Draft Concept of Operations
(CONOPS) for CS#1- FAS
Centralised service on Flight Plan and Airport Slot
Consistency (FAS)
Matthis Birenheide
Project Manager FAS
11 October 2013
Flight Plan and Airport Slot Consistency Service - FAS
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FAS context
 Today, 97 airports are coordinated in EUROCONTROL Member
States covering between 85% to 95% of all traffic
 Coordination means more demand than capacity
 Airport slots are allocated by independent Coordinators to balance agreed
capacity and demand
 Planning is not normally taken into account in flow management
 The airport slot is not referenced in the flight plan
 Flow managers and ATC do not take the agreed airport slots into account
 The consequence is unexpected over-demand leading to:
 ATFM regulations
 Delay for a number of flights over a certain period instead only to the flight
that creates the problem
 Less predictability in the system
FAS – Flight Plan and Airport Slot Consistency Service
Scope of the FAS
 The service will be proposed for
all EUROCONTROL Member
States
 40 Member States as from 2014
 Currently 21 States have at least
one coordinated airport
 The role and responsibilities of
Airport Coordinators remain
unchanged
 The responsibilities of Member
States remain unchanged
 Responsibility for the Flight Plan
remains unchanged with the
Airspace Users
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Proposed level of service
 Warning messages will be issued if no or
an incorrect airport slot (e.g. off-slot or
syntax error) are identified
 No general rejection of flight plans,
unless a Member State specifically
requests it and mandates the Agency
accordingly
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Components of the FAS (1)
 A central and dynamic database
will be established within the
service
 Storage of the airport slot information
for the matching process
 Providing slot information for
statistics
 Coordinators will feed this
database with all relevant
information on airport slots
allocated and any changes thereto
 Coordinators will be required to
enable their local systems providing
live updates on all changes
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Components of the FAS (2)
 A matching service will be
developed
 Requires algorithms to match
flight plan data with airport slot
information
 High accuracy level envisaged
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Components of the FAS (3)
 The Initial integrated Flight
Planning System (IFPS) will be
upgraded to:
 Feed the matching service with
required flight plan data
 Issue warning messages to airspace
users triggered by the matching
service, copy to Coordinators and
Airports (A-CDM systems)
 Reject flight plans where a Member
States specifically requests this and
mandates the Agency accordingly (no
manual suspensions or rejections are
foreseen due to high workload)
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Components of the FAS (4)
 A post-operations statistical
function will be developed
within the FAS and will:
 Be fed with the matching
history, and
 Be fed by the NM data
warehouse information on e.g.
ATFM regulations applied
 Provide initial information on
potential violations
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FAS information flows
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Roles and responsibilities (1)
 Member States will have to
ensure that:
 Coordinators are connected to
the FAS
 BA/GA traffic is included in the
slot allocation, where this is not
the case
 Inform the NM if they wish to
exercise their right to reject flight
plans and mandate the NM
accordingly
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Roles and responsibilities (2)
 Airport Coordinators will have to:
 Enable their local allocation systems
to provide live information on any slot
allocation and changes thereto
 Provide the detailed national
allocation schemes for developing the
correct algorithms
 Inform on cases where an airport slot
ID is used at national level and for
which kind of traffic
 Provide the local slot tolerances for
post-operations statistics
 Ensure that slot allocation performed
during out-of-office hours will be input
in their local systems immediately
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Roles and responsibilities (2)
 The Network Manager (NM) will:
 Enable its systems to provide all required
flight plan data for the matching process
 Enable its systems to hold flight plans until
the matching result is provided from the FAS
(within reasonable time limits)
 Enable its systems to issue warning
messages to airspace users and Airport
Coordinators
 Enable its systems to reject flight plans in
case a Member State wishes to exercise its
right to do so
 Enable its systems to provide ATFM
information to the service for post-operations
statistical services
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Roles and responsibilities (3)
 Airspace Users will:
 Ensure that their operations
centres are aware of the
relevant allocated airport slots
for flights to/from coordinated
airports.
 Contact the Airport
Coordinator in case of a
warning message received
and rectify the mismatch
 Re-file flight plans once the
mismatch is rectified, where
needed
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Roles and responsibilities (4)
 The FAS service provider
will:
 Ensure the 24/7 operations of
the service
 Establish and maintain a
Quality and Safety
Management System
 Ensure that the post
operational data and statistics
are available during office
hours.
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Future possible evolutions (1)
 Enhancing the matching
accuracy
 Introduction of European-wide
harmonised Airport Slot ID
 Mandatory use in the Flight
Plan (field 18 first, later
possible dedicated field)
 Benefits
 One means of compliance with
existing and future regulation
 Less operating cost for FAS
 Less complexity concerning
GA/BA and code-shared flights
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Future possible evolutions (2)
 Harmonised application of
rejections
 In case of NO Airport Slot
 Same application in all States
 Harmonised tolerances
 Benefits
 Fair system (one affected not
many)
 Network performance
improvement
 Higher predictability
 Reduced ATFM delays
 Better effectiveness on out-ofarea traffic
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