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10 years of the CFMU:A European success story

Getting there on time: The background to air trafficpunctuality

Interview with Jean-Robert Bauchet, Director of CFMU

THE CENTRAL FLOWMANAGEMENT UNIT

Skyway is a quarterly publication of the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, EUROCONTROLVolume 9, Number 39, Winter 2005

THE CENTRAL FLOWMANAGEMENT UNIT

10 years of the CFMU:A European success story

Getting there on time: The background to air trafficpunctuality

Interview with Jean-RobertBauchet, Director of CFMU

The EUROCONTROL Agency is recognised for ExcellenceThe EUROCONTROL Agency is recognised for Excellence

Skyway Magazine is aEUROCONTROL publication.Articles appearing in this magazinedo not necessarily reflectEUROCONTROL’s official policy.

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3 EditorialFocus

4 Getting there on time:the background to air traffic punctuality

8 Air Traffic Flow and Capacity ManagementOptimising the efficiency of the ATM system

10 A genuine common European projectThe making of the CFMU

14 A European success story10 years of the CFMU 1995 - 2005

Interview18 Interview with Jean-Robert Bauchet

21 Jacques Dopagne appointed to lead the Central Flow Management Unit

Stakeholder Forum23 DFS on CFMU

24 Le défi actuel et futurL’application complète du concept FUA

26 IATA and the CFMU

Independent Platform28 CFMU moves into next decade with

strong plans to enhance performance

Datelines30 16-17 November 2005, Brussels

CFMU User Forum: a great success

32 Navigation and Avionics Workshops, 4-7 October 2005, ToulouseWorking together towards global implementation

33 CAATS Safety R&D Workshop, EUROCONTROL headquarters,18-20 October 2005Improving coordination of ATM safety

Review36 The operator’s perspective:

Controller Pilot Data Link Communication

News38 New control tower at Vienna Airport

Report39 SESAR

Launch of the Single European Sky Implementation Programme

40 European Foundation for Quality Management Excellence in action

42 Visits and agreements

Skyway 39 - Winter 2005

Edito

rial

3

Dear Readers,

2005 was an excellent year for EURO-

CONTROL and for Air Traffic Management in

Europe.

In spite of the accidents in the month of

August and although complete data for 2005

are not yet available, there has been a signifi-

cant downward trend in the European acci-

dent rate over the last few years – there is a

difference of some 35% between the years

2001 and 2004. If 2005 sees the confirmation of this trend, then it would

go some way to showing that our unremitting efforts to improve safety are

bearing fruit.

Delay is being contained in Europe: En route delay has been virtually

eliminated and is close to the economic optimum. The challenge now is to

maintain this level of delay and action must be taken to ensure that this is

done.

As for the medium-term, the first stage of the Dynamic Management

of the European Airspace Network (DMEAN) programme is currently

being implemented. DMEAN will arrange for enhanced cooperation and

information exchange between all operational ATM partners. It will further

reduce congestion by more dynamically matching airspace capacity with

demand. DMEAN should be fully operational by 2009.

For the longer-term future, concrete plans are being laid, especially

with the launch of the SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) pro-

gramme by EUROCONTROL, the European Commission and a consor-

tium of over 30 of Europe’s leading airspace users, airlines, air navigation

service providers, airports and equipment manufacturing industries. This

is the first time that such a grouping has come together to develop the

future generation of air traffic management in Europe.

One of the more pleasant moments for us at EUROCONTROL was the

celebration of the Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU)’s tenth anniver-

sary of the beginning of its tactical operations.

The CFMU concept was created out of a troubled period in the 1980s

when a surge in air traffic demand led to unprecedented delays. Ministers

of Transport at the time determined that the only solution was to carry out

air traffic flow management centrally so as to make the best possible use

of all the available airspace capacity – and the CFMU was the result.

The past ten years have been challenging ones for the CFMU, but it

has proved its worth conclusively many times over – its handling of the

9/11 crisis was one excellent example. Assistance given to Greece so that

the considerable extra traffic loads for the Athens Olympics could be

smoothly managed is another.

Today, Europe could not manage without the CFMU – 2005 happens

to have been the busiest year ever seen in our aviation history, with peaks

of over 30,000 flights daily and more than eight million a year. But it can-

not rest on its laurels and plans are currently being executed to make it

even more responsive to users’ needs.

Altogether, the CFMU has proved to be a great success: a pan-

European project, it has involved the close and dedicated cooperation of

flow management professionals across the continent as well as the

unremitting 7/24 efforts of its multinational staff to keep the service con-

stantly available, consistent and reliable.

Víctor M. Aguado

Director General

Chers lecteurs,

L’année 2005 aura été excellente pour EUROCONTROL et pour la gestion

du trafic aérien en Europe.

Malgré les accidents survenus au mois d'août et bien que les données de

2005 ne soient pas encore complètes, on enregistre, ces dernières années,

une baisse significative du nombre des accidents en Europe, qui a diminué de

quelque 35% de 2001 à 2004. Si cette tendance se confirme en 2005, nous

pourrons sans crainte affirmer que nos efforts incessants pour améliorer la

sécurité portent leurs fruits.

Les retards ont été maîtrisés en Europe : les retards en route ont virtuelle-

ment disparu et se rapprochent de l’optimum économique. Le défi consiste

désormais à les maintenir à ce niveau et à prendre toutes les mesures néces-

saires pour qu’il en soit ainsi.

