CANSO joins European collaborative project aimed at reducing delays and emissions at congested airports
Fri 8 Oct 2010 – The civil air navigation services organization CANSO has joined the ACI Europe and Eurocontrol Airport Collaborative Decision-Making (A-CDM) programme that aims to increase operational efficiencies at the most congested European airports. CANSO is the global trade body for air traffic management (ATM) and is expected to provide further momentum for the initiative that was launched in October 2008. A-CDM allows airports into the ATM network and vice versa, providing users access to a range of operational data allowing them to make their operations more efficient. It has been estimated that by reducing the taxi time of just one minute per flight for major European airports with over 50,000 aircraft movements per year could lead to annual reductions of 145,000 tonnes of fuel and 475,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
CDM is seen as an important tool in the ambitions of the Single European Sky because of the contribution to the better use of existing airport/ATM capacity. Currently, operations have been based on non-coordinated different planning processes where there is no possibility to harmonize the en-route part with the airport part of a flight. A-CDM aims to enhance coordination, cooperation and performance between all the partners involved – ATC, airlines, airport and ground handling. It also aims to improve the decision-making capabilities of the different partners by sharing the existing information resources.
“Delivering operational improvements through collaborative partnerships is a key objective of CANSO. I am delighted that we have been approached to assist with this valuable A-CDM project,” commented CANSO Director General Graham Lake. “CDM is a key component of the European Flight Efficiency plan, which CANSO supports, and over the coming months CANSO’s European members will be working with our airport partners and colleagues at Eurocontrol to find ways to accelerate CDM roll-out in Europe.”
Since the programme was launched two years ago, 30 airports have now engaged in its implementation, of which 10 of these airports will have A-CDM fully implemented by the end of 2011.
Improvements in operational performance through A-CDM can be achieved without major capital expenditure, said David McMillan, Director General of Eurocontrol. “But it depends on partnership – working together to improve performance. It is based on an integrated approach, with information being shared across different players. It emphasises the network nature of ATM where an apparently local decision can have implications across Europe. And of course it is focused on airports – at the heart of the need to increase capacity.”
A-CDM should enable a reduction of around 10% of the aircraft taxi time for an individual airport of the size of Munich airport (around 34 million passengers annually), equating to annual cost savings in the region of €3.6 million ($5m) per airport.
Olivier Jankovec, ACI Europe’s Director General, said the addition of CANSO would help create a “virtuous circle” of operational gains on the ground for all the partners concerned through a timely exchange of information. “Ultimately, this optimization of resources helps to make the journey smoother for the passenger and reduces environmental impact.”
