Time wasted on planes in holding patterns and flight delays are just some of the impacts of the congestion in our skies as demand for travel increases. It is a significant challenge for the aviation sector, which is also under pressure to reduce its environmental impacts to become net zero by 2050 and to cut costs and maximize efficiencies through the ongoing global economic crisis.
For air navigation service providers (ANSPs) responsible for the efficient and safe movement of aircraft, congestion of the global airspace poses a real challenge. Air traffic controllers (ATCOs) have the difficult task of safely and efficiently tracking and managing thousands of aircraft daily, which relies on good communication and collaboration between controllers and pilots. But the flow of information between an aircraft and the air traffic control centre covering the respective airspace could be much more optimal because air transport operations remain rather siloed today, despite best efforts.
Inefficient legacy systems and processes are among the key factors of Air Traffic Management (ATM) inefficiencies. While several longer-term state programs are in place to modernise air traffic for financial and environmental necessity, there are new ATM innovations that can give ANSPs a headstart on driving operational efficiencies while lowering greenhouse gas emissions and costs.
As an organisation in the aviation industry committed to supporting the industry’s key challenges through technology, SITA’s latest explorations to support airspace optimisation involve adapting its existing SITA OptiFlight® suite of solutions for airlines to benefit ANSPs.
Today, SITA OptiFlight®, which leverages machine learning, historical flight data and 4D weather forecasts, provides airline pilots with more optimal routing recommendations during all flight phases. This information enables pilots to ask air traffic control for amended clearances for more optimised trajectories. SITA’s joint proof-of-concept (POC) with ATM solution specialist SkySoft-ATM will permit these routing recommendations to now also be visually displayed on both air traffic control displays and human-machine interfaces, integrated with trajectory management tools, and to enable safety maintenance checks.
We believe this POC will be beneficial to the industry. Today, pilots tend to get their plane’s planned route via their flight plan before departure. When SITA OptiFlight® makes a recommendation for a direct routing ‘shortcut’, these are typically routings not in the published route structure and so cannot be filed as part of a flight plan. However, we know through the machine learning technology inbuilt with SITA OptiFlight® that shortcuts are possible at the discretion of ATC. So, the only option for the pilot is to request a direct shortcut in the tactical phase of the flight, at the time when the aircraft is approaching the waypoint from which they wish to start the direct segment – this gives the controller very little time to assess the impact of the direct routing request in respect of other aircraft and any conflicts that may arise as a consequence of allowing the request.
By providing the controller with the direct routing metrics in advance and integrating this into the controller’s display, which is the aim of this by POC, we can improve the success rate of optimised routing requests made by SITA OptiFlight®. The benefits of this would include improved collaboration between the cockpit and ATC and a more efficient airspace – reducing fuel burn, costs, and carbon emissions.
Leading ANSPs can take advantage of new technologies to improve their operations today and make a positive step on their longer term net zero by 2050 journey.
Article originally published in Air Traffic Management magazine, issue 2, 2023. Want to receive all of the latest stories as soon as they are published? Register now for your free digital subscription.
