Abstract
The European air traffic management (ATM) systems handles approximately 26,000 flights daily. Forecasts indicate that the European air traffic levels going to be double by 2020. In addition, European ATM costs an additional 2-3 billion every year, compared to other similar systems in the world.1 Taking into account this scenario, European ATM systems have to look for solutions for accommodates the increasing air traffic flows in the future airspaces, whilst cutting costs and improving its performance. One of these solutions came with the initiative of organizing airspace into functional blocks, according to traffic flows rather than to national borders. Such a project was not possible without common rules and procedures at European level.1 The establishment of Functional Airspace blocks (FAB) shall enable optimum use of airspace taking into account air traffic flows. In the same way, FABs initiatives contain a new philosophy for design the airspace, the new airspace structures include application of Flexible Use of Airspace (FUA) concept, Free Route Airspace (FRA) blocks, night direct routes implementation, etc. Additionally, FAB blocks look for cooperation or fusion between Air Navigation Services providers (ANPs), all this with the goal of reduce air navigation services costs for users. Particularly, Free Route Airspace concept offers enormous benefits to airspace users, because permits to select the user-preferred trajectories with the optimal flight profile, enabling flights to operate outside a pre-defined route structure, resulting in shortest routes and big distances saving for airlines. Furthermore, free route blocks will significantly impact in ATC systems, changing the way for establish aircraft separation in these new airspace structures. For all these reasons, this thesis will study the functionality of the future Southwest Functional Airspace Block (SW FAB), specially the implementation of the Free Route Airspace concept, focused in the long term phase (2020) that includes Santiago-Asturias, Lisbon, Santa Maria Oceanic and Canarias airspaces in one free route airspace block.2 Objectives 1.-Evaluate the Free Route Airspace block in the future Southwest Functional Airspace Block in terms of flight efficiency (fuel,CO2,NM), ATC workload****. 2.-Study the interaction between Free Route Airspace and conventional airspace divided in sectors (flying with RNAV). 3.-Explore the future systems and procedures for traffic separation in Free route airspace. Methodology As was explained before, this thesis pretend to make an analysis of the free route airspace in the future SW FAB, for achieves this goal it will be necessary, firstly to explain the main concepts and background of: Flexible Use of Airspace (FUA), Functional Airspace Block (FAB) and Free Route Airspace (FRA), and others concepts. In the same way, it will be necessary to review the phases of the future SW (Spain-Portugal) FAB main plan; all concepts will help to settle the base for the future analysis in the thesis. Secondly, this thesis will propose and simulate the future Free route airspace in the SW FAB. The simulation pretends to evaluate the advantages and possible problems of this new way of flight. Thirdly, this project will include some interviews from ATC professionals; these interviews pretend to see how will impact the FRA (Free route airspace) in the future, additionally those interviews can provide different points of view and needs in the ATM (Air traffic management) system. Finally this master thesis will include an exhaustive analysis of results (concepts, simulation, interviews, etc.) and a presentation of conclusionAbstract
The European air traffic management (ATM) systems handles approximately 26,000 flights daily. Forecasts indicate that the European air traffic levels going to be double by 2020. In addition, European ATM costs an additional 2-3 billion every year, compared to other similar systems [...]Abstract
The current airspace configuration is fragmented, defined by national airspaces according political borders that affects directly to the environment, aircraft and air navigation service costs. The future airspace of Europe is addressing new challenges to support the increase of the air traffic in a new airspace configuration. The free route airspace (FRA) is a new concept to restructure the sectors and airways that gives more flexibility to airspace users to create better and more efficient routes. In Free Route areas users may plan a route between a defined entry point and a defined exit point without reference to ATS network, always subject to air traffic control. This project aims to study the benefits of free route areas in two scenarios. One existing and a created one. The first scenario studies the advantages in the North European Free Route area which were implemented since 2015. The second scenario studies the impact of a free route airspace in a large scale. This project uses the NEST tool, from Eurocontrol, to simulate the traffic with and without FRA. Also, will be addressed future prognosis to support the long-term evaluation of the FRA concept. The structure of this project starts with a brief theory review of the Free Route Airspace concept and the first scenario evaluated. Then this project includes all the design steps and evaluation process in order to obtain the metrics evaluated. Finally, results of NEFRA and EUROFRA are presented. In general, the results of this project show that airspace users are greatly benefited from the implementation of Free Route Areas. Airlines can save money and fuel travelling shorter distance while safety is maintained. Also, environment is benefited in terms of greenhouse emissions. With the implementation of EUROFRA, approximately 5 thousand tons of CO2 can be saved per day. La configuració actual del espai aeri està fragmentada, definida pels espais aeris nacionals segons les fronteres polítiques que afecten directament el medi ambient, els avions i els costos de la navegació aèria. L’espai aeri del futur a Europa ha de fer front als nous reptes per donar suport a l’augment del trànsit aeri en una nova configuració d’espai aeri. L’espai aeri Free Route (FRA) és un nou concepte per reestructurar els sectors i les aerovies que dóna més flexibilitat als usuaris de l’espai aeri per crear rutes millors i més eficients. A l’espai aeri Free Route, els usuaris poden planificar una ruta entre un punt d’entrada definit i un punt de sortida definit sense utilitzar la xarxa ATS, sempre subjecte al control de trànsit aeri. Aquest projecte té com a objectiu estudiar els beneficis de les àrees Free Route en dos escenaris. Un existent i un creat. El primer escenari estudia els avantatges de les àrees Free Rote del nord d'Europa que porten actius desde 2015. El segon escenari estudia l'impacte d'un espai aeri Free Route a gran escala. Aquest projecte utilitza l’eina NEST, d’Eurocontrol, per simular el trànsit amb i sense FRA. A més, es tractarà el pronòstic futur per donar suport a l’avaluació a llarg termini del concepte de FRA. L’estructura d’aquest projecte s’inicia amb una breu revisió teòrica del concepte d’espai aeri Free Route i del primer escenari avaluat. A continuació, aquest projecte inclou tots els passos de disseny i el procés d’avaluació per obtenir els paràmetres avaluats. Finalment, es presenten els resultats de NEFRA i EUROFRA. En general, els resultats d'aquest projecte mostren que els usuaris de l’espai aeri es beneficien enormement de la implementació d’àrees Free Route. Les companyies aèries poden estalviar diners i combustible viatjant menys distància mentre es manté la seguretat. A més, el medi ambient es beneficia en termes reducció d'emissions d’efecte hivernacle. Amb la implantació de l’EUROFRA, es poden estalviar aproximadament 5 mil tones de CO2 al dia.Abstract
The current airspace configuration is fragmented, defined by national airspaces according political borders that affects directly to the environment, aircraft and air navigation service costs. The future airspace of Europe is addressing new challenges to support the increase of the [...]