Latest edition of SITA’s “Air Traffic Management Highlights” now available
On 25/02/2010, in Bookshelf, by steve
The latest edition of SITA’s newsletter, Air Traffic Management Highlights, dedicated to the ATM community is now available.
In this publication, you will learn more about two major initiatives undertaken by our industry in 2009:
• The Data Link Services Implementation Rule adoption by the European Commission and
• SITA’s selection by EUROCONTROL to deliver the Pan European Network Service (PENS).
This newsletter will also provide you with a high-level overview of the different air traffic management activities that SITA has been involved in recently.
Get your copy here.
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.
FAA Call to action on airline safety and pilot training
On 03/02/2010, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
On February 12, 2009, a Colgan Air Bombardier Dash-8 Q400, operating as Continental Connection Flight 3407, crashed while on approach to Buffalo, New York.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) conducted a public hearing on this accident from May 12-14, 2009. During that hearing and subsequent congressional hearings on June 10 and June 11, 2009, several issues came to light regarding pilot training and qualifications, flight crew fatigue, and consistency of safety standards between operators.
In response to this information, on June 15, 2009, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator J. Randolph Babbitt initiated a Call to Action on Airline Safety and Pilot Training for FAA, air carriers, and labor organizations to jointly identify and implement safety improvements, and an action plan was published on 24 June 2009.
The FAA has just published a progress report entitled FAA “Answering the Call to Action on Airline Safety & Pilot Training”.
You can get the progress report here.
Blogs, aviation and the rest of the social media
On 27/01/2010, in Viewpoint, by steve
When we started Roger-Wilco, a lot of people questioned the format. For some, a blog was not the right format for dealing with the serious questions of air traffic management. I could see the point in as much as a lot of blogs are indeed little more than a place for certain individuals to air their grievances about all kinds of subjects, many of which are of little interest to the world at large. But who can deny that they too have the right to publicize what is on their minds?
We simply had to make a better blog…
It would be easy to claim that I was always open to things like Twitter or FaceBook, but I was not. Especially Twitter
appeared to me the epitome of uselessness right alongside the male breast. FaceBook was something I could almost like but when they introduced the new “features” enabling users, among other things, to become “computer experts” by answering four or five ridiculously simple questions, I felt like running away. Seeing some of my most respected colleagues becoming such experts left me puzzled but no less determined to avoid FaecBook whenever possible.
LinkedIn was a different proposition right from the start. There one’s professional qualifications, work experience and other “real” things rule and people have actually found work when they were discovered by recruiters of major companies. LinkedIn actually reversed the switch in my mind…
But back to our blog…
SESAR and multimedia
On 22/01/2010, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
The personal level visual communications facilities brought to us by modern technology have changed how we as individuals express ourselves and to an even higher degree how big companies talk to us. Traditional ads now sometimes resemble animated feature films and the on-screen safety briefing on some aircraft make us wonder whether we were watching a Pixar release and candidate for the aviation golden globe…
It is not surprising then that SESAR, the big European air traffic management research program, also makes full use of what multimedia has to offer…
Go to their multimedia gallery and you are greeted with video interviews (the latest just added is with Florian Guillermet, the Chief Program Officer), cute screensavers and even a number of wallpapers! These latter have also been added to recently so check them out if you fancy having the SESAR logo (and that of the EC and EUROCONTROL) lurk in the corner of your screen. To their credit, the logos are small and discreet.
I have heard people question the reasoning behind this multimedia drive. Personally I find it a new, refreshing way of keeping everyone aware of this important project, an approach to communications that is right where it should be these days.
SESAR will have plenty to communicate and they might as well do it in an enjoyable way.
NOTAM goes digital
On 06/01/2010, in SWIM, by steve
What is a NOTAM?
A NOTAM...
There are a few things in aviation that have survived over the years with so little change as the NOTAM, in spite of its numerous, known shortcomings. NOTAM is a quasi-acronym for Notice to Airmen, a system of providing aeronautical information introduced well over 60 years ago.
NOTAMs… we have all seen them, worked with them and think we know them. But do we really?
...and the cranes it refers to!
