A stable approach

Of equal priority is easing congestion around principal airports and in fast-growing environments like Western Australia where aircraft operators vie for rapidly diminishing capacity as the buoyant domestic market continues to grow at rates above the world average. With Airbus, Boeing and industry institutions predicting the Asia Pacific region to grow at close to 50 per cent over the next 20 years, the airspace under Airservices’ management will feel the pressure, a fact that is shaping the organisation’s future thinking around the tools it will employ to optimise efficiency.

A number of these tools are already in the process of being rolled out. The progressive commissioning of ADS-B, multilateration, RNP approaches and local navigation aids such as GBAS (advanced surface movement guidance and control system) are beginning to create efficiencies.

The timing – and funding – of all these projects is coming together in what will be a fraught period over the next six years, during which approximately $1 billion will be spent as part of a rolling capital program.

In addition to the hardware and software solutions, the perpetually contentious plethora of community issues that centre around noise and emissions is also going to remain necessarily high on the agenda.

In this year’s annual review of air traffic management, we look at the strategic thinking that’s helping to shape the next evolution in air traffic management, the technology delivering improvements to efficiency and safety, and of course, the interaction between all the parties that together deliver and use air traffic services.

Leadership

These, then, are some of the crucial challenges Margaret Staib finds herself contending with. As the newly-appointed CEO of Airservices Australia, Staib’s seasoning as a former senior Defence logistician will be well tested as she assembles and implements Airservices’ strategy.

In her first media interview since taking office, Margaret Staib told Australian Aviation she relishes the challenge of setting out the priorities for Airservices over the coming years. And the priorities are many and equal in their importance.

Staib’s starting point reflects her pragmatic strategic approach. “I don’t want to break what is already fundamentally sound in the organisation,” she said, adding there is a lot for Airservices to be proud about that creates a solid foundation for the intense period of activity that is about to descend on the organisation’s 4000 staff.

“It’s about how we build on what’s already been accomplished.”

Airservices has already been through a period of relative anxiety that has seen industrial antagonism, degenerating infrastructure and an unfortunately high profile executive disembowling.

Now the organisation is more at ease with itself and preparing to work under a leader who brings a steadying hand with valuable insight into an area that Airservices is now working with closely – Defence.

Air Vice Marshall Staib’s role in defence was, after all, one of the principal reasons she secured the job at Airservices, at a time when close collaboration with Defence is paramount to the delivery of Australia’s most ambitious technology program since the late 90s when TAAATS was under development.

New ATM system

“We are very aligned about what we need to do,” Staib said about the coalition of Defence and Airservices working towards delivering the specification for the system that will underpin the coming tender for the new ATM system.

Integrating the hitherto disparate ADATS and TAAATS systems is as much common sense as ground-breaking. The coincidence of these two systems needing replacement, together with the prospect of tangible cost and operational efficiencies that come from a single integrated system, are the key drivers for the project.

“There is absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t have a harmonised system. It makes sense, and Defence and ASA agree on this point at the highest levels,” Staib said, adding pragmatic caution. “But I recognise it will be a challenge to bring our organisations along on that journey. But from what I have seen so far, the mechanisms are in place to achieve that.

“We have integrated teams understanding exactly what the common requirement is and the differences lie, but the commonality is larger than the differences, which are more around the deployability of the new system from a defence perspective,” Staib explained, referring to the ADF’s ability to practicably and securely take the system into the field when required.

“I’m very confident and we’re making solid progress.”

For Staib, the project is entering its most critical phase. In December, Airservices and Defence are giving industry briefings to potential bidders for the project and during the first half of 2013 will launch a request for tenders.

“I want to be very deliberate about this process because we can’t afford to not get it right,” Staib said with an emphasis that underlines her insistence for rigour and sound governance, particularly in this vital early phase of agreement on specification of the requirements.

“We are very close to achieving that, which is a solid foundation from which to work.”

