NOAA - New Optimisation Approaches for ATFM
Overview
Background & policy context:
Responsibility for European ATFM (Air Traffic Flow Management) has belonged to the CFMU (Central Flow Management Unit) of the Eurocontrol agency since 1996. Possible improvements in Europe’s existing ATFM procedures relate to two areas of optimisation: the increase in capacity of given airspace structures in order to minimise traffic regulations, and optimisation of traffic flow within given capacity constraints. Both the actual ATFM phases, one-year ahead to a few minutes before takeoff/area entry, and the ‘grey area’ between ATFM and active ATC (Air Traffic Control), sixty minutes to three minutes ahead of any situation, are objects of research relevant to these two areas of optimisation.
Objectives:
The overall objectives of the NOAA project were:
- to undertake research into flow management problems in order to develop optimised and integrated ATFM techniques;
- to consolidate this and other flow management research in order to recommend methods for optimising ATFM procedures, which will provide the basis for further enhancements to the unified European ATFM system.
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