A NOTAM is a text message, constructed using a code defined by ICAO and distributed via the Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunications Network (AFTN). It informs the recipients of immediate or temporary changes to the air navigation infrastructure, both airport and en-route. As an example, if a runway or part of a runway is temporarily closed, this will be announced in a NOTAM. There are several types of NOTAM but their essence and purpose is the same: provide vital information to airmen in a timely manner. In fact, the NOTAM is the middle part of the layered legacy system of information provision: the AIP (Aeronautical Information Publication) describes the big picture and the permanent situation; NOTAMs bring information about sudden/immediate changes and temporary changes that will exist for a short time only; and the operational radio, including broadcasts like the ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information Service), that announce sudden changes and continue to do so at least until the information is also available in a NOTAM.
The NOTAM offices of the world’s States are a legendary bunch of very independent minded experts, who know very well how important their job is and who tend to be slow with changes, however useful, lest the carefully thought out system fail in its purpose. Frustrating on occasion, it is hard to blame them for being careful.
Glossary of Air Traffic Management terms and definitions
On 04/01/2010, in Bookshelf, by steve
Ever since my first tentative steps into the world of ICAO provisions and the hard learned lessons about the need to use terminology properly even to a fault, I had this thing about texts that were lax and inconsistent in terminology use. To put it bluntly, I hated them. Not only do they fail to convey the intended message properly, they can potentially confuse the reader and may in fact result in requirements being defined erroneously. True, in the end things tend to sort themselves out but not before a lot of extra, totally unnecessary effort has been expended and with no guarantee that every instance of incorrect terminology use has been taken care of.
Descriptions that call everything a system, where information is down-linked or up-linked instead of being shared or published, where the vertical distance from the aerodrome’s elevation is called an altitude, etc., etc., still abound unfortunately and I am in the process of writing an article expressing my displeasure and suggesting some steps to remedy the situation.
When my attention was called to a new glossary of Air Traffic Management terms and definitions produced as part of the Episode 3 project deliverables, I went to have a look right away. Obviously, the new ATM environment will be generating its own terms and definitions and proper terminology use starts with having wide agreement on the meaning of the terms we use.
Staff associations officially involved in SESAR – essential but…
On 17/12/2009, in SESAR's Palace, by cleo
As made known by SESAR News 2, five major staff associations representing a wide range of professional operational and technical skills across the ATM domains (e.g. pilots, air traffic controllers and assistants, handling staff, flight and air traffic safety electronics engineers etc.) are currently signing framework contracts with the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) through EUROCONTROL for their participation in the SESAR work program.
The associations concerned are the Air Traffic Controllers European Union Coordination (ATCEUC), European Cockpit Association (ECA), European Transport Workers’ Association (ETF), International Federation of Air Traffic Safety Electronics Associations (IFATSEA), and the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations (IFATCA).
Their professional expertise is sought for the SJU work program regarding issues such as safety, security, and human factor aspects when developing and validating new procedures, methodologies, and technical elements. At the kick-off meeting on 4 December, representatives of the associations discussed with the SJU the key aspects of their future participation in order to finalize the more precise details during January/February 2010.
This is an important development since without the endorsement and support of controllers and pilots represented by these associations SESAR cannot be a success. However, a word of caution is in order here.
Interesting people, unusual flight plans…
On 15/12/2009, in Interesting people, by steve
Patrick Ky – From Wissous to the helm of SESAR
Patrick Ky is the Executive Director of the SESAR Joint Undertaking.
What were you dreaming of becoming when you were a kid?
At first I was dreaming of becoming a football star! In time this changed to pilot… I wanted to be a commercial pilot. We were living in a small place called Wissous, not far from Orly airport in France and I remember going out there at least once a week to watch the planes come and go.
Come to think of it, I remember always having wanted to work with aircraft but flying them was more a kid’s initial fancy. For me the knowledge of how they worked, how they were built, what made them fly in the first place was more exciting than the left seat. It was learning about the technical and engineering aspects that really made my heart beat faster…
I did get a VFR pilot’s license but flying was not the thrill I was expecting. As a student pilot I was very impressed by air traffic control, how they gave you instructions, how they helped you back when you strayed… Actually it was a rather stressful experience and I had to admit to myself that the engineering side of things was more for me.
Wissous is really near Orly...
What were the most significant sideways jumps in your professional life?
Although I have worked in aviation all my life, there were curious sideways moves nevertheless.
Runway incursion prevention – know your hot spots
On 11/12/2009, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’S aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
It is well known to pilots and air traffic controllers alike that some parts of the runway/taxiway complex at aerodromes seem to attract incidents. As if they were jinxed in some way, mistakes are made regularly at these singularities of the airport universe.
