SPECIAL REPORT: NEXT GENERATION INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS FOR IMPROVING MODERN AIRPORT OPERATIONS
The relatively rapid growth and expansion of modern airports is increasingly leading to negative impacts on operational efficiency, lifecycle cost and environmental impacts that are extremely complex to resolve
Traditionally at airports today, each stakeholder is relatively optimized (high MME). But when looking at the total “production line” the MME is low due to inefficient interaction and interfacing between the airport “modules”. The reason for this can be found in isolated processes, systems and organisations. Optimizing your MME may sound like a challenge, but there are many quick wins to be gained by sharing data and information beyond its traditional borders. Being creative and thinking outside the box can be seen as an old and overused platitude, but it’s still very relevant when reaching for a higher level of performance at airports today. The overall objective of an airport is to safely achieve the highest possible throughput and, therefore, revenue. All systems and functions available at the airport are there to support safe operations with high throughput.
Sharing Data to Support Decision Making Many systems in place at today’s airports are capable of logging data and information about its operations. It is quite rare that this is done in a way where logged data/information can be utilized by an external department. They are most often operated within their traditional requirement and usage department where just a few stakeholders are addressed; hence the data is closed and beyond other stakeholders reach. Integration of systems and services, with a lateral functionality that crosses the airport technical and operational departments, would create a cross-department operational tool. This would enable the sharing of relevant data and display information that supports on-time operational decision making. This tool would also enhance situational awareness in real time and allow airport operational challenges to be analysed from a more holistic point of view. Holistic analysis can identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, areas of safety concern and failures in the process, and alert stakeholders in advance when new resources need to be deployed or released. Initiatives that have already begun, such as Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) and the European Preliminary Deployment Program (PDP) from SESAR, are addressing the fact that individual airport stakeholders and systems need to work together and that further integration is necessary. This integration covers cooperation and communication between people, systems and procedures where requirements, constraints and outputs are synchronised towards achieving a common set of objectives. The A-CDM initiative is a good example of integration, where the design manages to zoom out to look at the complete operational picture in the network and airports.
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It can be foreseen that more and more integration may increase the level of complexity from a system point of view. If integration is done in an incorrect or inefficient way, this may be directly reflected in the operational support given to the users, and may result in an increase in workload. Therefore, the user’s operational situation, including procedures, must be considered in the design phase. The system should be designed in a way where it automatically takes care of the tasks that don’t need to be managed by the controller. The following are examples of what has been described so far, and show that there are already existing systems that can be utilized to improve operational performance. These include the airfield lighting ILCMS (Individual Light Control & Monitoring System) and the A-VDGS (AdvancedVisual Docking Guidance System) at the gate. Both of which have great potential for being utilized for a higher level in the total operational concept at the airport. These systems are very common at airports worldwide and are available for integration with other operational systems.
ATCO Predictability and Awareness Improved By Active and Visual Flight Crew Guidance With the results from the recent SEAC Follow the Greens validation trial performed at Frankfurt Airport, we know that savings in taxiing times are considerable when airfield lighting is used to support navigation on the airfield. At many airports, simply operating pre-defined routes would generate significant savings compared to the non-standardized route assignment utilized today. Additionally, it is not unusual that radio frequency is a limiting factor in the apron area, during low-visibility and where other weather phenomena are present such as snow and freezing conditions, where de-icing is required. Airfield lighting is a mandatory system for all airports as part of their compliance to the requirements for Category I operations or higher. In addition to the traditional airfield lighting solutions, there are great benefits in incorporating ILCMS, as it would provide the ability to control and monitor each and every light and segment on the airfield. Traditionally, ILCMS has shown most benefits from a monitoring point of view, where it makes the maintenance significantly easier because the lights do not need to be manually inspected as frequently. This can be done from a fairly standalone system point of view, where the maintenance department can see the real time status of the airfield on a screen. When expanding the use of airfield lighting ILCMS to integrate into operational systems such as Electronic Flight Strips (E-Strip) and A-SMGCS (Advanced Surface Movement Guidance System),