Integrated Robot Loading at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
On 25/01/2012, in CDM, by steve
With CDM starting to look increasingly towards the land-side of airports to optimize passenger flow processes in order to have a more predictable aircraft turnaround, it is not surprising that hitherto less visible processes, like baggage handling, are also coming under increasing scrutiny to find opportunities for improvements. Long labor intensive, baggage handling is taking important strides towards higher levels of automation, something that will fit nicely into the information managed environment of the future collaborative decision making environment.
The Integrated Robot Loading concept that was implemented at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol’s South baggage hall to create a smarter baggage system, was implemented by Vanderlande Industries and Grenzebach Automation The “Baggage on Demand concept” or pull-concept using batching and automatic baggage loading robots gives airports the ability to manage the growing amount of baggage in an ergonomic and cost efficient way.
Baggage make-up is the loading of ramp-carts and containers, which are driven to an airplane just before departure. In the Baggage on Demand concept, all baggage from check-in and transferring bags are first buffered in a storage facility, and then sent to a robot on demand. The robot loads the ramp-carts and containers automatically. The LTM (Logistics Transport Manager) manages the baggage flows in the system, and the robot replaces the muscle power of the workforce. This concept has first been deployed as part of the 70MB program at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, is future-proof, and is intended primarily to raise efficiency and reduce heavy manual labor. The Baggage on Demand operation handles the bulk of the daily baggage volume.
Click here to read the full article
Delivering the Real Time Airport
On 03/01/2012, in CDM, by shaun
Connecting terminal and airside operations to enhance true collaborative decision making
Martin Bowman, Transport Sector Director for Amor Group, a specialist provider of Airport Operational Systems, discusses the rationale behind Amor’s bid to take CDM concepts firmly in to the heart of the terminal operation, putting passengers at the centre of all airport processes.
With passenger numbers forecast to grow in excess of 5% in each of the next 3 years according to ACI data, global passenger numbers are set to pass 3.5bn. This load volume will put increasing pressure on capacity and resource constrained airports, in addition to all key stakeholder organisations such as airlines, ANSPs, immigration, security providers, ground handling and retailers.
Despite this forecast of continued growth, airport operators are under increasing pressure to drive greater value from existing assets.
This can only be achieved by focusing on improving the passenger experience via a combination of increased operational efficiency and enhanced strategic planning and capacity management – both within terminal and airside operations.
Why Create the Real Time Airport?
Click here to read the full article
A-CDM eLearning Modules from EUROCONTROL
On 14/11/2011, in CDM, by steve
The free eLearning modules introduce Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) and the challenges involved in introducing A-CDM in practice.
The first module, “Introduction to Airport CDM” is dedicated to anyone who would like to get an overview of what Airport CDM is, and is ideally suited for Managers with limited time. Detailed modules explaining the various elements of Airport CDM dedicated to managers implementing CDM at their airport is available for everyone here, after registration.
Also for the first time this eLearning course addresses all operational staff via specific modules dedicated to each airport partner. These include modules for airport operators, aerodrome controllers, aircraft operators ground staff, pilots and ground handlers. Registration is required but otherwise the modules are available for anyone.
Interviews of operational staff were carried out at their working positions. These interviews refer to the CDM milestone processes at their airport and with examples taken out of daily tasks, demonstrate how CDM changed their working practices and helped them to become more efficient.
The A-CDM eLearning course is aimed to become a useful tool for the challenging task of communicating CDM principles and the training of operational staff, related to their specific role in a CDM environment; helping them to develop a proper understanding so as to make the required cultural changes.
EUROCONTROL cancels CDM group meeting
On 12/10/2011, in CDM, by steve
When the mail arrived announcing that EUROCONTROL was cancelling the upcoming CDM group meeting due to severe cuts in their budget, I was not really surprised. This was almost expected as part of what appears to be the killing off of EUROCONTROL. That the CDM group was one of the more successful activities was of course not enough to save the meeting.
Since the announcement, scores of posts appeared on various LinkedIn groups, most of them critical of the decision and regretting this short-sighted action. At least one commenter “reassured” us that this was the way the future will go, the stakeholders want to scale back EUROCONTROL and the ANSPs will take over the coordination of things.
