This area of expertise covers all knowledge about processes involved in managing en-route air traffic including organisation of airspace.

Challenges

In 2004, the European Commission adopted the Single European Sky (SES) legislation to pave the way for the anticipated growth in air traffic. Major challenges are to increase the safety level in more crowded air space, reduce cost and make air traffic more environmental friendly. Also, new types of aircraft, like unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) will have to be accommodated.

Activities

In order to modernise the European ATM system, the European Commission, together with Eurocontrol, launched the SESAR program. The AT-One partners, DLR and NLR, contribute to this program with research into flow management principles, airspace design and usage, ATC procedures and use of advanced tools and systems, both on the ground and in the aircraft. Key in the AT-One research is the holistic approach, meaning that all actors in the system like Airline Operational Centres, ATC Organisations and aircraft crew are considered to find optimal solutions.

Examples

• Airspace capacity studies
• Fast time simulations for en-route sectors
• Development of Medium Term Conflict Detection tools
• Development of Conflict Resolution Advisory Tools