Accuracy required for staging arrival spacing

In this paper we describe an analysis of the required prediction accuracy for arrival flights being spaced to a single merge fix for self-separation descent procedures. Procedures such as continuous descent arrivals (CDAs) can provide significant fuel savings, but the utilization of CDAs in high density descent airspace remains a significant challenge. The airline-based en route sequencing and spacing (ABESS) concept and flight deck merging and spacing (FDMS) concept have been proposed to allow airlines and flight deck automation to provide speed advice to support the performance of CDAs in high density descent airspace. The FDMS concept provides flight deck automation to issue speed recommendations to the flight crew in order to achieve and maintain the required spacing behind a preceding flight while both flights fly a CDA. The ABESS concept allows an airline to assign cruise speeds to their flights to successfully stage the flights for FDMS procedures during the conduct of CDAs.