Joining Up

In the case of OneSKY, an unprecedented partnership between Airservices and Defence to develop a new integrated air traffic management (ATM) system is breaking new ground to improve coordination and reduce cost.

Meanwhile, the 80 foreign airlines and domestic carriers operating services in Australia that vie for increasingly congested airspace are being facilitated through yet closer cooperation between airports, airlines, aircraft manufacturers and Airservices.

At the same time, Australia continues to play an important role in enhancing the operational and environmental efficiency of aircraft that, without enhanced ATM processes and systems, cannot realise the potential airframe and engine manufacturers are building into new generation aircraft.

It is making for a dynamic – and challenging – time for Airservices.

OneSKY

Chief among the multitude of Airservices’ almost $1 billion capital plan for the next five years is OneSKY, described as “a once in a generation” opportunity to create

This is something on a scale that isn’t being done anywhere else right now. JASON HARFIELD – AIRSERVICES ONESKY PROGRAM LEADER

a unified solution to Australia’s future air traffic management needs, which is making sound progress despite what some observers see as a furtive – and expensive – start.

It is no surprise a project of the magnitude of OneSKY is swallowing up significant funds. The concept of integrating civil and military ATM was always a bold, albeit pragmatic solution to improving cost and operational efficiency.

Airservices says the project cost thus far has been in the order of $30 million over the four years it has been under serious development. While the figure may seem extraordinary given this amount has been expended to get just to request for tender stage, as Airservices’ Jason Harfield, executive general manager future service delivery, said: “To put it into perspective, by the time we implement OneSKY you’re looking at a $600 million infrastructure program. The amount spent on the RFT was around five per cent of the total project cost. ” Indeed, keeping such a time and resource-hungry process, when considering the strategic boundaries OneSKY is crossing, to just five per cent of the total project cost is commendable. More so, perhaps, given overheads on many major infrastructure projects can be as high as 15 per cent.

“The figure is around expectations for the timeframe. Obviously we would have liked it to be less and to have issued the RFT earlier. ” OneSKY was about 12 months late going to the market, a fact Harfield said was warranted to get the specifications agreed between Defence and Airservices.

“It has been important that we take account of the variances to the core system requirements that come from the specific operational differences between civil and military without compromising either. They weren’t constraints, but took time to work through to get solutions,” he added, noting, “We wanted to work through all those issues well before we went to RFT. ” Despite reports about budget blow-outs and the project being mired in red tape, OneSKY is making progress.

“There is avid interest (from the market),” Harfield said. “Interest was always going to be strong simply because of the magnitude of the OneSKY project. ” What is making OneSKY even more attractive to tenderers is the delay to other major ATM projects of global significance, notably Europe’s SESAR program and the US’s NextGen project. In the case of the US, federal budget constraints are seeing the new generation ATM system slip well to the right. In Europe, the integration of 27 member states’ air traffic systems into one has been beset by bureaucracy, costrelated arguments, regional recession and is now mired in industrial unrest.

“With NextGen and SESAR pushing out, and us being first to approach the market, the suppliers are expressing massive interest,because whoever is the successful tenderer suddenly has a showroom to get into the US and European markets. ” This has given Airservices a lead on its counterparts’ ATM developments, something it accepts as both a challenge, being now the lead country in next-generation ATM development, and a potential boon for the OneSKY project.

“We’re implementing something that’s going to manage more than 11 per cent of the earth’s surface and we’re doing it combined withDefence. Really, this is something on a scale that isn’t being done anywhere else right now. ” With interoperability between ANSPs a key element of ATM modernisation, Harfield is not concerned that Australia’s lead ahead of other projects will harm the functionality of OneSKY when it is commissioned progressively between 2018 and 2020.

“There’s nothing that will present a challenge in terms of interoperability as a result of Airservices moving ahead of the US and Europe. ” In addition to joining the military and civil-user requirements, OneSKY also represents a departure in other ways from the conventional approach to operating ATM in Australia. Harfield explained previous systems such as TAAATS (The Australian Advanced Air Traffic System) were end-toend systems that offered little modularity, thus making it more difficult to upgrade as technology and practice evolve.

“This will be the last time we upgrade for full replacement,” he explained, adding the new system will be deliberately modularised so that components can be upgraded to take account of new regulatory requirements, technology advances or other developments without the need for a whole-of-system replacement.

“The system cannot remain static.

We’re designing it so it has the flexibility to be upgraded throughout its life.