In all the rightful indignation we should not forget a few additional interesting facts that all have a bearing on what is happening to EUROCONTROL to-day. Since I have been there from pretty early on, sharing the time as an ANSP rep and later as an IATA rep, I do have a peculiar perspective which I would like to share with you. Why are these facts important? Because by recognizing them we can hopefully design more effective remedies. So here goes:
1. EUROCONTROL was not perfect. BUT it had many excellent projects, truly forward looking initiatives most of which were consistently slowed down or killed by the stakeholders. I have been in many high level meetings where things got hammered for no other reason but that one or more big ANSPs were not ready to do “it”. Believe it or not, air/ground digital link work in the early phases would have been killed had we not organized a very strong protest… There are more examples.
2. There has been a wrestling match between EUROCONTROL and the EC for a long time. Things got a bit more balanced when the EC burned their fingers in the initial FAB and SES activity caused by the same reluctant stakeholders who were keeping EUROCONTROL from performing properly.
3. It is an open secret that there are certain ANSPs in Europe who have maintained for a long time that they could do a better job of ATM than EUROCONTROL does, being especially critical of the CFMU. The current financial squeeze is not the first initiative to kill EUROCONTROL (but is probably the most effective yet).
4. Giving EUROCONTROL the role of Network Manager is a smokescreen and an incredible affront to the industry. Since EUROCONTROL does not get any additional powers to make things happen (so it will be nothing like the Command Centre in the US), it will be a toothless tiger… Possibly in a few years time it will be established that EUROCONTROL is not being very effective as the Network Manager, so it can disappear completely. Clever… Click here to read the full article
The true roots of CDM?
On 11/10/2011, in CDM, by steve
We all know that the original concept of Collaborative Decision Making was born in the US… Atlanta and Philadelphia are the two airports where CDM-type cooperation was first tried and the benefits demonstrated.
However, I now suspect that the definition of CDM may in fact have been formulated a good deal earlier. Several centuries earlier…
Read this:
Does this not sound like a pretty good definition of CDM?
Well, it is something else altogether. It is Kina´ole or the Hawaiian ideal of flawlessness.
But based on this definition, we could have pretty good CDM, don´t you think? Who cares the idea is several centuries old!
Airport CDM officially launched in Madrid Barajas Airport
On 24/08/2011, in CDM, by steve
The Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) Project in Madrid-Barajas Airport (AENA) was officially launched on 26 July 2011 with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the main stakeholders, AENA, AENA Aeropuertos Sociedad Anonimo and Iberia. The signing ceremony took place at Madrid-Barajas Airport Headquarters and was hosted by the AENA Aeropuertos Sociedad.
The signing of the MoU confirms the commitment of the partners at Madrid-Barajas Airport and will lead the way for wider implementation at other Spanish Airports. The benefits to the airport partners are significant both at local and network level as proven by other European airports who have fully implemented Airport CDM (Munich, Frankfurt, Brussels and Paris CDG).
Airport CDM aims to enhance the current decision making processes linked to the turnround process of aircraft and increases airport efficiency. It is a powerful enabler to reduce the delays in Europe by integrating airports into the ATM network.
SESAR has acknowledged the importance of A-CDM as an enabler to achieve the challenging SESAR/EC performance objectives.
The EUROCONTROL A-CDM Implementation team is committed to working in close cooperation with Madrid Barajas and other European airports providing support and advice to accelerate A-CDM implementation across Europe.
Pilot CDM Project to Improve Air Traffic Management Between Bangkok and Singapore
On 29/07/2011, in CDM, by steve
CANSO, the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation, has announced the launch of a pilot project which aims to improve the efficiency of air traffic management (ATM) between two major cities in the Asia-
Pacific region.
The project seeks to demonstrate the potential efficiency gains from the implementation of CDM at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok and Changi airport in Singapore, and the integration with en-route CDM for seamless ATM operations.
Click here to read the full article
Are Brussels Airlines and Brussels Airport loosing it?
