Airlines Will Reap Benefits From New Oceanic Control System

Experts Predict Reduced Separation, Increased Fuel Efficiency

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has taken an important step forward in the modernization of its oceanic air-traffic control (ATC) system, a project which aviation experts say will cut flight times and increase fuel efficiency for all international flights into or out of the U.S.

On May 24 the FAA announced that it has selected a group headed by Lockheed Martin to undertake the Advanced Technologies and Oceanic Procedures (ATOP) project. For the past several months, the FAA has been considering whether to choose Lockheed Martin, which already supplies many systems to the agency, or a rival team led by ARINC.

The current paper-based system used by the FAA is considered by most to be inefficient and outdated. Once installed, the new system will give controllers the ability to reduce separation between aircraft on oceanic routes, and will give pilots greater flexibility to choose their own routes.

The FAA has now entered the negotiation stage with Lockheed Martin. A contract should be drawn up within a month, but it may take between two and three years to install the new system, said Lockheed Martin spokesperson Judy Gan.

Although no figures have been released by the FAA, some reports claim that the contract is worth US$500 million.

The Lockheed Martin team also includes Adacel Technologies and Airways Corporation of New Zealand. Adacel supplies the oceanic air-traffic management system, which is operated in New Zealand. For the FAA contract, the system will be scaled up, and will incorporate Lockheed Martin's surveillance data processing system known as Micro-EARTS.

The U.S. controls 80 percent, or 23 million square miles, of the world's oceanic airspace from its centers in Anchorage, Oakland, and New York City. An FAA official said that the importance of oceanic ATC for airline operations is demonstrated by revenue figures. Although only 5 percent of U.S. traffic is oceanic, it generates US$28 billion in revenue a year. In the U.S., oceanic flights account for 60 percent of cargo revenue and 28 percent of passenger revenue.

By 2010, the amount of revenue generated by oceanic flights will have climbed by almost 50 percent to US$40 billion a year, the FAA official said. However, this growth would cause significant congestion without the ATOP project.

Lockheed Martin Seeks New Customers For Oceanic System

While the ATOP program will give the U.S. the most up-to-date oceanic system in the world, the greatest savings for airlines will come when such advanced systems are used on both ends of a transoceanic trip. Lockheed officials believe that the U.S. contract will give the company additional leverage in marketing the system overseas.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the United Kingdom is a potential target for the company, as negotiations between the government and another oceanic ATC provider have stalled. Lockheed already supplies en-route ATC technology to the UK, Gan said.

In addition, Portugal operates a more basic version of the system that Lockheed is installing in the U.S., and there is a possibility that Lockheed will modernize this system.

Across the Pacific, New Zealand was the first to introduce the system that Lockheed is marketing, and Australia operates a similar advanced system. Many Southeast Asian nations are testing automated oceanic systems, and are expected to soon offer tenders.

The more prevalent the Lockheed system, the greater the benefits from "global harmonization" of oceanic ATC, Gan said.

Controllers Say ATOP Will Allow Route Changes

The FAA's current oceanic system requires controllers to manually track oceanic flights on paper using radio reports. The new system will automatically collect, manage, and display aircraft information, utilizing tools such as automatic dependent surveillance (ADS), flight and radar data processing, controller-pilot datalink, and conflict probe.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) was closely involved with the ATOP selection process, and has enthusiastically endorsed the FAA decision to award the contract to Lockheed, NATCA project liaison Kevin Chamness told World Airline News. The automated system will give controllers the flexibility they need to approve pilot requests for route changes, Chamness said, which means pilots can better avoid adverse weather and wind conditions. Currently, controllers are not able to approve many requests as they spend 70 percent of their time updating paper records.

Because Atlantic routes are more crowded than in the Pacific, observers say Pacific flights will be more likely to benefit from the ability to alter routes.

Separation Standards Can Be Reduced

In addition to this increased flexibility, the ADS system means aircraft position can be plotted more accurately, as it gives position reports automatically and much more frequently.

It is this increased accuracy that means separation standards can be reduced. ATOP will allow the FAA to apply International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) separation standards in both the Pacific and Atlantic that the agency is unable to apply now due to technology limitations.

For example, ICAO has approved a 50 nautical mile (nm) separation for the Pacific, but FAA regulations state that ADS is required for its controllers to use the ICAO standard. FAA controllers currently use a time-based 10 minute separation between aircraft, which translates to around 80nm.

ATOP will allow controllers to begin using the 50nm standard, and Chamness said efforts are underway to reduce separation standards in the Pacific to 30nm.