En ce qui concerne le moyen terme, la première phase du programme

DMEAN (gestion dynamique du réseau aérien européen) est en cours d’exé-

cution. La DMEAN vise à améliorer la coopération et les échanges d’informa-

tions entre tous les partenaires opérationnels de l’ATM et à limiter davantage

encore les encombrements dans le ciel par une adaptation plus dynamique de

la capacité d’espace aérien à la demande. Le concept DMEAN devrait être

pleinement opérationnel d’ici 2009.

Pour le long terme, les plans d’action se concrétisent également, notam-

ment avec le lancement du programme SESAR (programme de recherche

ATM dans le cadre du ciel unique européen) par EUROCONTROL, la

Commission européenne et un consortium réunissant une trentaine d’usagers

de l’espace aérien, de compagnies aériennes, de prestataires de services de

navigation aérienne, d’aéroports, de constructeurs et d’équipementiers, tous

de premier plan. C’est la première fois qu’un tel groupe se forme pour élabor-

er, de concert, la nouvelle génération de systèmes de gestion du trafic aérien

en Europe.

À EUROCONTROL, l’un des moments forts de l’année a été la célébration

du dixième anniversaire du lancement des opérations tactiques de

l’Organisme central de gestion des courants de trafic aérien (CFMU).

Le concept du CFMU a vu le jour en réponse aux problèmes rencontrés

dans les années 80, lorsque la hausse rapide de la demande de trafic a provo-

qué des retards sans précédent. Les Ministres des Transports de l’époque en

vinrent à la conclusion que la seule solution résidait dans une gestion central-

isée des courants de trafic, afin d’utiliser au mieux toute la capacité d'espace

aérien disponible – et c’est ainsi que le CFMU est né.

Ces dix dernières années ont été riches de défis pour le CFMU, mais celui-

ci a prouvé à maintes reprises qu'il était capable de les relever avec succès.

La manière dont il a géré la crise du 9 septembre 2001 en est un exemple par-

fait, ainsi d’ailleurs que la façon dont il a aidé la Grèce à gérer l’importante sur-

charge de trafic générée par les Jeux olympiques d'Athènes.

Aujourd’hui, l’Europe ne pourrait plus se passer du CFMU : 2005 a été l’an-

née de tous les records dans les annales de l’aviation, avec des pointes de plus

de 30 000 vols par jour, et plus de 8 millions de vol sur l’année. Pour autant, le

CFMU ne peut se reposer sur ses lauriers, et il prend actuellement des mesures

concrètes pour répondre de manière encore plus souple aux besoins des util-

isateurs.

En conclusion, on peut affirmer que le CFMU – projet paneuropéen

reposant sur la coopération étroite et sans faille des professionnels de l'ATM du

continent tout entier ainsi que sur les efforts continus déployés, 7 jours sur 7, 24

heures sur 24, par son personnel multinational pour assurer en permanence un

service homogène et fiable – est un grand succès !

Víctor M. Aguado

Director General

On 17 June 2005, a new record wasset: 30,663 flights on one day. TheEuropean record for 2004 – on 10September – has already been beat-en twelve times so far this year.September 2005 saw the largestnumber of flights for any Septembersince records began. The number offlights increased to 28,131 per day inSeptember 2005 compared with27,083 per day in September 2004,an increase of 3.9%.

Yet in spite of this increase in traffic,delay is being contained – and this isan excellent achievement. The aver-age air traffic flow management delayper flight was 1.7 minutes in 2004,with an average en-route delay perflight of 0.9 minutes. En-route restric-tions were the cause of only 12% ofprimary delay in 2004.

The 80s delay nightmares

In 1986, 12% of flights were delayedby more than 15 minutes. By 1989,25% of all flights were delayed by thisamount – or more. It does not sound alot but in reality, delayed flights wait-ed for hours – often all too literally.

The reason was mainly that air trafficcontrol in the afflicted countries justcould not cope with a sudden surgein demand. Politicians and their con-stituents were haunted by televisionimages of people stranded at airports– sometimes even overnight – whilethey waited for their flight.

Action was taken. Air traffic flow man-agement units were established invarious States in an attempt to regu-late traffic flows and to matchdemand with capacity. Air traffic flowmanagement’s function is to regulatethe flow of aircraft entering an area ofairspace so that the controllers canhandle them safely without beingoverloaded.

However, it was soon realised that flowcontrol on a regional basis also gave

Getting thereon time:

the backgroundto air trafficpunctuality

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At any daytime moment, there are 3,500 aircraftin the skies over Europe, carrying around

400,000 people. One in ten of them is operatedby low-cost airlines – and this is a trend

that is bound to increase.

After a fairly short period of stasis from 2001 - 2003, air traffic in Europe

has once again begunto grow quickly. Analysis for 41 European

countries shows that there wasa 4.8% increase in 2004’s traffic,compared with 2003. This was the

fastest annual growth ratefor any year since 1999.

All indications are that this growthis set to continue.

By Alain Fournie,Head of the CFMU User Relations

and Development Bureau

rise to problems: as each State tried toprotect its airspace from overload bylimiting the amount of aircraft in theirskies, the airspace gradually grewmore restricted, giving rise to yet moredelay.

It began to emerge that the only solu-tion was to carry out flow managementcentrally so as to make the best possi-ble use of all the available airspacecapacity.

The Ministers of Transport of theECAC1 Member States accordinglymet in Frankfurt in October 1988 toplan the beginnings of a Europe-wide,centralised air traffic flow managementservice. The management of this proj-ect was entrusted to EUROCONTROL,the European Organisation for theSafety of Air Navigation. It set up theCentral Flow Management Unit, theCFMU.

CFMU – the beginnings

From 1989 to 1996, the CFMU gradual-ly took over the different componentsneeded for providing an efficient andsafe flow management.

