Airservices Australia seeks industry consultation on LR-ATFM installation
Airservices Australia is looking to industry to design and develop a long-range air traffic flow management (LR-ATFM) system for Australian airspace.
The industry consultation follows after a new research conducted by Airservices revealed that there are no demonstrated technology-based LR-ATFM systems operating in the world at present.
The deployment of LR-ATFM is expected to provide a range of benefits to the aviation industry and the travelling public.
The new system will help reduce aircraft fuel burn, increase air traffic predictability and reduce controller workload, enabling enhanced efficiency in operations.
LR-ATFM is expected to integrate international flights into the current air traffic management (ATM) network management process to ensure an improved and orderly flow of arrivals at the continent’s four major airports.
Airservices ATM service manager Paddy Goodall said: “Airservices currently provides demand and capacity management through ground delay programmes generally issued at the start of the day.
“International flights are exempt from the ground delay programme, which leads to all air traffic flow management delays being directed to domestic flights only.
“With LR-ATFM systems in place, we will have greater predictability of operations, a more orderly flow into the tactical arrival management environment, improved network performance and more equitable allocation of network delay.”
Goodall noted that a technology-based solution will enable the widespread use of LR-ATFM across Australia, thereby offering additional benefits to the customers.
Airservices has currently been applying a limited form of LR-ATFM at Sydney and Perth largely based on procedures and manual interaction.
The company plans to issue a market sounding information request through AusTender by early June in order to gather industry consultation.