Increasing capacity or productivity with controller assistance tools in high complexity airspace

Within the European air traffic system there is the continued need to improve the capacity and cost-effectiveness, due to the forecasted traffic increase for the upcoming years and the high cost sensitivity of the airspace users. Controller workload per flight is a major factor in airspace capacity. In order to increase capacity or productivity, it is necessary to reduce controller workload per flight while maintaining or increasing the level of safety even at the envisaged increased traffic level. Within the frame of the SESAR project 04.07.02 “Separation Task in En-route Trajectory based Environment” a set of controller assistance tools has been developed, prototyped and validated within several real-time simulation exercises. These tools aim at a reduction of controller´s workload and at an increase of situational awareness. The tools are designed to provide their highest operational benefit in lower airspace and extended terminal areas (ETMA) with high traffic complexity, in particular with a very high percentage of aircraft in vertical transition. This paper describes the operational concept and the system functionalities of the controller assistance tools (CATO). The tools comprise of conflict detection and resolution advisory based on 4D trajectory prediction. The resolution advisory provides the information whether potential clearances or co-ordination inputs would lead to secondary conflicts. The CATO functionalities are complemented by a flight path monitoring tool that provides indications whether aircraft comply with their clearances. The tools take into account system inputs by controllers with regards to transmitted clearances and ground co-ordination. The CATO functionalities do support both the Executive and the Planning controller role. A research prototype providing the CATO functionalities has been integrated in the ATM system that is currently in operation within German lower airspace ACCs (the P1/ATCAS system). Based on this platform real-time simulations have taken place in early 2013 and early 2014 in order to assess the operational benefits of CATO. This paper also describes the results from these validation activities. In order to assess potential capacity and productivity gains, high traffic scenarios with a traffic load of up to 150% compared to today´s capacity limits have been simulated. From the results of the real-time simulations it can be concluded that the workload of controllers can be clearly reduced with the introduction of the CATO functionalities. Furthermore controller´s situational awareness is increased. Both these effects lead to a potential capacity gain of up to 30% which also maybe used to increase productivity. Overall, the validations also show high user acceptance and trust in the CATO functionalities.