On roads internationally standardized traffic signs are used to warn us of falling rocks, of stray cattle or deer chasing their mates. How can we warn of the dangerous spots at airports?
TCAS Awareness
On 03/12/2009, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
The latest addition to SKYbrary Solutions is “Clear of Conflict”, a series of 10 short videos developed by NATS in association with EUROCONTROL and Flight Safety International, intended as an aid to TCAS training.
Check out the videos here.
My FAB my Castle – is there hope for the European air traffic management enterprise?
On 27/11/2009, in Viewpoint, by pbn
I guess from a purely political point of view, criticizing the Functional Airspace Block (FAB) concept is probably not correct. I will not criticize the FABs. What I will do is share a few thoughts with you and also raise a few questions. Who knows, someone may even have the answers.
So what is a FAB? Contrary to what you may have heard, the FAB concept was/is an effort by the European Union to bring some order into the fragmented European ATM scene. That this was not exactly to everyone’s taste was amply evidenced in the time it took to get the first FAB (and subsequent FABs) off the ground. The process stalled a few times and lots of screaming brides had to be dragged to the altar before it was restarted again.
SITA selected to provide PENS – but SWIM is more than just ANSPs!
On 24/11/2009, in SWIM, by steve
Those of our readers who have looked at the various postings on System Wide Information Management (SWIM) will be familiar with the abbreviation PENS which stands for “Pan European Network Service”. PENS will allow air navigation service providers from 38 countries to exchange operational data communications across a common network for the first time.
Following an intensive competitive tendering exercise, SITA was selected as the provider of this managed IP based regional communications backbone service.
PENS will enable the 38 ANSPs of the EUROCONTROL Member States to exchange operational ATC data communications in a seamless and integrated manner; it will provide an alternative to the ad-hoc bi-lateral communications that are largely in place today between the ANSPs, resulting in improved service levels and reduced overall costs.
Successful “Performance Based Navigation (PBN) Workshop” in Budapest
On 19/11/2009, in Events, by steve
Although the concept of Performance Based Navigation (PBN) is generally known, when it comes to filling in the details, there is a lot of uncertainty, misunderstandings and even diverging views on what exactly should we understand under PBN. Big organizations like ICAO and EUROCONTROL are doing their best to clarify things but clearly, more is needed.
The idea of organizing a workshop on the grassroots level to discuss PBN and shape common understanding of the issues first came up in 2008 when a number of industry experts discussed how their partners could be helped in getting a better grasp on PBN and its implementation. The idea was to bring together air navigation service providers, airlines, international organizations, research institutions and manufacturers for a focused but easygoing discussion of this complicated subject. 2008 was a bad year for any undertaking requiring traveling and it was only this week that the workshop finally took place in Budapest, Hungary.
HungaroControl, the Hungarian air navigation service provider had kindly offered to host the workshop and we were able to enjoy their excellent facilities on 17 an 18 November. The number of participants (30) was a good compromise between the range of partners represented and overall size for a workshop-type meeting.
The agenda was structured to ensure a logical progression through the most important aspects of PBN.
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.
A short (unofficial) history of air/ground digital link – 3
On 24/10/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
Pioneers to the rescue
In spite of the positive business case, airspace users were not exactly rushing to equip with air/ground digital link. Because of the slow down of traffic growth in the wake of 9/11, the expected ACARS problems did not materialize and the ATC frequency congestion was also pushed far into the future. In other industries, such a period of respite might have been used to prepare for the times when business recovery would once again make air//ground digital link essential. But that is not how aviation works. With the immediate threat receding and even some of the big carriers fighting for survival, enthusiasm for investing in things that would generate benefits only many years down the road cooled.
Of course for the planners of the ATM system this was a situation that spelled trouble for later. The frequency congestion problems were not a mirage even if for the time being those problems slipped into the future. The need to put together a comprehensive kit of capacity enablers had not become less important, only the urgency had changed somewhat. For LINK2000+ the big question was: how to jump start equipage? The question was not self serving at all. If Maastricht UAC controllers did not get digital link equipped aircraft to work with, it would be impossible to build and maintain proficiency and to shake down the system in real operational circumstances.
Interesting people, unusual flight plans…
On 21/10/2009, in Interesting people, by steve
Istvan Bozsa – forever controller
What were you dreaming of becoming when you were a kid?