“We’re procuring a system that we are implementing in 2018 that will last us until at least 2035, so a lot of what will be contained in the tender submissions will represent a ‘technology road map’ towards the end date, not necessarily as technology stands today. ” With every realisation of the challenges the program willpresent, Harfield said: “With the changing dynamic of the ATM industry, the way we manage traffic is changing at the same time to deal with the growth and the capacity-constrained environment. It means we’re transforming our services at the same time as replacing the backbone system. It’s a big challenge. ” Likening OneSKY’s management to surgical precision: “I equate this project to being like a heart/lung transplant on a marathon runner. At the same time we have the complexities of transition, there will be the Commonwealth Games and new parallel runways coming on line in Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne. So the work we’re doing is not only preparing the patient for the operation, we have to be able to run the marathon and do the operation at the same time – and not miss a beat. ” “It’s something we can’t fail at,” he said emphatically.

Although 12 months later than expected in issuing the tender, Harfield, as leader of the program,is committed to maintaining schedule integrity.

“Despite the delay getting the RFT out we are still aiming for a contract signature by mid-2015 and we are keeping on track for implementation in 2018,” he told Australian Aviation.

Inspired savings

In early September Airservices and Emirates conducted two demonstration flights on 777-300-operated Dubai-Brisbane and Brisbane-Auckland sectors to gauge the improved environmental impact of an ‘optimum flight’, facilitated by minimising on-ground delays, using expedient taxiways and runways, conducting gradual climb and descent paths while flying direct optimum routes based on existing meteorological and airspace conditions.

The flights were part of the INSPIRE (Indian Ocean Strategic Partnership to Reduce Emissions) and ASPIRE (Asia and Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions) programs, and were the most recent of more than 100 similar flights conducted that have so far indicated a fuel saving of 740kg and 2. 3 tonnes of CO2 on flights of a similar stage length to that performed by Emirates in September.

The Brisbane flight used a company-preferred route across the Indian Ocean and through Australian domestic airspace, then on arrival the flight conducted a continuous descent approach to Brisbane as an example of the gate-to-gate solution that is helping to drive efficiencies across all routes.

“The first flex tracking conducted by Emirates on the Dubai-Australia sector in 2004 saw a saving of 44 minutes,” said Greg Hood, Airservices’ acting executive general manager, air traffic control.

“We’ve been doing it ever since. We’re moving into long-range flow management. ” The demonstration flights are not just confined to Emirates. Qantas, which was a pioneer of satellite-based navigation on trans-Pacific routes together with Airservices, Boeing and Airways New Zealandunder the FANS (Future Air Navigation System) program in the mid-90s, operated its inaugural A380 service from Los Angeles to Sydney under the principles of ASPIRE.

On October 22 2008, QF94 used electrical power on the ground in Los Angeles rather than running its auxiliary power unit and was given priority clearance from air traffic control for taxiing and departure, a priority departure route out of Los Angeles and unimpeded climb through to cruise altitude, a userpreferred route for the most efficient path taking into account winds and aircraft weight, and two real-time updates of current weather and wind conditions that allowed the flight crew to modify their flightpath.

Three weeks later a United Airlines flight saved more than 15,000 litres of fuel and cut up to 19,000kg of carbon emissions on a single trans- Pacific flight.

“The demonstration flights provide an opportunity to identify any operational issues that need to be addressed before an optimisation can be implemented as a daily practice,” Hood explained. “The methodology we use is to demonstrate and progress to regular operational trials, and then move a practice into normal operations. This approach supports safe implementation. ” Today, more than 500 flights a month are conducted under ASPIRE alone.

Between them, ASPIRE and INSPIRE now have some 14 airlines participating and Airservices is one of more than a dozen ANSPs collaborating in the projects.

As chief operating officer of the US Federal Aviation Administration, David Grizzle, explained: “Fortunately, reducing jet fuel cost and emissions are two sides of the same coin. Through the ASPIRE partnership, we’re making progress on both fronts – on cost and emissions. We’re employing morefuel-efficient air traffic procedures on more international city pairs than ever before. We’ve put collaborative decision-making in our toolbox so that aviation community stakeholders can collectively prioritise the most fuel-efficient options whenever safety allows it.

“All of this progress is good for the aviation industry, good for the taxpayer and good for the planet.

It’s a level of progress that comes about through great teamwork between nations and between government and industry. Step by step, we’re making a profound difference in the way global aviation works,” Grizzle concluded, in testimony to the successes of the collaborations thus far.

Such have been the successes of ASPIRE and INSPIRE that the principles have now become the cornerstone of driving efficiency into long and short-haul routes, from some of the longest nonstop sectors in the world to regional international and domestic services.

