Componentes de las medidas de mitigación o compensación

supported by the concerned infrastructure. Moreover, it should support a phased introduction of that concept where the operational benefit associated with each step outweighs the cost.

A new airways network will be designed based on

performance-based navigation applications and a new airspace organisation will be defined to balance capacity and/or demand in order to maximise system capacity.

The CNS/ATM modernisation plan should address the detailed actions that must be taken, in terms of communications, navigation and surveillance issues as well as ATC systems, to provide the adequate infrastructure to manage the future air space and ATM concept of operation. The decision to implement one or another element should be made based on the users’

needs and the operational benefits associated with it. It should establish the resulting investment plan and implementation deadlines (making sure that they are met).

Last, but not least, any investment decision should be supported by a reliable business case tied to specific benefits mechanisms. At the end of the day, the investment decisions are made by the airlines and the ANSPs based on the results of the CNS/ATM masterplan.

It is also worth mentioning that a CNS/ATM masterplan should be regularly updated. Frequent performance monitoring will be undertaken to ensure that all future ATM activities deliver the agreed benefits.

If all those steps are followed, the decision maker will have a powerful tool to prioritise and balance investments. v

A modernisation plan is being developed to manage future air space

BACK CHAT

There has been a great deal of discussion lately about the importance of airport capacity – as the general manager for the air traffic operation at London’s Gatwick Airport, the team and I live and breathe those principles every day. Gatwick is the most efficient and busiest single-runway airport anywhere in the world. Over the past few years, Gatwick has had a declared runway capacity of 53, well ahead of many other international airports with multiple runways. However, since January 2012, NATS has been working with the airport’s owners, GIP, on beating that record.

The project focused on implementing a version of

Eurocontrol’s concept of Airport Collaborative Decision Making (ACDM), where information is shared right across the operation to improve safety and efficiency.

Like an F1 pit crew, the principle of ACDM is that everyone involved is in the right place at the right time, working precisely to plan, in unison, and sharing information. At an airport, this means everyone, from the caterers to the controllers.

One of our objectives was to reach a declared capacity level of 55 aircraft movements an hour – that’s a take-off or landing every 65 seconds.

In order to reach that goal, the ACDM55 project (as it became known) had three main air traffic control components: enhance

runway capacity at the airport by reducing spacing variations; boost on-time performance to 85% or more; and introduce a system to monitor how well the entire operation is performing on a real-time basis.

One of the key suggestions emerging from the project team was an approach stabilisation trial, which we ran at the end of the peak summer season last year, and again from March to September this year. It involved analysing the operation to find ways of improving the consistency of the spacing provided between arriving aircraft in order to maximise throughput.

We discovered that by removing the shortened approach path as aircraft turned into land, we were able to achieve a 25% reduction in the spacing variation.

In May 2012, during a seven-hour peak period, we declared one hour at 53 aircraft and 11-12 hours at 50 plus, but as a result of the trial we now have the capability of declaring a 55 aircraft movement capacity. That level of change in the delivery is incredibly significant, and all the more so given the high performance starting point of operations at Gatwick.

Airlines have been telling us that the new approach procedure is much more straightforward, with less uncertainty. And from the airport’s perspective, the reduced variation in the final approach spacing has resulted in a record capacity declaration for the winter 2013/14 schedule.

We want Gatwick to be a worldwide benchmark for single runway ATC operations and we’ve got a range of other projects underway to help cement that. These include providing noise respite to local communities and the first introduction of permanent RNAV departure routes at any major UK airport. v

A version of this article first appeared on nats.aero/blog. Appointed in November 2010, Steve’s role as general manager of NATS Gatwick means that he is accountable for running the busiest single runway air traffic control tower in the world. Steve and his team manage approximately 250,000 flights throughout the airport, which services 200 destinations and 34 million passengers.

HOW GATWICK BROKE ITS OWN WORLD RECORD

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