THE Eurocontrol ATM2000+ future air traffic management (ATM) strategy is expected to achieve considerable capacity growth, but the lack of integration of European airports has emerged as a potential major limitation.
According to the Brussels based Airports Council International, the development of a common tool for analysing available airport capacity in Europe is not likely "now or in the foreseeable future".
European airports have operational differences, diverse local environmental concerns and widely differing limitations on capacity. The council says these factors and national political considerations will make it "difficult" to develop a common approach to gathering the necessary capacity data.
European airports have no unified system which could provide ATM planners with data on available departure and arrival capacity. Such information is regarded as essential for a co-ordinated strategy to match European airspace capacity to airport capacity.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is proposing to Eurocontrol the development of a standard Europe-wide system for looking at the maximum theoretical capacity of airports. IATA admits, however, that individual airports will still have to be judged on local conditions. These include types of precision landing aids, runways and terminals, the aircraft separation rules and local political and environmental considerations.
The problem is less severe in the USA. There the air traffic control strategic command centre in Washington DC, receives information on airport and airspace capacity from the nation's air traffic management system.
If the eventual goal of a "gate to gate" air traffic management strategy is to be achieved, it is of fundamental importance to bring airports into the ATM2000+ plan.
Meanwhile, the preliminary ATM2000+mission statement has been released and the scheme is "on schedule" for April 1999.
Source: Flight International
