Airspace for the Future

NATS has published a video, https://vimeo.com/370880987, on its work toward creating initial designs for future airspace. The project will soon open for consultation.

All agree airspace is in urgent need of modernisation. More people are flying than ever before and if growing numbers are to be accommodated safely and efficiently, a modern route structure fit for the 21st century needs to be created. It is agreed if we do nothing, it is forecast by 2030 passengers could face delays of more than 30min per flight.

Even if traffic levels do not increase as predicted, redesigning the skies will end arrival stacking as we know it, enable improvements to continuous climb and descent profiles, shrink the noise footprint on the ground and burn less fuel.

Modernising means making the skies work more efficiently, says NATS, and one of the ways to do this is to increase the systemisation of the airspace, reducing the need for interactions between aircraft and air traffic control (ATC).

Performance-based navigation standards (PBN), a modern aircraft satellite-based navigation system that allows aircraft to follow a route with precision and consistency, is essential for modernisation. 

www.nats.aero/discover

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OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum

Bill Pratt,

Perhaps if the EU starting using Eurocontrol the system might improve.