We lived near the airport and I was dreaming of becoming a pilot from very early on. I remember how we took the bike to ride all the way to the perimeter fence and watch the planes for hours on end. I must admit that we also stopped to watch the trains at the railway crossing but the planes were the main attraction.
Traditionally there is an air-show on 20 August in Budapest and watching it I felt this incredible pull and attraction… I wanted to be part of it all; I wanted to be a pilot.
I think my son has inherited this weakness… he has his PPL already (and an Aeronautic MEng).
How did you then actually become part of the ATC family?
Ice cream… it was the ice cream! At the time one of the best pastry shops in downtown Budapest had a satellite unit at the airport. The mother shop’s name was Honey Bear and the one at the airport was simply the Bear… They had the best parfait this side of the Solar system and we went there regularly to load up on that thing, teeth be damned.
A short (unofficial) history of air/ground digital link – 2
On 18/10/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
The clash of VDL Mode 4 and VDL Mode 2
Following years of testing and discussions on countless forums, VDL Mode 2 was emerging as the solution that, combined with the ATN protocol, could support the initial implementation of Controller Pilot Digital Link Communications. There was nothing else it could do but it had a huge advantage over everything else. There was agreement that it would do the trick! Some people tended to consider this virtue as being of little value but in fact it was as important as the link’s ability to perform. Achieving consensus on the scale needed to decide which link to use is an epic hurdle and when agreement is there, it should not be put in danger.
But that is exactly what was being done by the promoters of another technology that goes under the name VDL Mode 4. VDL Mode 4 can do everything, they claimed… It does voice, text messages and also ADS-B! Most of the claims were of course true and the initial hiccups with the system were no reason to discard it. Yet it never made it into the mainstream and the hard push did only one thing: delayed the inevitable, the final agreement on Mode 2. VDL Mode 4 lacked the most important element: industry agreement for implementation.
Whatever happened to (the benefits of) Mode S Enhanced Surveillance (EHS)?
On 14/10/2009, in Viewpoint, by cleo
Though there are few who will not be familiar with the term Mode S Enhanced Surveillance, let me quickly recap. Mode S is a legacy, ground based surveillance system which has a rudimentary data link capability. It is this latter that was being pushed in the 90s as a solution to all ills of air traffic management. Using the link capability, certain parameters from the aircraft, the so called DAPs, can be sent to the ground ATM system. Part of these are for display to the controller and part serve in theory to enhance system functions.
Back then the airspace users saw clearly that the benefit claims made for Mode S EHS were grossly overstated. It did not help that the first business case created for Mode S EHS was, to put it mildly, questionable. A later version showed more realistic figures but the damage was done.
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.
Bird Strike: Operator’s Checklist
On 05/10/2009, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
This is the time of year when birds all over Europe take to the air to start their journey south. Though they are the ultimate examples of Free Flight, migratory birds follow centuries old routes, resting at centuries old landing places, without much regard for their latter day kin… The risk of bird strikes increases as a result.
It is therefore a good time to review the bird strike hazard management procedures. Pick up the guide here.
Interesting people, unusual flight plans…
On 04/10/2009, in Interesting people, by steve
Rob Mead – Long-way turn from Yellowstone to Seattle
I put passion into
everything I did...
What were you dreaming of becoming when you were a kid?
Actually… I did not dream of anything in particular. I put passion into everything I did, wanted to be good in what I did… I always felt that life was going in a good direction and I just went with it.
What made you become part of the aviation family?
The blame for that goes to the US Air Force. By pure chance I ended up flying in the back of RC135s and never looked back since. I knew right from the start that flying was the pladce to be for me. Still feel the same way.
Click here to read the full article
Anniversary – First European STC for CPDLC on VDL Mode 2
On 03/10/2009, in Anniversaries, by steve
5 year anniversary on 12 April 2010
The issuance of a Supplementary Type Certificate (STC) is not normally an event that we commemorate years later… except of course if the STC is the first instance in Europe of Controller Pilot Digital Link Communications (CPDLC) using VDL Mode 2 being approved on an aircraft type.
I this case, EASA accorded the STC to the Airbus A300F4-608ST and the date was 12 April 2005.
EUROCONTROL’s Petal trials followed by LINK2000+ were groundbreaking activities that proved the technical and operational feasibility of CPDLC on VDL Mode 2 while also creating the basis for interoperability between the US and European digital link services.