“Airservices has a dedicated team that looks for opportunities to improve route flexibility for our customers,” Hood said. “They seek optimisation within the current environment, but also look for additional flex tracks and userpreferred routes between specific city pairs. ” This approach is being replicated at each of the participating ANSPs for the regions the respective projects represent, ensuring a joined-up and consistent approach to the potentials of satellitebased navigation under a cohesive collaborative working arrangement.

It is now a routine – but still developing – approach to air avigation.

All in the message

It is the interaction between ANSPs that is the key vehicle for navigation in the satellite-based world.

“I think the world has come to the

Fortunately, reducing jet fuel costs and emissions are two sides of the same coin. DAVID GRIZZLE – FAA

realisation that you can’t work in isolation,” Hood said.

“Certainly in the last 10 years the cooperation between airlines, ANSPs, regulators, airports and aircraft manufacturers has improved significantly. ” Automation of messaging is at the heart of initiatives in Australia and its regional neighbours to produce a seamless ATM service that delivers efficiencies but also improves safety.

“We’re seeing a heavy investment in this infrastructure right across the region,” Hood said, throwing importance on a regional solution as traffic between Asia and Australia swells.

Airservices and Australian regulators have been working closely with ANSPs adjoining the Brisbane FIR (flight information region), notably Indonesia, with which Australian authorities have been cooperating to create a more seamless approach to traffic transiting the FIR boundary.

“In our discussions with our northern neighbours we are confident they are also making significant improvements to the way they are providing services,” Hood explained. “Levels of systemic safety have certainly increased” where consistency of automated messaging occurs such as between Australia, New Zealand and the United States. “We see a very low incident rate where automated systems are matched at FIR boundaries. ” In situations where automated messaging does not occur across FIR boundaries, Hood said: “In those types of situations you are faced with an increased potential for human error. ” However, the investments being made by Indonesia and Mauritius, as examples, are testament to collective desire for the joining up of ATM systems to facilitate forecast growth rates.

“I’d be very confident that in five years we’ll have systems that talk to each other and that seamless messaging will exist across the region,” Hood concluded.

For airlines, the combined changes to practices on the ground and in the air stand to be immense.

Emirates points to potential savings of 430,000 litres of fuel annually for every one minute of single-engine taxiing per aircraft movement.

Separation anxiety

As much as automated messaging and the seamless control of aircraft across FIR boundaries is the utopia of the new air traffic management world, it comes with a new set of challenges.

“User-preferred routes do add complexity. When we had fixed crossing routes you had very clear calculations of separation points.

When routes change every day it means conflict points change every day. That presents challenges to the controller to manage separation, especially outside of the airspace supported by surveillance. The implementation of ADS-B across Australia has realised substantial increases in surveillance across Australia above flight level 200,” Hood explained.

To address the increase in userpreferred routes, a priority for Hood and his team over the coming period is “to achieve better conflict alerting”.

But it is in conflict avoidance and alerting that ADS-B also plays a critical role in both the Australian FIR and in adjoining airspace blocks.

ADS-B allows controllers to apply a radar-like standard to separation in busier airspace and it has become animportant tool for managing aircraft through the airspace between Australia and Indonesia.

In 2010 Airservices and the Indonesian Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) reached a formal agreement to exchange enhanced flight data for aircraft travelling across the two countries’ FIR boundaries.

The agreement has since enabled air traffic controllers to precisely track aircraft up to 150nm inside the other country’s airspace using ADS-B technology, giving more precise information about an aircraft’s position, altitude, speed and other data, twice a second.

Data from four Australian ADS-B ground stations is transmitted to Makassar Air Traffic Services Centre in Sulawesi. Airservices’ Brisbane ATC Centre receives reciprocal data from four ADS-B ground stations in Indonesia.

At the time of announcing the arrangement, Airservices said the arrangement would respond to “a long-standing need to have surveillance coverage available along the boundary for air traffic control in both regions. ” Although automated messaging will greatly enhance the safety of aircraft transiting the FIR boundary between Australia and Indonesia, ADS-B will continue to apply another layer of safety both in the meantime and once automated messaging is in place.

Airservices has been working steadfastly towards the December 12 mandate for all aircraft operating in Australian airspace above FL290 to be fitted with compatible ADS-B transponders. But as Hood admits, the technology can only do so much.

And some operators will be looking to seek an exemption from the mandate through CASA, particularly corporate aviation operators.

