Out in front

“It’s no longer technology for technology’s sake,” says Harfield, a career air traffic controller. “We have slowed to ask what are we trying to achieve, and there is also a more rigorous implementation process. ” That change of tack was brought into sharp focus in Perth when Airservices rolled out, due to safety concerns, relatively minor changes to flightpaths around Perth Airport with minimal impact on noise. But the result, because of sloppy community consultation, was a howl of protests and a protracted government inquiry.

One of the problems that Airservices has faced is that it has communicated its strategies and changes through airport noise committees, which in many cases have limited understanding of what is being proposed, and yet it has been their responsibility to communicate the impact to their constituents.

As a result, for instance, Airservices has slowed the rollout of RNP (required navigational performance) approaches to airports while it develops multiple arrival and departure paths so local communities will share the noise, and develops consultation packages with those affected. The current timetable for RNP sees all major capital cities except Sydney plus some regional airports with RNP by the second quarter of 2012.

But while the pace for the rollout of projects with a public impact has slowed, others are business as usual as Airservices prepares for a doubling of air traffic by 2025.

“Our ATC is currently one system fits all from A380 to Cessna 172, with high, medium and low density and vast tracts of oceanic airspace,” says Harfield. One of the keysin developing the Australian ATC system, he adds, is to better manage the wide variety of demands and delivery environments.

“We have long haul and short haul airlines that want flex tracks and UPRs in the upper levels, and then regional airlines that want services based on risk profile which means low cost solutions. We have excellent service at Sydney for instance, but not at uncontrolled airports, while there are major airline networks on the Sydney- Melbourne-Brisbane corridor. ”

ADS-B

Key to the modernisation of ATC around the world is clearly Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast – ADS‑B – and it is also clear that Australia is way out in front.

According to ADS-B programs director Greg Dunstone, Australia started trials with ADS-B in 2000 with first operations in 2004, and by the end of 2009 had 29 ground stations covering most of the country in service.

“We moved into an operation phase with the objective of FL290 and above, but we are getting a lot more coverage than FL290 and in fact have 10,000ft and above. We can even get ground coverage at many centres,” notes Dunstone.

Australia has the most ambitious ADS-B deployment according to Dunstone, and was first to use the technology to implement reduced separation, and it is first to mandate ADS-B equipage in upper airspace.

Thales, which supplied the ADS-B stations, was also responsible for integration into TAAATS (The Australian Advanced Air Traffic System), the air traffic management system it developed that allowed consolidation of Australia’s six flight information regions into two.

TAAATS takes radar, ADS-B and flight track plans and integrates all the inputs into a ‘radar’ presentation, with only the symbology flagging the different surveillance modes.

“We went fully operational in December 2009 using 5nm separation from procedural [30nm], but in fact we don’t typically have aircraft in trail at 5nm, but it allows us to give clearances through levels, where once we were severely limited. ” An exception to this is the armada of international early morning arrivals for Sydney and Melbourne from Asia and the Middle East which cross the continent. “As 70 per cent of the international arrivals are ADS-B equipped we can deconflict this traffic more effectively,” notes Dunstone.

Another advantage that ADS-B brings is in the northern Australian wet season.

“Previously, bad monsoonal activity was very restrictive on aircraft movements with procedural control,” explains Dunstone.

ADS-B also enables User Preferred Routing (UPR), and Airservices will trial UPRs in a heavy traffic corridor between Australia and New Zealand over the next 12 months.

“This will allow pilots to use aircraft avionics to their full capability,” notes Dunstone.

After the trans-Tasman trial, Airservices will roll out UPRs across Australia.

However, Airservices has been offering UPRs on a number of routes for some time, including trans-Pacific routes, Perth-Dubai and Sydney/Melbourne-Johannesburg.

Flextracks/UPRs are also offered between the Middle East/Asia and the eastern seaboard of Australia as well as the domestic Perth-Brisbane route. These offerings take advantage of either lightly travelled airspace or ‘back of the clock’ flying.

However, the roll out and full benefits are limited by the lag in the industry equipping aircraft and government failing to mandate ADS-B for lower levels, which has forced the upgrading and replacement of 25 en route radars.