So, what does success look like? “An RFT that is ‘biddable’ against and that creates strong competition in the market. It is then about understanding what concepts we want to support the system in terms of through-life support and development.”

While it would be easy to get captivated by the technological geewhizzery of the new system, Staib is focused solely on process right now, towards ensuring this critical project starts with the robustness such a complex project will demand from end-to-end.

Funding for the new ATM system will be drawn from the $1 billion that is already approved for the rolling replacement of Airservices’ infrastructure.

As a result of government-initiated spending cuts, the program has slipped by 12 months, but Staib assures the funding levels have not been affected.

“I am confident the whole program will be sufficiently funded.”

Once transition from ADATS and TAAATS to the new system is complete some time between 2018 and 2020, Staib said future opportunities for co-operation between defence and Airservices will be explored.

“We will be looking for more opportunities than just the future ATM system, with the possibility of moving into areas where greater co-ordination and harmonisation can promote efficiencies.”

Beyond this outline, Staib is not prepared to discuss the new system to any greater detail for fear of influencing the tender process. Suffice to say: “I want it to be a transformation in the way air services are delivered.”

Developments

Looking further afield, Airservices has long been recognised as a “test bed” for future ATM technologies. Notwithstanding the busy air traffic corridors Airservices manages in certain sectors of its airspace, the expansive geographic coverage has seen Australia’s air navigation service provider (ANSP) looked at closely with interest by other ANSPs developing their own systems. While co-operation between Airservices and other airspace managers will remain close under Staib’s leadership, as will Airservices’ role in CANSO, ICAO and other international forums, she does not see the development of Airservices’ future needs as being driven for technology’s sake.

“It is not our express goal to be leading edge but it’s about embracing technology to solve some of our challenges such as growth.”

Rather, the ability to seamlessly fit into the next generation of ATM systems being developed by Airservices’ counterparts around the Australian FIR is more critical.

“You have to fit into the global network so interoperability is important. This is the driver for upgrades and the investments we are making in new systems,” Staib explained. “Being at the leading edge can be fraught with danger!”

While emphatically not looking to pursue international contracts in the way some ANSPs have, preferring to “make sure we get it right at home”, reciprocal learning is high on the new CEO’s agenda.

“Benchmarking is important and we can learn from other ANSPs in the same way we hope they will be able to learn from us.

“Cross-jurisdictional work is proving to be beneficial,” Staib said, noting that learnings from Airservices’ work in ADS-B has already improved relationships and operational efficiency with Indonesia.

“ADS-B is a good example where data sharing with Indonesia has eased management of up to 50 international movements across Indonesia each night to Australia.”

ADS-B has been a material contributor to improved efficiency domestically as much as it has been in effecting better control of international flights.

Alliance Airlines in particular has been quick to seize on the benefits of ADS-B. The airline is nearing completion of the installation of ADS-B equipment aboard its fleet of Fokker 100s, something Alliance says was in part, at least, to improve operational efficiency around congested airspace and terminal areas, particularly in Western Australia.

“It’s been very quick to see the savings from ADS-B, not only from a cost point of view, but it has also meant an increase in safety and better service to our customers,” Scott McMillan of Alliance Airlines said.

Roll out of ADS-B continues with 29 duplicated ground stations nationwide, 14 ADS-B multilateration sites around Tasmania and 16 sites around Sydney, the latter contributing to optimised parallel approaches in instrument conditions. A further 14 sites around Australia are currently being considered and are the subject of ongoing discussions with airlines and airports as the efficiency improvements already experienced become an increasingly compelling argument for expansion of the ADS-B network.

The ADS-B program continues to move towards the December 2013-mandated requirement for aircraft operating in airspace above 28,000 feet to be fitted with ADS-B transponders. Thereafter, the requirements will be progressively mandated to all IFR aircraft by February 2017.