“The industry has known of the CASA mandate for ADS-Bsince early 2009. Unfortunately some corporate jet operators have invested in aircraft without insisting on delivery of ADS-B with the aircraft,” Hood said. While he acknowledged some aircraft manufacturers have also been slow to respond to the mandate by not producing suitable avionics packages, Hood’s concerns are exacerbated by the fact some 45 business aircraft have been imported into Australia without ADS-B equipage since the mandate was published.

With only 25 per cent of corporate aircraft registered in Australia compliant thus far and with the December deadline looming, Hood’s ATC team will be forced into one of two directions to manage the estimated 106 aircraft that won’t be compliant.

Controllers will either have to discern between ADS-B-equipped and non-equipped aircraft, which as Hood said is: “problematic for us”, or for CASA to publish an exemption for non-equipped aircraft to operate in radar and trans-oceanic airspace, something the regulator is considering. It is currently in consultation with industry on a proposed rulemaking.

“There is some disquiet among the bizjet community in relation to being held below FL290, (but) it would be inappropriate to deny the ADS-B benefits to the whole (equipped) fleet if we waited for new (corporate) aircraft. ” On the possibility of an exemption, Hood said: “We are carefully examining our options in relation to any exemptions that may be issued by CASA and are mindful of our primary focus on safety – in radar surveillance airspace and across the oceanic airspace, we would be prepared to facilitate that. ” Nonetheless, Airservices strongly supports the mandate since it

Emirates points to potential savings of 430,000 litres of fuel annually for every one minute of single-engine taxiing per aircraft movement.

will provide safety and efficiency benefits to the more than 90 per cent of flights that already comply with the requirement.

Adding to the 29 duplicated ground stations already in place, two more have recently been commissioned at Point Lookout near Coffs Harbour, and at Mount Hardgrave on North Stradbroke Island, near Brisbane. Over the next three years Airservices will install another 14 ADS-B ground stations to provide additional surveillance coverage at lower altitudes and to support future ADS-B mandates.

To further extend coverage in increasingly busy traffic areas, Airservices is looking at the possibility of installing ADS-B stations on offshore gas and oil platforms in the northwest of Western Australia.

Terminal velocity

Such is the speed with which air traffic is growing that terminal area and on-airport traffic management have become two of Airservices’ most daunting challenges.

“Australia has seen a growth in traffic at our major airports of between four per cent in Melbourne and nine per cent in Perth,” Hood noted, adding: “The challenge to Airservices is to actively manage this traffic growth without a blowout in delays. ” Again, collaboration has been integral to balancing growth and infrastructure capacity, which in the cases of Brisbane, Perth and Sydney, are the critical dimensions to often very public criticism.

However, “the level of compliance behaviours between all parties is very pleasing,” Hood said. “This

Now the airlines have much more predictability as far as arrival times are concerned. GREG HOOD – AIRSERVICES

has resulted in a real smoothing of demand and the saturation that occurred around Sydney, for example, no longer occurs as it once did. It was a pretty ugly place to be from an air traffic control point of view,” he added matter-of-factly, pointing to the now common use of ground-based delays rather than air holding. “Collaborative decision-making has transferred delays from air hold to ground hold, which reduces emissions and fuel consumption.

“Now the airlines have much more predictability as far as arrival times are concerned. ” The use of the pre-tactical flow management tool Metron, despite its stormy introduction at some airports for the changes to practice the system brought, Hood said has enabled Airservices to reduce traffic advisory fuel notifications for Sydney from 25 to 20 minutes and at Perth from 30 to 20 minutes. The cumulative impact of these changes is a tangible all-round benefit.

Although mired in an increasingly popular uprising against inadequate airport infrastructure, without Metron Brisbane Airport would arguably be in an even worse situation than it is. When the system was introduced there in December 2012, Hood said he saw an abatement in the growth of delays.

“We saw an immediate reduction in the average peak delay of seven minutes and a reduction in the highest peak from more than 60 minutes down to 35 minutes. ” Indeed, while Brisbane’s runway demand management scheme allocates 680 slots per day, the airport is regularly meeting a demand of up to 730 movements a day. The implementation of Metron helps smoothe demand across the peak hours to minimise airborne delays.

That notwithstanding, the experiences at Brisbane are salient, for although ATM systems and collaboration can improve throughput and reduce delays, they can only optimise the utilisation of existing finite assets.

The investments in OneSKY, ADS-B, ASPIRE and INSPIRE and new airport traffic management systems are already paying dividends. While the evaluation of OneSKY tenders is undertaken and the ADS-B mandate passes, the next 12 months for Airservices will be wrought with challenge.

But as Jason Harfield said in conclusion: “We have to get it right. ”