The Airbus STC was an important milestone recognizing the maturity of the system. In subsequent years many other aircraft types received similar certification, all important milestones in their own right but the first one stands out as a beacon of success certainly worth remembering with pride.
Anniversary – The Y2K roll-over
On 02/10/2009, in Anniversaries, by steve
10 year anniversary on 31 December 2009
On call to usher in a new millennium
I am no longer with IATA but when I joined originally, night shifts were not mentioned as part of the job. Not that I would have minded, as an ex-air traffic controller I had plenty of experience watching the sun rise over the airport perimeter fence, or looking at the radar screen with the morning traffic building slowly…
But somehow 1999 brought two events that landed me once again in night shifts. One was 8.33, the famous new channel spacing in Europe and the other, the even more famous, Y2K computer bug.
As it happened, I was not closely involved in the preparations for the year-end rollover, this task having fallen in our office to other colleagues who had their hands more than full for the 18 months or so preceding the end of December . As our readers will probably know, the Y2K problem was the result of some “clever” programming tricks used by early programmers to save storage space, representing the year in dates by only two characters. Possibly they never expected computers to be still around by the year 2000… In the end, not only did some legacy hardware, as well as a lot of legacy software, survive to see the new millennium, even some of the latest creations came with the Y2K problem still built in and ticking away…If you enter a date in the year 2000 into one of those machines, the year will show 00, resulting in the computer possibly crashing in a number of colorful ways.
Interesting people, unusual flight plans…
On 27/09/2009, in Interesting people, by steve
Jozsef Torocsik – the first Hungarian at EUROCONTROL
What were you dreaming of becoming when you were a kid?
I could boast and say that I have always wanted to be an air traffic controller… but it would be a lie. I remember having admired airplanes and airports from around age 6 but my early dream was to become an archeologist. When I first got the aviation bug, I wanted to be a pilot… even more than an archeologist.
What moved you to become part of the air traffic control family?
My attraction to aviation lasted longer than that for archeology and initially I was building model airplanes. Then one day, after a model airplane competition which as usual I did not win, I cranked up my courage and approached the pilots of the sailplanes parked on the grass of the airport where the event was being held. I was really charmed by their friendliness (the first taste of the family feeling) and soon I was contemplating how to break the news to my folks at home that I will be a soaring pilot.
Then tragedy struck… I was told after a routine ophthalmologist visit that I would need to wear eye glasses for the rest of my life.
That girls will not like me and my glasses was the second thought that came into my mind. The first one brought tears. I will never be a pilot. People with glasses were excluded even from training in those days…
Runway incursions – a portal full of help
On 17/08/2009, in Life around runways, by steve
Flying is several orders of magnitude safer than road travel, we all know that. Yet there is a curious element of commonality between those two modes of transport, representing a serious danger in both. Drivers who manage to get onto the wrong side of a motorway and aircraft or ground vehicles that blunder onto the runway creating a collision hazard…
Runway incursions make it into the news only if an accident ensues. This does not happen often but a few notable cases, like Tenerife in 1977 and Milan in 2001 will sound familiar to all of us. But the problem is real and much bigger than one would think at first sight.
On average there are two runway incursions of varying severity in Europe every day!
The CFMU – Valuable asset or problem for the future?
On 30/07/2009, in Viewpoint, by steve
Few people remember the days of horrendous delays in Europe caused by the explosive growth of demand in the latter part of the 70s and early 80s. States tried to cope with the problem as best they could but the individual efforts made things worse as often as they helped in resolving the logjam. Clearly, a region-wide solution was needed. This solution was the Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU), designed and operated by EUROCONTROL on behalf of the ECAC States and with the full blessing of ICAO.
Now, several decades later, the future of the CFMU as a concept and as an operating unit may hang in the balance.
From protecting sectors to ensuring flight efficiency
The first attempt at keeping the ATC system from falling apart under the relentless traffic peaks went under the tab “flow control”. Indeed, this was not much more than a crude quenching of traffic flows which did eliminate sector overloads but left hundreds of aircraft stranded on the ground, delays skyrocketing.
The commissioning of the CFMU brought not only a regionally centralised awareness of the overall situation but also a change in how sector overloads were prevented. The departure slots disbursed by the CFMU are based on several considerations, including alternative routings and aircraft operator preferences, justifying the claim that traffic flows are now being managed rather than just being constrained as in the days of basic flow control.