Reduced separation will also be possible on Atlantic routes, where ICAO may also consider reducing current levels. ATOP will permit FAA to "apply all existing [ICAO] standards and planned standards," Chamness said.

System Proves Worth In New Zealand

The New Zealand experience with a similar oceanic system supports the predictions of greater efficiency and reduced separation.

Airways Group Manager for Technology and Support Andrew Griffith said that New Zealand was the first to install satellite-based oceanic ATC systems in 1995, and Lockheed helped enhance the system in 1999.

New Zealand controllers were maintaining aircraft separation distances of 100-120nm using radio reports before the new system was installed, and now they use the ICAO standard of 50nm. The New Zealand system will be able to take advantage of a 30nm separation standard if that is introduced in two or three years.

"From an air-traffic controller's point of view, there is a better visual feel of where aircraft are," Griffith said. Flexible routing means pilots can "dynamically change" their tracks to take advantage of wind or weather conditions and maximize fuel efficiency.

When pilots can take advantage of advanced oceanic control systems at both ends of their flights, the benefits are maximized, Griffith said. For example, a flight from Los Angeles to Australia or New Zealand could shave off 15 minutes using advanced systems compared to manual systems.

While that appears to be a small fuel saving, over a year this would mean "a real payoff for airlines," said Griffith. - Adrian Schofield

Major Traffic Routes Affected By FAA Oceanic Control

The New York oceanic center controls a portion of four major traffic flows in ICAO's NAT region.

NAT OTS: As a result of seasonal variations in the North Atlantic wind patterns, a portion of these tracks often fall into U.S. airspace. The dense air traffic in this region limits the allowable crossing situations, which results in a highly organized fixed traffic flow. The main tracks are developed based on the forecasted winds aloft data that is available twice daily.

EUR-CAR: This flow is from the Iberian Peninsula to the Caribbean or South America. A flex track system is being utilized for this traffic which provides for better alignment with the winds aloft and better utilization of prime altitudes.

EUR-NAM: Traffic between Europe and North America, consisting of random routes adapted to wind conditions.

WATRS: The portion of Caribbean traffic controlled by New York is dominated by the Western Atlantic Route System (WATRS). This is a complex web of crossing fixed routes which frequently experiences high traffic volume, the heaviest of which is on the north-south route to Puerto Rico.

The Oakland and Anchorage oceanic center cover more than 9 percent of the earth's surface, which is approximately five times the area covered by the continental U.S. airspace.

PACOTS: Traffic on the Pacific Organized Track System (PACOTS) flows between North America and Hawaii to Asia and Australia. The flexible tracks are developed twice daily by the Oakland ARTCC Traffic Management Unit (TMU) and Tokyo Area Control Center to take maximum advantage of changing wind forecasts.

NOPAC: The Northern Pacific (NOPAC) Composite Route System (CRS) consists of five fixed tracks and nine transition routes from Alaska to the Asian and Pacific rim nations. The long distances involved between city pairs on these routes make wind optimized routing and flight profiles for fuel economy a high priority to users. Westbound routes from New York to Tokyo compete for northern routes which, although slightly longer, may save significant time by avoiding the jet stream.

CEP: The Central East Pacific (CEP) CRS connects the U.S. Central West Coast to Hawaii. It consists of a set of five interior unidirectional tracks that are generally dense with traffic, and two exterior bi-directional fixed tracks.

CENPAC: The Central Pacific (CENPAC) traffic region consists of PACOTS traffic between Hawaii and Japan, and Japan to the U.S. West Coast. This region is characterized by long stage length tracks and complex weather situations. Also in this region, the Pacific Northwest to Hawaii fixed tracks cross the U.S. to Japan PACOTS routes, creating additional complications for controllers.

SOPAC: The traffic flow between Hawaii and the South Pacific (SOPAC) utilizes fixed tracks and random tracks. SOPAC traffic is also characterized by long stage length tracks. It includes the PACOTS tracks from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Sydney and Auckland.

Guam: The area around Guam contains the traffic flow from the Orient to the South Pacific. Most aircraft in this region use fixed tracks. Traffic is characterized as predominantly one-way, converging, and dense, with some opposite direction traffic. The north-south flow is crossed by traffic from the Far East to Hawaii and by the PACOTS tracks.

In addition to the above mentioned tracks, the FAA has bolstered its Pacific routes by transitioning more than 20 experimental tracks to operational status.

Source: FAA >TK

COPYRIGHT 2001 Access Intelligence, LLC
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning