09 - Air Transport System Efficiency
TRAJECTORY-BASED OPERATIONS TO IMPROVE LONG-RANGE AIR TRAFFIC FLOW MANAGEMENT
G. Enea, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, United States; J. Bronsvoort, Airservices Australia, Australia
Trajectory-Based Operations (TBO) is a new paradigm for managing air traffic by using controlled times along flight routes in order to create a schedule for orderly and efficient traffic flows. Currently used in the US and Australia to manage flights close to their arrival destination, in the future TBO is planned to be extended to control flights farther and farther away from their destination airport in order to increase the scope of potential benefits from this concept. However, in order to extend the TBO concept, the challenges of Long-Range Air Traffic Flow Management (LR-ATFM) need to be understood and mitigated given they are impacted by multiple sources of uncertainty affecting the creation of an accurate schedule of flights, several hours in advance. By characterizing the main sources of uncertainty affecting TBO and LR-ATFM, this paper will address the key areas to integrate these concepts: data exchange necessary, wind and weather data needs, type of control to apply (Ground Delays, Extended Metering, etc.)