IFAV3 is a new SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking three years project whose main focus is to increase flexibility of air traffic controllers (ATCO) rostering in the upper airspace, and transfer the know-how about flexible ATCO endorsements from SESAR2020 to remote tower centres (RTCs). The project will be made reality thanks to the joint work of a consortium composed of 13 companies from 7 different countries, highly specialized in the field of aviation. The consortium will be guided by DLR – German Aerospace Center.

Nowadays airspace is organised in sectors and each sector has its own specificities. To be allowed to work on a specific one, the ATCO must hold a license, be trained to deal with the local specificities and obtain a certification with a rating and a unit endorsement. Once these requirements are fulfilled, the ATCO is finally allowed to manage traffic in that specific sector, with the obligation on a regular basis to complete a refresher training and a minimum number of working hours per sector. Consequently, controllers are competent in a limited number of sectors. Due to a long and complex procedure and increasing demand for ATCOs capable of working in several sectors, the industry is facing a staffing challenge

«With IFAV3, we start a new episode of research on new strategies to make the ATCO rostering more flexible, by enabling them to hold and maintain more endorsements on specific sectors / sector groups than today. New tools and processes will not only help to improve cost efficiency of air traffic control, but they will also contribute to a compensation of possible staff shortages» declares Michael Finke, Project Coordinator from DLR - German Aerospace Center «I’m looking forward to learn more and design the next generation air traffic control procedures together».
 

Building on from the previous SESAR research (e.g. PJ.33-01a and PJ.10-73 IFAV), IFAV3 aims to find and validate solutions to:
1. Simplify the procedure for ATCO validation through the investigation of ready-to-use procedures, advanced tools, automation, as well as training, rating maintenance and regulatory changes, while creating a standard and methodological framework that will ensure the increase of safety;
2. Use and further validate solutions from previous projects applying them into RTCs.
 

What are the advantages of IFAV3’s solutions?

• Increasing flexibility in the deployment of air traffic controllers to sectors
• Increasing safety
• Increasing cost efficiency of air traffic control service provision
• Increasing resilience against staff shortages
• Reducing the stress levels during worktime thanks to more flexible schedules, trainings and duties
• Fostering standards to lower the probability of “human error” during operations

Solutions will be tested in several use cases of upper area control such as night shifts, low complexity periods, regular operations with up to 70% capacity and contingency situations. The validation of IFAV3 applied in the remote tower centre will consist of workshops with operational experts, enriched with simulation elements.

The consortium that will deliver IFAV3 is led by DLR – German Aerospace Center and composed by NLR – Netherlands Aerospace Centre, ENAIRE, CRIDA, INECO, Deep Blue, ENAV, INDRA, Luftfartsverket: LFV, NATS, PANSA, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid and Linköpings Universitet.

IFAV3 is a project that has received funding from the SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 101114683 under European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme.

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/ifav3/