In October 1991, strategic operationsbegan with the issuing of the first sin-gle, daily ATFM Notification Message,replacing a multiplicity of messagessent out by other Flow ManagementUnits (FMUs) beforehand. By this time,development had also begun on thepowerful computer systems needed toprocess the flight plans, provide a high-ly accurate demand picture and allo-cate the slots to the aircraft operators.

Pre-tactical operations for the ECACStates began in February 1994 whenthe CFMU moved into a new purpose-built complex at Haren, next toBrussels National Airport, housing itsoffices, computers and operationsrooms.

The CFMU started initial tactical opera-tions on 27 April 1995 when it took over

the management of air traffic flows overFrance and Switzerland from the ParisFMU, known as CORTA (Cellule d’or-ganisation et de régulation du traficaérien). It also became responsible forthe reception and processing of flightplans for France, Germany and theBenelux states.

On 9 November 1995, the CFMUexpanded its tactical operations tocover the airspace of the 22 Stateswhich had previously been served bythe Frankfurt FMU and its sub-units.

At the same time, in anticipation of thetransfer of the London FMU, the UnitedKingdom authorities authorised theCFMU to manage part of the internation-al traffic flows entering their airspace.Their remaining tactical operations weretransferred on 13 January 1996. Thisstep was swiftly followed on 1 Februarywith the transfer of the activities of RomeFMU. The Madrid FMU’s activities (cov-ering Spain and Portugal) wereabsorbed on 14 March, so completingthe take-over of tactical operations.

The CFMU became entirely responsiblefor the whole range of air traffic flowmanagement services with the start-upof operations of the Initial IntegratedFlight Plan Processing Unit on 28March 1996.

Until this date, users had to addresstheir flight plans to both the IFPS and allthe ATS Units concerned with the flight.Now, users send their flight plansdirectly to the IFPS alone. The IFPS issolely responsible for checking,accepting and distributing the plans toall ATS Units in Europe, so making formuch simpler and more consistent pro-cessing.

IFPS is fast and efficient: it handlesalmost 45,000 messages each day andalmost 80% of these are processed auto-matically. Of messages requiring manualcorrection by specialist IFPS staff, morethan 90% are corrected within 20 min-utes of their receipt by the system.

The CFMU runs two IFPS Units (IFPUs):one co-located with the CFMU at Harenand the other at Brétigny-sur-Orge,south of Paris. These two units areresponsible for complementary geo-graphic areas in day-to-day operationsand can also provide contingencyback-up for each other, so heighteningboth the system’s security and depend-ability.

How the CFMU operates

The CFMU is a dynamic organ thatchanges to match users’ needs, bal-ancing both controllers’ and aircraftoperators’ requirements.

The CFMU relies heavily on its networkof collaborators who work in the FlowManagement Positions (FMPs) in everyAir Traffic Control Centre in Europe,many airports and some major airlines.They provide an essential link by relay-ing information on Centre capacity, traf-fic demand and other situations – suchas adverse weather – to the CFMU.They are also central in the decision-making process.

Its sophisticated computer systems arecontinually revised, updated andimproved in the light of operationalexperience.

The Enhanced Tactical FlowManagement System (ETFMS) has theprimary objective of ensuring safety,fluidity, best use of capacity, equity andtransparency. ETFMS, which incorpo-rates CASA, the Computer-AssistedSlot Allocation, and re-routeing facili-ties, allows the controller to regulateflights and spread the consequent bur-den of inevitable delays as evenly andfairly as possible.

ETFMS also collects position informa-tion on flights in the CFMU area. Thisinformation is then combined with flightplan data (e.g. type of aircraft, flightplan route), ATFM information (e.g. theslot or the re-routing which has beenattributed to the flight) together with

Skyway 39 - Winter 2005 5

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1- European CivilAviationConference, cur-rently numbering42 States

detailed airspace information to pro-duce a highly accurate database.

ETFMS provides the ATFM specialistsin the CFMU and the FMPs withupdated, accurate, sector loads forthe current situation and the nearfuture. This allows careful monitoringof the ATFM situation to be carried outand allows ATFM partners to adaptmeasures to fit changing circum-stances. The tool is extremely usefulin that it not only helps avoid potentialoverload in good time, but alsoensures that regulatory measures areonly applied for just as long as is nec-essary.

One major plus that the CFMU has isthat it can respond rapidly to users’requirements in that the Operationsdepartment as well as those servicesdealing with customer relations anduser groups are in the same buildingas the architecture managers and thesoftware developers. This co-locationpromotes the smooth interchange ofideas and improvements; the fact thatthe developments are all tailor-madeto meet the users’ requirements exact-ly, ensures that the quality of serviceprovided by the CFMU is unrivalled.

As for the future, the CFMU believesthat tactical, real-time flow manage-ment is on the cards. Today, flows aremanaged through regulation whichessentially keeps aircraft on theground until it is safe for them to fly.Through flight streaming, flights willbe rerouted around blocked areaseven while they are en-route.

The CFMU has, in fact, turned pro-gressively towards providing not justflow management services but capac-ity management as well. It is workingon broadening its scope to a gate-to-gate approach, including airports aswell in its area of activities. Thisenlarged focus will help capitalise onthe network effect which is so vital tothe kind of cooperation the CFMUspecialises in.

Collaboration

Cooperation and collaboration for theCFMU is vital.

Without effective and constant coopera-tion with the Flow ManagementPositions, the CFMU would simply notfunction. Essentially, flow managementis a network function and requires con-stant, clear exchanges of information.

