Assessment of the North European free route airspace deployment

• Published in: Journal of air transport management 2018-10, Vol.73, p.113-119
• Main Authors: Nava Gaxiola, César Antonio, Barrado, Cristina, Royo, Pablo, Pastor, Enric
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aeronàutica i espai; Air traffic complexity; Air traffic control; Control; Free route airspace; Functional Airspace Block; Performance indicators; Separation loss; Trànsit aeri; Àrees temàtiques de la UPC
• ISSN: 0969-6997; 1873-2089
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2018.08.008

Free Route Airspace is an operational concept for the modernization of the airspace, addressed to improving the efficiency of the flights. It also aims at the environmental friendly performance area by reducing the emissions from fuel burnt. But these benefits should not derive in a loss of safety. Several areas are introducing free route as part of the Single European Sky Airspace Research programme (SESAR). This paper assesses the Northern Europe Free Route Airspace deployment, where two SESAR solutions are combined: the Free Route Airspace and the Functional Airspace Blocks. This assessment is produced using fast-time simulations and presented from a safety perspective using two indicator sets: the aircraft loss of separation and the airspace complexity. The number of potential separation losses, together with complexity metrics, such as adjusted density, potential horizontal, vertical and/or speed interactions, are presented for different free route deployment status. Results reflect that from the safety perspective the free route deployment in North Europe did not present notable changes in terms of the selected indicators, despite of the increase of traffic of last years.