Airservices estimates around 60 per cent of the domestic airline fleet has been fitted with ADS-B and that 73 per cent of all flights at or above 29,000 feet within Australian airspace have already been fitted with ADS-B transponders. Airservices greatest concern, however, rests with the business aviation fleet, which has been slow to adopt the technology. The latest data shows only five per cent of Australian-registered business jets have been fitted with ADS-B.

Collaboration

One of the single greatest challenges for operators is the growing congestion around Perth, Brisbane and Sydney Airports. While ADS-B is delivering immediate and tangible benefits to operators, airport and terminal area congestion has been eroding efficiencies gained elsewhere.

Reflecting the close relationships Airservices has with other ANSPs, the UK’s NATS was commissioned to undertake work to help inform the development of systems and procedures to ease congestion and improve capacity management around major airports in Australia. NATS’ experience in flow control in the heavily trafficked UK airspace is contributing usefully to Airservices’ own plans for the progressive roll out of flow control along the eastern seaboard and in areas of Western Australia.

Airservices’ collaborative decision-making (CDM) is seeing the management of air traffic partly abrogated to users who now stand to contribute to the solution of airport-based delays rather than simply be recipients of them.

Under CDM, aircraft are held on the ground at the departure airport when capacity at the destination is exceeded, rather than by managing aircraft in flight with continual costly and work-intensive speed, vector and altitude changes.

The flow management software used by Airservices to support the CDM initiative, developed by US-based Metron, has also been installed in Perth for early trials, though with less spectacular success than Sydney largely as a result of chronic ground capacity constraints in Perth that are (at present, at least) beyond the ability of Metron to fix despite some easing having been apparent as a result of the CDM measures.

The new approach to flow management has already netted an average five-minute reduction in flight times between Melbourne and Sydney and has reduced airborne holding at Sydney during peak periods to an average of less than 97 seconds. This relies on 90 per cent of operators complying with the new system.

Metron is expected to be rolled out at imminently at Brisbane and at Melbourne during the first half of 2013.

Just as CDM is now becoming a proven concept to improve efficiency at major airports and for Australia’s airlines, the underlying principle of consultation is another of Staib’s high priorities.

While clear in her conviction about the importance of sound relationships with Airservices’ key customers and stakeholders, just as she is with her colleague ANSPs, Staib doesn’t shy away from the need for improvement and in fact seizes upon it as an opportunity.

“I am sensing we can do better on working better with our customers and stakeholders. One of my priorities is to build the relationships.”

Staib draws on the example of CDM to see how this approach can be applied in all areas of Airservices’ interaction with customers and stakeholders.

“Airservices is in a strong position to see the needs of all aviation stakeholders such as airports and airlines, all of which typically see their own operations individually. But we have a more rounded or ‘global’ picture by which we can bring everyone together to form a holistic solution.

“I recognise I don’t have licence over the whole system and we can only gain efficiencies and solve problems by working together,” Staib said with a degree of pragmatism that eschews the arrogance Airservices once suffered from and which contributed to an inability to form joint approaches to solving challenges.

“It is the ‘system approach’ and looking at the whole system and its contributory parts that will arrive at a good outcome. It’s about trying understand what each [party] is trying to optimise.”

The use of operational data is becoming an increasingly important – and necessary – to improve efficiency. There has been a natural and historical reservation by airlines to share commercially sensitive information with Airservices, but on the basis of trust and towards achieving optimised performance, Airservices has proved it can use this information to deliver tangible benefits, such as has been the case with CDM in Sydney and Perth.

“The data is independent of commercial sensitivities and speaks for itself.” Staib explained. “Metron as a flow tool is a very good example of how we have been able to overcome commercial sensitivities to deliver better efficiency through the sharing of information.”

Access

While CDM and Metron are delivering palpable benefits as tools to manage the capacity that exists at major airports, it is the capacity itself that continues to present the greater challenge.

Access to Australia’s major airports is reaching a chronic stage. The succession of federal and state governments’ inability to reach a solution to the capacity crisis stands to create at least economic embarrassment if nothing else, and that the second airport for Sydney has been under debate since the mid-40s is certainly a political embarrassment at the very least. But the new Airservices CEO’s is not going to step into political debate. She is focusing solely on optimising the ever-diminishing capacity that remains in the face of the continuing escalation in demand.