Collaborative Decision Making is anarea in which the CFMU is playing anincreasingly stronger role. An interac-tive tactical daily briefing has been inoperation since 2003. It uses e-confer-encing technology over the internetand is used by all ATFM partners.Stakeholders are able to raise issuesdirectly with the tactical network coordi-nator in the CFMU operations room andsort them out instantly.

Basically, there are five areas in whichthe CFMU concentrates its cooperativeefforts:

1. Airport Operations: airports arebecoming of increasing impor-tance and are being incorporatedto a much higher degree in ATFMplanning.

2. Airspace Management: the CMFUoptimises interfaces with all air-space users.

3. Flight Data Consistency andDissemination: the collation andprovision of up-to-date flight datais an essential task of theCFMU’s.

4. Critical Events: The CFMU is par-ticularly well-placed to helpdefine scenarios and proceduresfor responding to sudden andunpredictable events. Moredetails on this important activitywill follow.

5. Support to Regulatory Processes:the CFMU provides operationaladvice in defining roles, respon-sibilities, rights and obligationsfor flow management processeswithin the context of the SingleEuropean Sky initiative.

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The benefits

A recognised authority, known for its performance and neutrality, theCFMU brings its partners many benefits. Here is a list of some of them:

■ A single flight plan processing system makes for greater accuracy asoperators, airports, air traffic control centres and CFMU all work with thesame data.

■ All users are monitored by the system and delays are evenly spread.The powerful central computer system ensures that there is a globalregulation of ATC sectors and sophisticated algorithms and high-speedprocessing ensure that all airspace users are treated equally.

■ Operators can rely upon slots being delivered on time – without excep-tion. They also benefit from faster reaction times: even those flight plansfiled late will usually receive a slot within one minute of the information’sbeing received by the CFMU.

■ The CFMU provides an independent, comprehensive, standardisedand accurate database on all flights throughout the operating area. Thisdata provides the statistics which are used in measuring ATFM delaysas well as for giving planners reliable and complete information, mak-ing their task easier and more effective.

■ The CFMU deals with a wide variety of States, air navigation serviceproviders and operators – of all kinds and of all nationalities.

Crisis management

The CFMU is especially useful when acrisis of general proportions arises.

For instance, it can help contain theproblems caused by severe weather orindustrial action. Thanks to its wide-scale operating area, its ability to re-route flights at fairly short notice andthe excellent relations it maintains withoperators and national air traffic author-ities alike, disruption in these circum-stances can be minimised.

In the 9/11 crisis, it gave clear proof ofhow effective a centralised system canbe: immediately upon receiving thenotification that US airspace had beenclosed, the CFMU informed eachEuropean air traffic control centre, air-port control tower and 250 aircraftoperators of the fact. Within just fourminutes of the original announcement,each flight scheduled to depart fromEurope to the United States was pre-vented from leaving and those aircraftalready in mid-flight were either divert-ed to safe landing places – in Canadaand the Caribbean – or returned to theiroriginal airports.

Airspace had to be made available toaccommodate the returning aircraft, sothe CFMU prevented other flights fromtaking off and allowed the homeward-bound aircraft to fly through Europeanskies safely.

Over the next few days, the CFMUadjusted the traffic flows to the gradualopening of oceanic airspace. In orderto ensure that the new arrangementswere complied with, the CFMU filteredeach flight plan received, singling outthose which had filed to fly in domesticUS airspace. Each aircraft operatorwas then contacted individually andinstructed to reroute the flight.

In large measure due to the CFMU’ssuccessful handling of the 9/11 crisis, itwas decided to expand its portfolio oftasks to incorporate a crisis manage-

ment cell to deal with any future large-scale emergencies.

Delay reporting

The CFMU prides itself on maintainingabsolute transparency. It sends real-time information messages prior to theimplementation of measures to all itspartners and also provides a series ofreports on a regular basis. Many ofthese reports can be found on theCFMU part of the EUROCONTROLwebsite, including:

■ a daily report, which includes thedetails of regulations managed bythe CFMU, the areas causingdelays, various average delay fig-ures, and specific comparisonssuch as delay per origin (airport,state, operator, etc.);

■ a monthly summary, this includesgeneral figures such as total month-ly delay, graphs showing the evolu-tion over the last 12 months or show-ing the distribution of delays overgeographic areas.

The CFMU records all data on trafficdemand and on ATFM activity in anarchive database. This database con-

tains a wealth of information on whathas happened in ATC across the con-tinent. It is used to provide informa-tion to operational managers in everyATC centre, the CFMU and nationalair traffic authorities, so that they canmonitor the traffic situation and haverelevant data to hand.

In conclusion

The CFMU cannot, by itself, createmore air traffic capacity. But it canand does make certain that thecapacity that does exist is used to itsfullest extent. Every effort is beingmade, in close collaboration with allits partners, to ensure that the sys-tems are perpetually improved.

The CFMU is an achievement ofwhich all players can feel justlyproud; it is the tangible result of a col-lective desire to overcome problemsand rise to a general challenge. Allmembers of its multinational person-nel are determined to carry on build-ing on the success that the projecthas already enjoyed, perpetuating itsmotto of transparent and equitableservice, throughout European air-space. ■


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The CFMU flow controllers

The challenge

One of the key challenges for Europeanair traffic management in the years aheadwill be to accommodate safely and effi-ciently the growing number of flights,which are expected to double (reaching16 million flights per year by 2020).

The answer: to improve air traffic flow and capacitymanagementThe efforts made by the Central FlowManagement Unit (CFMU) haveserved Europe well since the unit start-ed operations in 1995. However, thenew air traffic demands mean that therole of the CFMU and that of all keyATM players will have to evolve toensure that congestion, with the asso-ciated delays, does not reappear inEurope.