On 20/04/2011, in CDM, by steve
I have written in the past about the curious happenings that seem to affect Brussels Airlines’ flights from Vienna. You can read about them here and here. Last Friday however I got proof that flights TO Vienna can also be jinxed… Sadly, the event I am about to relate to you also shows that collaborative decision making (CDM) as practiced to-day in Brussels needs to be improved substantially.
SN runs a very convenient service to Vienna, leaving Brussels at 0705 and arriving in the Austrian capital shortly after 0830. With the new train connection at the airport you can reach most meeting locations for a comfortable 1000 start.
I was at Brussels airport early last Friday, 15 April because exceptionally I was planning to entrust my little trolley bag to the care of the “system”. As you will see, this was an exceptionally bad idea. Having checked in at home, baggage drop-off was a breeze and in no time at all I was through security and on my way up to the gate area.
Brussels Airport is one of those places where they use the totally idiotic and counter- productive idea of posting the gate numbers at the last possible moment believing that leaving passengers clueless about the gate would generate more revenue at the shops… In fact they are only “punishing” those who check in at home and who do not have bags to drop off since they will indeed not learn the gate number until the airport decides to disclose this closely guarded secret; all others get the gate number scribbled on their boarding pass by the helpful airlines (who probably hate this selfish attitude of the airports as much as I do).
This morning I was among those happy souls “in the know” and I walked straight to the gate, casting a sad eye at the group of imptient passengers milling around in front of (and NOT inside) the bar waiting for their gate to be posted. At the gate itself a sad sight greeted me. There was no aircraft at the other end of the air-bridge.
Click here to read the full article
Can I do CDM alone?
On 01/04/2011, in CDM, by steve
At a recent informal meeting somebody posed an important, and very relevant, question: Is it possible to do collaborative decision making (CDM) alone? The question may sound like a contradiction in terms at first but it is not. And the answer is both yes and no.
First of all, we must remember the First and Second Rules of CDM: “Never make decisions in isolation” and “Always share your decisions”.
Making a decision alone or in isolation are two very different things of course. Not making decisions in isolation does not imply that you must make the decision while interacting with others in real time. In actual fact at a small airport or for a small aircraft operator the CDM environment may be nothing more complicated than having easy access to standard procedures being applied at his own or at remote locations, preparing a list of acceptable options to be selected from in given situations and so on. Armed with such “support” the person making the decision may be alone but still not working in isolation.
Click here to read the full article
Brussels – CDM airport daylight hours only??
On 13/12/2010, in CDM, by steve
Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) is a vital element of the new air traffic management paradigm (you can read more about CDM in Roger-Wilco’s CDM category). Some airports in Europe are leading CDM implementation, among them Brussels. One would expect that operations at a CDM airport do not have to contend any more with such basic problems as waiting at a gate with no operator for the airbridge… Arrive late in the evening at Brussels and CDM airport or not, you will be treated to this kind of legacy problem.
Last Friday though they have given us a taste of the good old times, before CDM…
SN 2908 from Vienna was not only on time for its 23.10 arrival but it was actually some 15 minutes early. Landing on 25L the plane taxied to a remote position beyond the satellite terminal (see sketch below) where Brussels Airlines parks their aircraft for their week-end rest. Passengers were happy. 15 minutes may not be such a big gain in time but getting home 15 minutes earlier on a Friday night is a nice thing for everyone.
The plane came to a halt, engines fell silent and the doors… remained closed. Five minutes later the captain announced that we were a bit early and the stairs and bus were not yet available. It was then that some passengers started to ask the age old question, the one that started CDM as a concept more than two decades ago: do they not know it when a plane arrives early?????
Click here to read the full article
A-CDM project launched in Vienna – about time too!
On 23/11/2010, in CDM, by steve
If you read my rants and raves (here and here) about how collaborative decision making (CDM) was not really working in Vienna, you will be surprised to hear that there is in fact a CDM team there, imaginatively called CDM@VIE and they had a kick-off event with 60 or so participants on 6 September this year. None too soon I would say.