Dunstone explains that Qantas’s fleet of 767s and 737-400s are not ADS-B equipped, nor is Virgin Australia’s 737 fleet. Qantas’s fleet of 767s should have been retired by now if 787s had been on time, and the airline will now fit 19 aircraft with the necessary avionics, while the last 737‑400s are being retired this year well ahead of 2013 when ADS-B is mandated above FL290.

A broader ADS-B mandate above 10,000ft is expected by 2017. However, Dunstone acknowledges that this is where it gets difficult.

“The issues are more complex,” he concedes.

While Airservices has proven the system at higher levels, the increased number of stakeholders with vastly differing needs and budgets at lower airspace adds complexity with deadlines for equipage more vexing.

“Cost of the ADS-B equipment ranges from free on factory fresh commercial aircraft to over $2 million for an ageing 767 which doesn’t have a GPS,” says Dunstone.

One of the limiting factors of ADS-B, explains Dunstone, is the transmission of bad data. In response to the problem, CASA issued a directive that if an aircraft carries ADS-B transmitting equipment which does not comply with an approved equipment configuration, the aircraft cannot fly in Australian territory unless the equipment is deactivated, or set to transmit only a value of zero.

“The goal is 100 per cent coverage to low levels to pick up the extensive mining traffic in Western Australia and Queensland. ” Interestingly, Dunstone explains that Australia is now sharing ADS-B information from Indonesia, which has rolled out the system at 30 ground stations in the eastern part of the country for situation awareness.

Last year Airservices commissioned Australia’s first Wide Area Multilateration (WAM) radar system in Tasmania, which incorporates 14 widely dispersed ground stations to determine the precise position of aircraft through the use of multilateration and ADS-B. Airservices is in the final stages of deployment of WAM for the Sydney basin, with 16 stations from Newcastle in the north to Wollongong in the south, which will allow precision approaches to the parallel runways at Sydney airport.

The Sydney WAM roll out will complement the GBAS installed there in 2006, and which is expected to be commissioned imminently.

To rectify the lack of ILS capability at many Australian airports or on some runways and to support GLS operations, Airservices teamed with Honeywell Interkeepingnational’s Defence and Space Electronic Systems Division, leaders in the development of GBAS, in conjunction with the US Federal Aviation Administration, to develop and certify an ICAO compliant GBAS.

A Qantas 737-800 equipped with a Rockwell Collins multimode receiver (MMR) performed the world’s first GLS landing in passenger service on November 23 2006 on flight QF513 from Brisbane to Sydney.

However, once again Airservices is slowing the roll out of GBAS to other airports as the full impact of the technology is assessed against the industry roll out of equipping its aircraft.

Saving fuel

A technology that needs no public consultation is Collaborative Decision Making (CDM), which will improve air traffic management by sharing information and data between airport operators, aircraft operators, ground handlers and air traffic control. Harfield explains that CDM can apply to all timeframes of decisions, from long range planning of schedules to the tactical decisions of ground delay programs.

“A five minute delay on the ground can avoid over 600kg of CO2, while holding on a taxiway, at idle power settings, uses about 25 per cent of the fuel as in flight,” explains Harfield.

“Each user can participate to a level that suits their operations and information requirements. However, in order to maximise the benefits, it is important that all affected users participate in the information sharing. ” In June last year Airservices selected Virginia based Metron Aviation’s Metron Traffic Flow product to support its CDM program. Metron Traffic Flow will be used to manage traffic flow and capacity for all controlled airspace, including those flights originating from outside of Airservices’ area of responsibility and entering Australian airspace.

“Because of the capacity and demand equation we must manage an overall system gate-to-gate to ensure maximum efficiency,” says Harfield.

“We are the third party. You can’t get Qantas and Virgin working together, but we can facilitate integration of all the competing components. ” Some of the routes and airports where CDM will be a major advantage are the world’s third busiest from Sydney to Melbourne and the twelfth busiest, Brisbane to Sydney, while CDM will also be rolled out in Perth, which is the hub for the resources industry.

“If Brisbane is experiencing a 30 minute delay we can hold an aircraft in Sydney for 10 minutes and then lose 20 minutes in cruise. Everyone in the chain knows the situation. ” The CDM project will be implemented in Sydney and Perth by the third quarter and will be progressively rolled out across the network during 2012, while the contract with Metron Aviation runs for 15 years.