In this regard, the CFMU has alreadyidentified issues it must address if it isto meet the demands being placedupon it. More specifically, there is aneed to develop an increasingly inte-grated ATM system in which the avail-able airspace capacity meetsdemand.

Today this is reflected in a new strate-gy based around Air Traffic Flow andCapacity Management (ATFCM).

This will mean that the CFMU will haveto change from being simply a mecha-nism for delivering slots to one thatproactively manages capacity andgets the best out of the ATM system bycooperating closely with its partners –the military, airspace users, airportsand air traffic control centres, usingcollaborative decision-making tech-niques.

This process of optimisation, togetherwith network management andimproved service quality are majorsteps paving the way for Air Traffic Flowand Capacity Management.

Improving ATFCM will ensure that theavailable ATM capacity is matchedmore effectively with traffic demand.

The essence of ATFCM

Key driversATFCM continuously and proactivelyconsiders all possible ATFCM solutionsthrough an iterative seamless processfrom strategic planning to execution ofthe operations. The capacity to antici-pate events on the basis of new infor-mation makes it possible to minimisetheir impact on the network or to takethe opportunity to fine-tune the planaccordingly.

Air Traffic Flow and Capacity Management

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Optimising the efficiencyof the ATM system

“Moving from flow management to flow andcapacity management means changing

the current system, based mainly on regulatingmechanisms, to a more cooperative

management of capacity and demand usingcollaborative decision-making techniques.”

The ATFCM overall approach relies onplanning the required capacity andoptimisation of its use by organisingslot allocations as far as possible inorder to minimise the impact on aircraftoperators. An inclusive and transparentcollaborative decision-making processbetween all partners allows the imple-mentation of local solutions based onglobal ATM awareness.

Collaboration withATM partnersThe ATFCM overall approach relies onexpanding the relationship betweenATFCM and other ATM activities. Thiscollaboration focuses mainly on theexchange of accurate ATM data andsharing of information (flight plan, air-space, critical events, etc.) andensures equity between all stakehold-ers through regulatory processes.

The CFMU

In fulfilling the ATFCM role, the CFMUacts as facilitator in the process, takingadvantage of the network effect, and asa central repository for the relevantflight and airspace data. This providesthe CFMU with an overview of the net-work implications of any particular con-straint to smooth traffic flow. This in turnenables it to take on a coordinationrole, in close collaboration with theother actors, to find the optimumATFCM solution for any given set of cir-cumstances. And, consequently, theCFMU can act as a key player in coor-dinating any unplanned crises or con-tingency situations.

Benefits

The new ATFCM strategy meets thechanging ATM requirements in adynamic way, through:

■ improved ATM capacity planning,based on more accurate traffic fore-casts and awareness of civil andmilitary requirements.

■ optimisation of the available capaci-ty in order to meet the airspaceusers’ needs and minimise theimplementation of flow measures.

■ best use of network capacity■ enhanced common awareness of

current and planned capacity, air-space and traffic situation throughinformation sharing and exchangeamong all partners.

■ a higher quality of service, focusingon airspace users' needs.

■ safety enhancements through themanagement of critical events.

Conclusion

ATFCM is moving away from the currentfocus on avoiding saturation, towardsoptimising the overall efficiency of theATM system for all airspace users. Thisis in line with the changing ATFM sce-nario driven by the need to develop anincreasingly integrated ATM system inwhich available airspace capacity ismatched with demand. ■

Further information on the ATFCM Strategycan be found at: www.cfmu.eurocontrol.int


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Early in the eighties the first steps weretaken to address the problem of theexcessive delays plaguing Europeanskies. The increasing air traffic volumeoutstripped the capacity of the existingair traffic control systems. ICAO andEUROCONTROL worked hand in handto remedy this situation.

Some ATC authorities started a pro-gramme to provide more capacity, anda number of Air Traffic FlowManagement Units (ATFMUs) wereestablished. EUROCONTROL devel-oped, implemented and operated theCentral Data Bank, later renamed DataBank EUROCONTROL (DBE). The DBEprovided “traffic counts” which gave anapproximate idea of the trafficdemands to be expected at airports,reporting points or sectors within theairspace of the participating States.ATFMUs worked with these figures in

order to organise their traffic so thatdemand would not exceed the capaci-ty in their airspace. Each ATFMU oper-ated independently, mostly on a nation-al scale, and each had its specificmethod of addressing the problem.

Although the situation initially improved,in the end these measures provedinsufficient. As traffic continued to rise,the situation deteriorated so much thatby 1988 delays had again become aserious problem. By then, 12 ATFMUnits had been established in Europe.However, the system as a whole wasnot efficient for handling such increas-ing traffic volumes.

Again ICAO and EUROCONTROL tooka hard look at the situation and con-cluded that it was necessary to carryout Air Traffic Flow Management(ATFM) on a continental, European

scale. ICAO had developed theCentralised Traffic ManagementOrganisation (CTMO) concept that pro-posed a single Flow Management Unit(FMU) in liaison with Flow ManagementPositions (FMPs) in every ATC unit. TheMember States of the European CivilAviation Conference (ECAC), whichcovered virtually the whole continentand which would eventually expand todo so entirely, asked EUROCONTROLto create and operate a Central FlowManagement Unit (CFMU) on theirbehalf that would undertake ATFMthroughout their airspace in accor-dance with the principles laid down inthe CTMO concept.

