Users Operations (OAUO- PJ.07-W2) project, the solutions will help improve coordination and increase the predictability of air traffic in Europe’s airspace.

Airspace users have varied business priorities, yet airspace management provides limited flexibility for users to incorporate specific aircraft or flight priorities into the requested trajectory. SESAR partners investigated ways to integrate processes within the flight operations centre (FOC), which help to manage and update the shared business trajectory with ATM network processes. This increases the FOC’s role with regard to planning trajectory management, and investigates the impact of such integration on all stakeholders.

With the two solutions, the project focused on three important operational improvements, namely;

• Enabling airspace users to proactively share information about their critical flights with the Network Manager (NM) and local flow managers;
• Enabling local flow managers to share with the NM and airspace users their information on protection hotpots;
• Optimising user-driven prioritisation process (UDPP), reducing the costs of air traffic flow and capacity management (ATFCM) in the context of arrival flow management at congested airports.

Regarding these operational improvements, a consensus was achieved among the flight dispatchers, NM operators, and local flow managers based on the potential benefits and operational procedures the solutions offer.

The SESAR 3 JU confirmed that the solutions have reached V3 maturity, paving the way for progressive implementation that will probably be implemented in future iNM releases.

For more information on the SESAR PJ.07-W2-OAUO

For more information on

Enhanced integration of AU trajectory definition and network management processes (PJ.07-W2-38) 

More information on:

Collaborative framework managing delay constraints on arrivals (PJ.07-W2-39)

The solutions were delivered by PJ07-W2 Optimised Airspace Users Operations (OAUO) project. The project has received funding from the SESAR Joint Undertaking under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 874470.