Tower Technology

Airservices is also delivering a multimillion dollar upgrade of equipment to its towers across the country. The Integrated Tower Automation Suite (INTAS) will combine flight and operational data, surveillance and voice communications into a single integrated, tower-specific layout. In many cases it will replace manual systems dating back to the construction of many towers, in some cases over 40 years ago.

But where there are no towers, Airservices is to trial remotely operated air traffic control tower technology developed by Saab and Swedish ATC provider Luftfartsverket (LFV).

Due to commence in late 2011 from Adelaide, Airservices will monitor Alice Springs’ air traffic control facilities, comparing both the actual tower and the remote tower. The latter’s signals will be sent via two fibre optic paths – one direct and one indirect to access the time lag of differing distances.

Harfield explains that there has been considerable growth of new airfields in remote areas in inhospitable environments where building costs would be high.

“Typically these airports are mine sites and there is often a short to medium time requirement. Besides, it takes us two years to build a tower. ” The remote tower consists of a camera for video surveillance which is integrated with ADS-B and automatically tracks movement. One controller can cover five remote facilities. The product features head-up displays, enhanced situational awareness even in low visibility conditions, object tracking and alerting, and infrared vision and image enhancement.

While progress may have slowed to empointerbrace communities’ and industry’s dilemmas and agendas for refitting technology, Airservices continues to lead in the roll out of many key ATM technologies.

Harfield says that Australia’s government is “engaged” to the importance and value of an efficient ATC provider, unlike many around the world. “Unlike Europe and the US we have time on our side. In many ways it is almost too late for them as traffic congestion is limiting what they can do and the pace of change. ”

What if we weren’t here?

When Airways New Zealand, which has been at the cutting edge of technology rollout for years, looked at what the ‘next big thing’ was for an ASNP, it came up with a novel approach and asked key airline customers a simple but loaded question: “If we weren’t here, what would you do?” That question, in 2005, to the likes of Air New Zealand’s chief pilot David Morgan, was the catalyst for Airways to morph “from an air traffic controller to an air traffic enabler,” says Airways group manager ANS delivery Lew Jenkins.

“We have moved from being a controller and manager to an enabler and we want to focus on overarching themes,” Jenkins tells Australian Aviation.

And one of the major themes at Airways is to get the design right, utilising Performance Based Navigation (PBN) to enable aircraft to ‘fly the numbers’ where planned profiles in the FMS equals that actually flown.

The design needs to be network based, being as efficient and safe as possible for given city pairs. This provides certainty and predictability to both pilots and controllers and provides a real safety benefit, and has been validated through New Zealand’s Oceanic Control System and improved domestic safety performance.

“Our objective is to minimise, if not eliminate reactive interventionist type controlling, as that is where errors occur,” says Jenkins.

Another driver has been a micro look at what equipment is in aircraft, as Jenkins explains: “It’s all very well to have grand plans but if the aircraft aren’t equipped or installation is too expensive, the project stalls. On a macro scale the focus is on network, not a particular flight. ” Key to that macro focus is the Airways developed Collaborative Arrivals Manager.

CAM enables airlines to prioritise flights and reschedule their services, depending on the business requirements at various New Zealand airports.

CAM exchanges data with the air traffic management system and uses it to calculate options to reduce delays in flight arrival times by distributing demand and allowing delays to be absorbed on the ground rather than once in the air.

CAM is paying big dividends and changing the entire dynamics of the airline system in New Zealand, with delays for instance on the Auckland-Wellington route plummeting from 30,000 minutes a month down to 5000, with huge savings in fuel and CO2.

And unlike other collaborative decision making systems, which have compliance rates of between 30 and 40 per cent, the Airways designed system boasts 95 per cent. This high compliance rate is absolutely crucial in maximising system performance and realising the environmental, economic and safety benefits.

In the four years to June 2011, CAM has enabled airlines to save in excess of 25 million kilograms in fuel, NZ$40 million in fuel costs and 80 million kilograms in CO2 emissions, says Airways.

“CAM enables airlines to work collaboratively together – and with Airways – to schedule departures and arrivals to avoid congestion. Airlines can now move their aircraft around to best suit their fleet and their customers’ needs,” says Jenkins.

Interest in the CAM system is growing internationally, and Airways has entered into a partnership with German based global technology company Barco to market the system around the world.