The then Director General of EURO-CONTROL, Keith Mack, submitted aCFMU implementation plan to theMember States that was approved bythe Permanent Commission on 4 July1989. The plan provided for the estab-lishment of a CFMU, to be operated bythe Agency, to provide an ATFM serviceacross the airspace of the ECAC States.That decision was in itself remarkable.There were 23 ECAC States at the timethe decision was taken and not all of

The making of the CFMUFocu

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Dirk Duytschaever, former Director of the CentralFlow Management Unit, sheds some light on theorigins of the Unit and how the idea of a single airtraffic flow management unit in Europe came about.

A genuine common European project

these were Member States of EURO-CONTROL. This meant that the saidStates undertook to finance a systemwhich would provide a service also ben-efiting others that had not contributed toits establishment – indeed a generousand far-sighted attitude.

Arrangements therefore had to bemade to allow these ECAC States par-ticipating in the project that were notEUROCONTROL Member States tobear a fair share of the CFMU’s operat-ing costs. As the status of manyEuropean nations vis-à-vis both organi-sations changed – it will be remem-bered that these were the times of theimplosion of the communist regimes inEastern Europe – continuous adapta-tions of the scope of the CFMU projectwere required during its implementa-tion. By the time the CFMU went intooperation, it covered 32 ECAC States.

The project, the people

It was quite natural to start from whatalready existed. That was the DBE,which had been functioning within theOperations Directorate for four years at

the time of the decision. The thenDirector Operations W. Philipp from theoutset was firmly in favour of rising tothis new and demanding challenge forthe Agency.

Mr Philipp set up a task force to estab-lish the implementation plan.Experience gathered from DBE opera-tions was most useful as a basis onwhich to build. But now greater chal-lenges had to be addressed. Accurateflight information was required thatcould only be assembled from flightplans, so these would have to be madeavailable for all flights within the air-space covered. The CFMU would thushave to be able to receive, correct, anddistribute flight plans. That was a majorchange compared to the DBE, whichprocessed essentially flight pro-grammes published by aircraft opera-tors for each season. Furthermore, anaccurate analysis had to be made ofthe functions and systems required torealise the CTMO concept.

In record time the “White Book” wasdrawn up. It contained a detailedimplementation plan for the CFMU,

including a description of the opera-tional functions to be developed, thebuilding requirements, the systems tobe implemented, the staff to be recruit-ed, the appropriations required forinvestment and operation, and thetime-scale of project execution. Thedocument was excellently written andhas been the guideline throughout therealisation of the project. Great merit isto be given to its authors. Apologisingto those whom I may have omittedinvoluntarily, I would like to mention thenames of Pierre-Olivier Jeannet, whowould become the project leader, PeterSchmutz for the technical parts andBrian Martin for the operational input.As the project evolved, owing to anextension of its geographical coverageand additions to the scope of the serv-ices demanded, all changes to the datacontained in the “White Book” wereproperly documented and submittedfor approval to the pertinent bodiessupervising the implementation of theproject, inside and outside EURO-CONTROL. In this way confidence wasbuilt up between all partners in the proj-ect. There were many such partners asthey included the States, their ATCunits, and obviously the aircraft opera-tors. Several bodies were set up toinvolve all these stakeholders in thecoordination process.

Coordination and cooperation

First of all there were the existingATFMUs. They needed to remain inoperation while the CFMU was underdevelopment. It was agreed that five ofthem should work together, on behalf ofthe others, so as to provide to the usersa service that appeared to be cen-tralised. These units were located inParis, Frankfurt, London, Rome andMadrid and were known as the FMUs ofthe Central Executive Unit West. EURO-CONTROL coordinated the activities ofthese five FMUs. That was no easy tasksince in essence this coordination had


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as its ultimate objective the creation ofconditions under which each of theseexisting units could eventually bephased out as their duties weremerged into the single CFMU.

In 1992 the CFMU was established as aseparate EUROCONTROL Directorateof which I had the honour to becomethe first Director, after having served fortwo years as Head of the DBE. Greatcare was taken to address operational,technical and social aspects of thistransfer process. ATFM controllers forthe CFMU were recruited from the staffof existing FMUs and contacts withmanagement and unions were estab-lished. From November 1992, pre-tacti-cal ATFM planning began to be trans-ferred to the CFMU and this process

was completed in February 1994. Thetransfer of day-to-day tactical ATFMoperations from the FMUs to the CFMUstarted on 27 April 1995 when CORTA(the Paris FMU) operations were trans-ferred – that is why we are celebratingten years of the CFMU this year – andwas concluded on 14 March 1996 withthe transfer of MADRID-FMU. Credit isdue to Brian Martin, Head of ATFMOperations, and his successor JohnPenwarne, for successfully conductingthis transfer process.

Of course, a lot of hard work precededthese successes. Firstly all the systems

were developed, and when that hadbeen achieved they had to be sold, asit were, to their future customers. Aworking group of the five FMU Statesand the aircraft operator organisations– and here I must mention Colin Humeand the late Kjell Nilsson – helped theCFMU with the operational evaluationsof all CFMU systems before these wereput into operation.

Coordination at management level withICAO, national authorities, serviceproviders and aircraft operators hasbeen conducted through a specialisedbody, the Flight Data and FlowManagement Group (FDFM). TheFDFM has always been a great driver ofprogress and has provided constantsupport to the CFMU. It has thus con-

tributed substantially to the success ofthe undertaking. I am very pleased toacknowledge the value of the work ofthis group and the merits of its succes-sive chairmen: Jim O’Farrell, PhilippeJacquard and Keith Williams.