At the kick-off event handling, stand and gate coordination, airline and terminal management, slot coordination and General Aviation were all represented. Controllers from Austro Control were there and representatives of Austrian Airlines, Fly Niki and Fraport also turned up.
EUROCONTROL presented the basics of CDM and the Vienna team introduced their project. Thereafter, 20 experts attended a two day train-the-trainer course. This is strange of course… How many people are dealing with CDM in Vienna if they need 20 trainers?
Anyway, based on recent experience, they will have their tasks cut out for them. If they succeed, with a bit of luck, we will no longer have to go through security twice within 10 minutes and mad rushes between gates will also be a thing of the past.
Do it yourself security in Vienna
On 22/11/2010, in CDM, by steve
Mind you, I do like Vienna Airport in Austria. It is a nice place which has managed to stay small in spite of becoming bigger. I also do fly from Vienna a lot and so perhaps it is unfair when I come with another story of a passenger handling hiccup… you know, big numbers and all that.
A while ago, I told you the story of SN flight 2908 and this time here is the story of SN 2906.
On arrival at the airport, I saw that the gate assigned to this flight was C31. In order to understand the circumstances, you need to know that in Terminal C of Vienna airport, they do security on a gate by gate basis. There are fair sized holding areas for each gate just off the main concourse and you access these via the well known metal detectors and X-ray machines for your hand luggage.
The main concourse in Vienna Terminal C
When I got to C31, they were processing the passengers for a flight going to Hamburg, departure time 17.35. On the monitor screen in the “Next flights” section, SN 2906 was shown with its departure time of 18.15. You needed good eyes to spot this information and clearly, passengers arriving at the gate had some trouble spotting their flight number. They were all confused by the big letters proclaiming that this was the gate for Hamburg (and also Brussels if you looked close enough…).
For me, those small letters spelled disaster. At 17.20, the last of the stray Hamburg passengers were still rushing through security and there was obviously no way for the flight to push back on time and vacate the gate for the incoming Brussels Airlines Avro RJ100. But apparently the guys allocating the gates were more optimistic than me…
Click here to read the full article
CANSO joins ACI-Europe and EUROCONTROL to accelerate A-CDM roll-out
On 13/10/2010, in CDM, by steve
The threat of climate change, the global economic crisis and the resulting changes in the structure of the European aviation market have led to a renewed focus on efficiency and performance for Europe’s airports. In October 2008, ACI EUROPE and EUROCONTROL signed a collaboration to increase operational efficiencies at European airports.
This collaboration revolves around the implementation of an innovative operating practice called Airport Collaborative Decision-Making (A-CDM) which allows airports into the Air Traffic Management network and vice versa. This gives users access to a range of operational data allowing them to make their operations more efficient.
Successful implementation of A-CDM leads to significant reduction in CO2 emissions, which in turn helps airlines save fuel.
At the 5th Annual ACI EUROPE Airport Exchange, CANSO – the global trade body for Air Traffic Management – joined this partnership, giving the initiative even more momentum.
Over the last 2 years, the A-CDM program has made great progress with more than 30 airports so far engaged in implementing it.
Click here to read the full article
The saga of Brussels Airlines flight SN 2908 continues
On 17/08/2010, in CDM, by steve
Our regular readers will remember that back in June I wrote a post about how the passengers and, apparently Vienna airport itself, was left in the dark about the comings and goings of SN 2908… Passengers were being boarded into the holding area when it was revealed that the flight would be an hour and a half late. You can read that story here.
One of my advance bookings is for the same flight in September and earlier this month Brussels Airlines sent a very nifty email informing me that the flight has been rescheduled and would now leave Vienna at 21.10 instead of the original 20.35. Since the flight was late most of the time anyway, this is nothing more than recognition of a fact of life but is a good move nevertheless. It will save a lot of frustration and aggravation, not to mention the improvement to SN’s on-time performance.
I did not get any reaction from Brussels Airlines to my original post and I would hate to appear pretentious by claiming that this rescheduling has anything to do with the article. It is probably just a coincidence… but a good one!