The two companies are also adding Barco’s CAM OSYRIS queue management software, which includes a 4D trajectory prediction engine for accurate profile calculation, taking into account aircraft type and performance, aircraft weight, airline operating procedures and preferences, meteorological information, as well as flight plan information and ATC procedures.

This advanced trajectory predictor also provides active advice for the ATC controllers.

Airways believes the combining of these two products will provide an almost perfect solution to FLOW management and flight optimisation.

Vision 2015

CAM is just one of a host of initiatives launched in 2005 by Airways as part of a 10 year strategic plan focused on partneringwith airlines to limit the aviation industry’s impact on the environment.

Vision 2015 takes a ‘whole of system’ approach to service delivery.

“With the predicted growth of aviation, Vision 2015 addresses issues of sustainability and ensures a coordinated approach to investment which will deliver sustainable outcomes,” says Jenkins. All told, there are no fewer than 13 major projects with 63 subprojects underway as part of Vision 2015.

A major project undertaken has been one of the largest installations in the Southern Hemisphere – 16 stations – of Multi- Lateration (MLat) and ADS-B with ERA around Queenstown. There are now plans to expand this network in 2012/13 as Airways commences its migration to ADS-B surveillance.

While RNP operations into Queenstown have enabled pilots to weave their way around treacherous mountains in foul weather, the air traffic controllers cannot see them.

MLat changes all that, and covers all the airspace to 9000ft while radar covers everything above 15,000ft. That 6000ft gap is procedural and will be closed with the installation of six more MLat stations to be installed by June 2013.

Jenkins notes that the project was not without its challenges, with the siting of the ERA Systems Corp supplied MLat equipment on remote mountain tops.

However, the installations have had minimal environmental impact with many of the MLat sites being solar powered.

MLat is based on the age old simple principle of triangulation, but whereas bearings used to be the cornerstone, MLat instead listens for transponder returns from TCAS equipped aircraft on a line of sight, which can be up to 300 miles for high flying aircraft.

MLat also monitors Mode-A/C, Mode-S, ADS-B and military transponders.

Update rate is every second and the data packet is sent to a centrally located processor before going to ATC, where the displays are identical to conventional radar.

In fact, the only difference is the refresh rate which is about every second compared to the typical 4. 8 second, 360 degree sweep rate for current NZ based radars. This gives controllers a smoother presentation.

And the advantages of MLat over radar just roll on.

The cost of installing the 16 units is about the same as a single secondary surveillance radar (SSR), but providing superior coverage in such a mountainous terrain area, while the maintenance cost is a fraction of the typical $20,000 a year for a single SSR.

According to Jenkins, Airways’ installation of MLat at Queenstown is considered “cutting edge and regarded as being amongst the best deployment in the world currently. ” “The accuracy and reliability of MLat allows controllers to know exactly where all the aircraft are operating in the Queenstown basin area, resulting in improved safety assurance and flight regularity. ” With such narrow manoeuvring airspace at Queenstown because of the mountains, it is very important to know exactly where aircraft are at all times. Complicating matters in the area are the hundreds of sightseeing helicopter and general aviation aircraft darting in amongst the rugged mountains that surround the airport.

Redesigning Queenstown

With MLat now operational and a forecast of 40 per cent growth over the next five years, Airways and the airlines have enlisted GE Aviation’s PBN Services for a redesign of the Queenstown PBN arrival and departure paths to improve both air traffic flow and access to all operators.

Airways are redesigning the controlled airspace and upper RNAV air routes that will be integrated with the RNP changes.

Using RNP, Naverus, now a division of GE Aviation, in conjunction with Airways, will redesign, validate and deploy approach and departure procedures for runways 23 and 05.

The RNP paths will be individually optimised for each participating airline in order to maximise fuel savings and reductions of CO2. At the same time, Airways will redesign conventional procedures to better accommodate non-RNP traffic. Together, the integrated paths will enable a more streamlined air traffic management process at Queenstown.

The airspace redesign will allow Airways to significantly increase capacity from five operations per hour to 12 or more, while lessening the complexity of air traffic management for controllers.

The airlines are now moving to ensure their scheduled jet operations are conducted using RNP procedures. RNP operations in Queenstown commenced in 2004, and the roll out has been considered one of the big success stories showcasing the benefits of RNP implementation.