Once the CFMU had taken responsibil-ity for daily operations, meetings wereorganised, under the chairmanship ofthe Director CFMU, originally betweenthe Directors of Air Navigation and laterthe Directors of Operations, each yearin spring. The purpose was to discussmeasures to be taken in order to copewith the situations that could be

expected to occur in the summer sea-son ahead. At these meetings the pro-vision of estimates in relation to the loadlikely to be generated in various areasby that summer's traffic was discussed,along with the resultant requirementsfor improved capacity at the variousplaces. Our colleagues at the EURO-CONTROL Experimental Centre atBrétigny-sur-Orge, who were able torefine, year after year, the tool theyused to provide these estimates, wereof immense help.

A major stakeholder is of course thecommunity of aircraft operators. IATA1

and IACA2 have been consultedthroughout the project and both organ-isations have participated in the defini-tion of functions and the evaluation ofsystems. Moreover, since October1993 a permanently manned AircraftOperators Liaison Cell has been inplace at the CFMU. The Cell acts onbehalf of all aircraft operators.

Within the EUROCONTROL Agency, aspecial coordination body at Directorlevel was established. The successiveDirectors General, Keith Mack andYves Lambert – who paid us a visit with-in the very first days of his mandate toexpress how important he felt theCFMU project to be – chaired this body.Its role was to take major decisions andfoster political support when required.

Conclusion

I think that anyone who has had thechance to work towards the realisationof a great and arduous project, as theestablishment of the CFMU was, takesgreat satisfaction from such an under-taking. The burdens borne are morethan offset by the joy and pride in suchan achievement. I feel immense grati-tude to the many people at all levelswho have made their contribution, eachin their own manner. Without them theproject could not be have been broughtto a successful conclusion. I havealready named a few, but I keep thenames of many others in my heart. ■

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A genuine common European projectThe making of the CFMU

1- InternationalAir TransportAssociation

2- InternationalAir CarrierAssociation

The origins – 1980s

Volume of air traffic in Europe growssteadily resulting in worsening delays● Many flights incur delays greater

than 1/2 hour.● Many disruptions in ATM.● ATC does not trust the ATFM system.

ICAO develops the Centralised TrafficManagement Organisation concept:

■ A Central Flow Management Unit(CFMU).

■ A Flow Management Position (FMP)in each Air Traffic Control (ATC)Centre.

▼

October 1988The Transport Ministers of the ECACStates decide to implement the con-cept and to create the Central FlowManagement Unit.

The management of this project isentrusted to EUROCONTROL.

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14

▼

27 April 1995The CFMU starts its initial tacticalATFM operations. CFMU takes overthe management of air traffic flowsover France and Switzerland with thetransfer of the French CORTA(Cellule d’organisation et de regula-tion du trafic aérien) to the CFMU’sCentral Executive Unit (CEU).

▼

9 November 1995The CFMU expands its tactical opera-tions to cover the airspace of 25European States (following the transferof the Frankfurt FMU operations to theBrussels-based CFMU which startedup in October 1995). 40 air traffic con-trol centres in Europe are now coordi-nating their respective traffic flowsdirectly with the CFMU.

At the same time, the UK authoritiesauthorise the CFMU to manage part ofthe international traffic flow entering UKairspace.

▼

14 January 1996All remaining UK tactical operations aretransferred to the CFMU.

▼

1 February 1996Transfer of the activities of Rome FMU.

▼

4 July 1989EUROCONTROL Permanent Commiss-ion’s approval.

The Agency set up a CFMU ProjectTeam.

The build-up – 1990s

▼

October 1991Participation in pre-tactical operationsbegins with the issuing of the first sin-gle, daily ATFM Notification Message,replacing a multiplicity of messages.

▼

February 1994Full pre-tactical operations for theECAC States with the move of theCFMU into a new purpose-built com-plex at Haren, Brussels.

▼

28 April 1994Start of flight plan collection by IFPS(The FPL capture is a prerequisite forTactical ATFM).

10 years of the CFMU 1995 - 2005

“A European success story”

Ministerial meetingMATSE 1988 Frankfurt

The CFMU is a remarkable achievement of which all players can feel justly proud:It is a cooperative effort that continues to this day and must continue into thefuture to ensure that the dramatic increases in demand for airspace do not resultin Europe’s skies becoming congested once again.

▼

14 March 1996The CFMU takes over responsibility formanaging the air traffic flows overSpain and Portugal from the MadridFMU. This is the final step in the transi-tion to a centralised air traffic manage-ment system.

Responsibility for managing the flowsof air traffic within the airspace of the 33Member States of ECAC is henceforthcentralised within the CFMU.

▼

28 March 1996IFPS full operationsAll flight plans of the CFMU area arecollected and redistributed to ATS Unitsby IFPS.

Handling crises

EUROCONTROL participates in theimplementation of measures to tacklemajor crises.

▼

March 1999Outbreak of the conflict in Kosovo■ Closure of a portion of airspace over

Bosnia and Herzegovina impactstraffic over Croatia, Hungary, Italy,Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia andFYROM

■ A resulting 30% increase in delays■ The CFMU works in close coop-

eration with ICAO, NATO, air-craft operators, ATC centres andairports to ensure the safererouting of traffic and to min-imise the impact of the crisis.

▼

September 2001Attacks on the World Trade Centre■ The CFMU is the key coordination

point for all air traffic movementsacross the Atlantic and in Europeanairspace.

■ Responsible for the safety of allflights in Europe, adjusting the trafficflows to the gradual opening ofoceanic airspace.

■ Working in close collaboration withthe FAA Command Centre, the USgovernment, military authorities andNATO.

■ The CFMU is able to handle the cri-sis because of its unique,advanced tools and excellentcommunication channels inEurope and in North America.