Surprise in Vienna – When the system really fails
On 21/06/2010, in CDM, by steve
Brussels Airlines flight SN2908 is the evening counterpart of SN2901, the red-eye Brussels-Vienna flight that takes you to that magnificent city in time for a meeting that can start as early as 10.00 and conclude as late as 18.00 since SN2908 will bring you home comfortably. The only trouble with SN2908 is that it is apparently late in nine cases out of ten… No doubt this is a flight at the end of the series of rotations assigned to the 737 performing it and ATC delays and a bit of bad weather can all conspire to make an on time run a mission impossible. I have spent quite some time and euros at the Starbucks outlet conveniently located near the gate usually assigned to 2908 waiting for her to put in an appearance.
But in all cases, we knew about the delay right on arrival at the airport and could plan our extra sojourn accordingly. But not on this Friday, 18 June when we were dished up something completely new, shaking my trust in the information management savvy of our industry.
In case you are not familiar with Vienna airport, in the terminal used by Brussels Airlines the gates have a kind of holding area which you enter through a security check done at the entrance. Each gate has its own screening equipment. The gate and the security check point is normally manned about one hour before the published boarding time.
The boarding time for SN2908 was 20.05 and so a little over 19.00 processing of passengers into the holding area began as usual. One would assume that all this activity is started on the basis of the news that the aircraft is in the air and will be landing more or less on time.
As I don’t like queues, I was one of the first through security and then planted myself near the air-bridge doors ready to walk when the sign was given. I like to have a place for my flight case in the overhead bins…
Click here to read the full article
When airline, airport and passenger interests collide and cause delays
On 04/06/2010, in CDM, by steve
No matter how much I travel and no matter how bad the airport travel experience is getting as a result of increased security, I still like airports and the walk from the taxi rank to the gate. Negotiating the various artificial obstacles erected to keep the bad guys out, I always bless the inventors of internet check-in as the little A4 sheet in my pocket allows me to bypass the check-in counters and even the self-check-in kiosks. Not to mention the airline ladies with steely eyes who always insisted in the past that my flight case be weighed. As it was always above the misery 6 kilos allowed by our favorite local airline, I had to resort to all kinds of tricks to make the bag loose weight (until I walked away from the check-in counter that is). This problem is now gone with internet check in but I keep wondering: if I went to the counter, would she again be difficult about the extra 2 kilos of gear, knowing full well that if I used their internet check-in facility, nobody would care about the bag (very few airlines actually weigh stuff at the gate unless it really looks huge or heavy or both). But I diverge…
Having gone through security, the airport with its concourses and shops and gates is suddenly open for me and I feel like a bird let out of its cage. Of course the feeling is false, just like the freedom of the bird that passes from the cage into the living room. So, I am free to do anything I like except that the airport, by design, arrangement and enforced routing tries to influence me to pass by the shops, the cafés and other places happy to exchange my euros for things I have absolutely no need for and the price of which is way above what the same stuff usually costs even on the high street, let alone an internet store.
Click here to read the full article
SWIM – How much information should we be sharing?
I would like to propose a simple rule: anybody asking how much information we should be sharing in air traffic management should have their Christmas bonus cancelled… Here is why.
System Wide Information Management (SWIM) is the concept and set of rules, procedures and other needed elements that underpin the net-centric approach of the new air traffic management environment being built by SESAR in Europe and NextGen in the USA.
In a nutshell, the SWIM concept stipulates that the traditional and cumbersome point to point connections be replaced by a solution where those with data to share (i.e. data useful to the ATM community) publish the fact that they have this data (as well as any updates to it of course) and those who need that data simply go search for it or subscribe to it to avoid having to search. This arrangement assumes a kind of directory service not unlike that used on the internet and which helps you find your favorite movie title as it were. Don’t be offended by the comparison, in the world of networking, a movie title or a flight plan are not that different, they are both data. The difference is how we protect and handle the data but that is another story.
You will have noticed the fundamental difference between to-day’s approach to data dissemination and the one being proposed by SWIM.