The initial RNP tracks were primarily implemented at Queenstown to serve as a mechanism for one aircraft to manoeuvre through the mountainous terrain on a reliable, repeatable flightpath. With this next evolution of paths, Airways and GE are working to solve the capacity constraints while maintaining the benefits of RNP already realised at the airport.

Before RNP, Queenstown was closed on about 40 days of the year due to bad weather, while on a good day when the nearbyspectacular Milford Sound is accessible by air, the airport can handle 500 movements a day as well-heeled sightseers scramble to view the scenery from the air in helicopters and light aircraft.

Qantas introduced RNP operations to New Zealand in mid 2005 with the 737-800, with Air NZ following with its 737-300s in April 2007. Subsequently, Air NZ achieved a world first with certification of the A320 for RNP operations in 2008.

Jetstar too now flies RNP approaches into Queenstown with its A320s.

Aspiring

Airways and Air New Zealand blazed the trail on the ASPIRE initiative (Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions) in 2008 when NZ8 – a 777‑200ER – flew from Auckland to San Francisco in what was termed “one perfect flight”.

At the time, then Airways CEO Ashley Smout borrowed from Neil Armstrong and coined the “gate-to-gate optimised” flight “one small step for mankind”.

The 777-200ER that operated the flight, dubbed ASPIRE 1, consumed 4600 litres less fuel than normal using a host of strategies to minimise fuel usage. That translated into 12 tonnes fewer CO2 emissions.

Other key players were the FAA, Boeing, Airservices Australia, Qantas and United Airlines.

This year Air NZ began daily ASPIRE flights between Auckland and San Francisco, moving the program beyond the demonstration stage.

Through the year other airlines are expected to join Air NZ in flying daily ASPIRE routes between additional city pairs. Daily program procedures include User-Preferred Routes, Dynamic Airborne Reroute Procedures, 30/30 Reduced Oceanic Separation, Time-based Arrivals Management and Surface Departure and Arrival Optimisation.

Air NZ has calculated that if every flight could operate under these optimal conditions, the industry could achieve fuel savings of around $30 million annually for airlines flying across the Pacific to North America, with emissions reductions of over 100,000 tonnes.

Taking the lead

According to Airways new CEO Ed Sims, ANSPs are now a key part of enabling airlines to operate better.

“What is clear is that no one party has the solution – it has been the airlines to date that have driven the environmental message and the ANSPs have delivered to their brief,” says Sims.

Sims, formerly Air NZ group general manager international airline, certainly has the perspective from the airline side and knows well the role Air NZ has taken in pushing the environmental agenda.

“Airlines had capabilities in the aircraft that were not being exploited by ground based systems and so efficiency was wasted.

Now, however, as ANSPs around the globe begin to understand the issues, the solutions will come from collaborative effort that exploits existing capability, and builds new capability,” says Sims.

Jenkins adds that “ANSPs must drive these solutions as they are best placed to understand the whole picture and the interactions between all the actors in the system. Airlines, avionics manufacturers, ATM manufacturers and airports will now be looking to ANSPs for the lead. ” Sims notes that one of the industry’s challenges is to develop initiatives and technologies at the same speed as customers can adapt to them.

“ANSPs will increasingly need to lead by example and continue to come up with new ways of cutting emissions and improving sustainability. ” “The role of ANSP should be the integrator, not just the provider. Airlines and airports don’t always work as collaboratively as the industry needs. CAM is an example of an integrated product that benefits everyone. ” That drive and focus at Airways is also chalking up notable gains in safety.

In the year to June 30 2010, safety incidents were at a 10 year low with a 45 per cent reduction over the previous year.

Of the 1,149,313 air traffic movements, there were only 16 where required separation standards were not met. And from an operational point of view, Airways was online for its customers for all but one hour last financial year.

That type of performance, combined with cutting edge technology roll outs, is turning heads.

Airways has sold its systems and training services to dozens of ANSPs in countries that include China, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Taiwan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam and South Africa.

And Sims warns that with the “inevitable increase in air traffic it is even more important for ANSPs to adapt to, and adopt technology to increase capacity and make better use of airspace. With IATA’s declared zero emissions by 2050 target, it is imperative that we are able to demonstrate to the world at large – which perceives aviation as a significant polluter – that we are in fact using leading edge technology to drive change. ”