“It’s a finite resource,” Staib says of capacity. “It’s about understanding airspace has to be shared and that it’s a finite resource that has to be optimised.”

While scheduled services will always have priority access to airports, the growth of charter services and business aviation around Australia is creating even greater demands on access.

There are heightening concerns by the growing business aviation sector in Australia that preclusion from terminal airspace will harm the big business that typically uses corporate aircraft and ultimately affect the sale and support of business aircraft, something the industry at large depends on.

Aeromil’s Steve Padgett, told Australian Aviation there are ongoing issues for users and buyers of his Cessna business aircraft at major airports. He said airspace access around Sydney, Perth and now Brisbane was becoming a high priority for him and his colleague dealers.

It is a view echoed by the industry’s peak association, the Australian Business Aviation Association (ABAA), which has protested actively against what it sees as restrictive attitudes of major airports – and Airservices – towards the non-scheduled nature of business aviation.

In September, following a meeting of its members, the ABAA chairman Michael Keenan wrote to Airservices Australia requesting the association become a member of the consultation group that reviews airport capacity and demand management. Of particular concern is what Kennan considers to be an apparent poor understanding of the need to integrate business aviation into the broader considerations of demand management at major airports, and he is seeking to have a seat at the table.

“We pointed out that there appears to be little understanding of business aviation operations by the airline industry even though business jet performance is usually equal to or superior to the airlines, and our aircraft can easily be slotted into the ATC system,” Keenan said, adding: “The ABAA seeks the opportunity to contribute in a positive and constructive manner.”

While not responding directly to the ABAA’s concerns, Staib said of demand management: “We recognise there will be times when some people are not happy, but we must achieve a sensible balance,” Staib said.

[Do you want to comment specifically?????]

Commenting from an airline perspective, AIPA vice president Richard Woodward said although there was very good co-operation with Airservices in a number areas, notably the airport representative liaison scheme, broader airspace management consultation is lacking.

“I would say we haven’t been consulted in any significant manner about changing procedures or operations in airspace management,” he said. “No-one knows whether (ATC) systems are working better than the average line pilot, so I would certainly encourage more cooperation.”

Woodward also has concerns about apparent shortages of controllers, something he said is the single biggest issue.

“Airservices is short of experienced controllers and they’ve had to change procedures to cope with the shortage of staffing levels. That’s resulted in some effect on our operations,” he said, citing a recent example in which a Los Angeles-bound A380 was delayed on departure. “Recently there was a significant delay in Sydney because one approach controller was sick and they couldn’t fill the gap meaning they had to change procedures.

“We’re seeing a dearth of qualified controllers showing and it’s only going to get worse unless they can manage to make the career more attractive,” Woodward said.

Airservices acknowledges that on occasion, with high demand levels and highly prescriptive regulations over controller hours, instances will occur when a number of factors conspire to bring performance below normal standards.

“There is no shortage of air traffic controllers – we currently employ 922 operational controllers against a core requirement of 743,” Staib said in reply to AIPA’s claims. “On October 21 a number of rostered staff at our Sydney air traffic control facility called in sick at very short notice. Every attempt was made to replace all unavailable controllers, including contacting all off-duty controllers. This was an issue of short-term absenteeism and not a shortage of air traffic controllers,” Staib added, noting this was the sort of issue that a new CEO needs to manage effectively both in terms of cause and in terms of perceptions that are created.

“We’ve undertaken detailed workforce planning in recent times to better understand or resource requirements in the future, particularly given projected growth. We also have to implement strategies to address an ageing workforce,” Staib said, reflecting on a workforce issue that is common across the industry.

Despite it all, Margaret Staib remains enthusiastic about her charge.

“I’m confident we’ll be well positioned to meet our challenges.”