Click here to read the full article
Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) – History and current practice
On 09/02/2010, in CDM, by steve
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
The concept of Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) was originally defined in the United States by a group of airlines, led by US Air, in response to what the airlines perceived as inadequate co-operation between airports, the FAA and the airlines themselves. They formed the so called CDM Group, members of which visited several airports with traffic flow problems and analysed the reasons.
Significantly, they discovered that in many cases the reasons were in fact quite trivial. In one case, a missing telephone connection between the FAA tower and the Delta ramp controller was found to be at the root of major departure delays; in another case the “secret” nature of cancelled flights was found to be the cause of unused slots at an otherwise seriously congested airport.
The CDM Group in its original reports had actually established three of the most basic rules of CDM which remain valid to this day even if, unfortunately, in some cases they are being ignored. The three rules are:
• Most problems have simple causes with simple solutions
• Better information sharing eliminates a very large proportion of the problems
• CDM can only be successful if trust is established between the partners as the first step
Although the CDM Group did at first address problems at airports (Atlanta and Philadelphia) when the FAA embraced the concept, they focused on applying it in the en-route environment. This was a natural consequence of the US scene where capacity constraints were present en-route while airports were almost all free flow at the time. Nevertheless, US airports got involved in CDM early as a result of the FAA’s ground-delay concept. The value of information sharing was shown right from the start. Just by being better informed, airlines were able to respond to the restrictions in a much more efficient manner. The initiative in the early 1990s called FAA/Airline Data Exchange (FADE), supported among others by Northwest Airlines, can be seen as the direct forerunner of what evolved into the US CDM project of to-day.
Click here to read the full article
BluePower CDM Toolbox– The perfect tool for airport Collaborative Decision Making
On 31/10/2009, in CDM, by steve
Originally Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) was a simple concept indeed. Realizing that a lot of problems in air traffic management came from the simple fact that many of the partners simply did not talk to each other, it was easy to reach the conclusion: make them work together, stop decisions being made in isolation, improve decisions by making them the result of a collaborative endeavor.
It was not easy at first and people invented all kinds of reasons for not doing it… most of the reasons given were simply not valid. We will be bringing you a short history of CDM later and you will see why I am saying this. To a large extent thanks to a small group of enthusiasts (the famous original CDM group in the US), more and more airlines and airports realized that working together was far more beneficial than hiding behind ill-defined concepts of commercial sensitivities.
Click here to read the full article
New directions for Airport Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) – a detailed example
On 13/10/2009, in CDM, by steve
If you have read my article on the New Directions for Airport Collaborative Decision Making (CDM), you will be interested in this narrative description of the envisaged working of the expanded CDM concept. I do strongly recommend that you read the New Directions article first!
The example used is that of a departing flight. It is not a formal use-case as such and it focuses on the most important new features only. The scenario does not aim to be all-encompassing but sufficient detail is provided to enable readers to get a better understanding of the novel applications of CDM. A number of new services are mentioned in this scenario which are in addition to those mentioned in the original article. Their role is self explanatory but if you have any question, please write a comment and I will explain things in more detail.
Click here to read the full article
New directions for Airport Collaborative Decision Making (CDM)
On 07/10/2009, in CDM, by steve
What exactly is CDM?
Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) is not a new concept. It is being practiced to a certain degree both in the US and in Europe, focus being on en-route in the former and airports in the latter. Mature as the concept may be, surprisingly we still see experts who seem to believe that CDM is little more than a few wise men sitting together and deciding things for the benefit of the community… Little wonder that they see a role for CDM that is strictly limited to the strategic planning phases. They seem to hang on to this view even in the face of actual CDM implementations at some airports (e.g. Munich) which are anything but limited to the strategic phase. So, what is CDM?
The concept of CDM is very simple. Decisions on all levels must be made not in isolation but based on a shared, common view of the state of the ATM network with full awareness of the consequences of the decisions on every aspect of the operation. Collaborative in this context does not necessarily imply people sitting together or working together remotely. A single person can also make a collaborative decision if the decision is based on the shared information provided by the partners and if it takes into account the impact of the decision on those partners and the ATM network as a whole.
Click here to read the full article