▼

Since start of operations■ Participation in the management of

crises has become fairly frequent forthe CFMU.

The evolution

The CFMU is a dynamic systemthat is changing in l ine withdemand in a perpetual attempt tomatch users’ needs, balancing bothcontrollers and aircraft operators’requirements.

Over the last 10 years the CFMUhas paved the way for a new gener-ation of flight-plan processing tech-nology that has become essential tomanaging traffic flows acrossEurope.

Delays caused by ATFM have beensteadily contained then reduced,while traffic growth has resumedstrong growth after the 11 Septemberattacks.

▼

July 2001Adoption of the ATFM Action Plan bythe 11th Session of the ProvisionalCouncil.


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The origins The build-up Handling crises The evolution The present Into the future

● ● ● ● ● ●

1980s 1990s 2000s 2005+

▼

February 2002The CFMU introduces accurateEnhanced Tactical Flow ManagementSystem (ETFMS)■ ETFMS uses radar-derived data,

hence, greater flight data accuracy,improved ATFM and a common viewon the air traffic flow situation thatwill be of benefit to the entire air traf-fic management network.

■ 10 February 2004 – CFMU winsATC Maastricht 2004 Award forETFMS.

▼

April 2004Publication of the ATFCM Strategy givingnew orientations to Air Traffic Flow andCapacity Management and in particularto the CFMU development.

The present

Strong growth in traffic with delayslower than everToday the capacity offered by theair navigation service providers isadjusted to match demand.

▼

2004The busiest year on record in Europe,with over 8.8 million flights.

■ Yet, delays remain at an all-time low.■ A total of 8,871,242 flights, up 4.8%

on 2003.■ The fastest annual growth rate for

any year since 1999.

▼

2005Traffic expected to be about 9.2 millionflights, 4% up on 2004.

Into the future

“The CFMU will have to change frombeing simply a mechanism for deliver-ing slots to one that proactively man-ages capacity and gets the best out ofthe system by cooperating closely withits partners”. Jean-Robert Bauchet,Director CFMU.

The CFMU is constantly introducingimprovements to ensure it meets thepredicted doubling of traffic inEuropean airspace by 2020. Its focus ison:

■ Improving collaboration:● Collaborative Decision Making

Solving problems within the net-work.

● E-conferencingA powerful tool to manage trafficflows.

■ Enhancing accuracy and consisten-cy of data:● Use of radar-derived data

Around 80% of ECAC flights arenow updated after their depar-ture using this information. Operational utilisation of thisinformation has advanced andhas enabled an improvedassessment of traffic demand.

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s10 Years of the CFMU 1995 - 2005

The origins The build-up Handling crises The evolution The present Into the future

● ● ● ● ● ●

1980s 1990s 2000s 2005+

Traffic over 1989 - 2005 and delays over 1996 - 2005

■ Evolving role:● Implementation of a new Policy

and Strategy plan for the futureThe CFMU has developed,together with its stakeholders, aStrategy for Air Traffic Flow andCapacity Management and anEvolution Plan addressing thefuture development of ATFM andthe CFMU over the next 15 years.

- towards a more cooperativemanagement of capacity anddemand;

- bringing airports within theATFCM Collaborative Decision-Making Process.


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A single flow management system over Europe

● 35 European States

● 75 en-route centres with 450 control sectors

● 70 local flow management positions

● 560 airports

● 250 aircraft operators

● 3,500 end-users regularly connected to CFMU

● more than 9,000,000 flights a year

● peaks more than 30,000 flights a day

CFMU works in a network with:

● National air navigation service providers

● Aircraft operators

● Airport operations

● Military authorities

● EUROCONTROL Agency

● ICAO - ECAC

● NATO

● Rest of the world – FAA, ...

Network & traffic flowin 2004

Network & traffic flowin 1989

Reviewing develop-ments over the past fiveyears, CFMU DirectorJean-Robert Bauchetapplauded the quality ofthe unit that he inheritedfrom his predecessorand considered that hismain achievement wasto have moved this top-quality tool to a CentralOperational Unit.

“Proof of this is thattoday nobody in the aviation commu-nity can imagine Air TrafficManagement without the CFMU func-tion.”

When I started (at the CFMU) I hadset myself the objective of “legitimis-ing” the CFMU – to position the unitas a key actor in European flow man-agement. Today, the entire aviationcommunity recognises its addedvalue.”

The CFMU has become a fully-fledgedoperational unit with all that implies asregards operating procedures, culturechange and expansion of influence.

And Jean-Robert Bauchet had the rightkind of background to help to make thishappen. He had considerable experi-ence in operations as well as a wealth ofprofessional expertise in aviationgained across France. He started hiscareer in the French administration,where he held several posts, includingthat of engineer in the MarseilleUAC/ACC, head of the French depart-ment responsible for coordinating oper-ations and development of allUAC(s)/ACC(s), Adviser to the AirNavigation Director, General Managerof the Paris UAC, moving on to take onresponsibilities in the field of develop-ment and management of the FrenchAirports at the headquarters of theDirection générale de l’Aviation Civile,before joining EUROCONTROL in 2000.

Another key achievement under Jean-Robert Bauchet’s directorship has beenthe implementation of a major technicalproject for the CFMU – the EnhancedTactical Flow Management System(ETFMS). Launched prior to his arrival,he stressed that ETFMS has been anextremely ambitious project involving achange in the CFMU’s entire systemsarchitecture and the introduction of newsoftware.

ETFMS in fact provides the air traffic flowmanagement (ATFM) specialists in theCFMU and the flow management posi-tions across European air traffic controlcentres with updated, accurate, sector

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18

Jean-Robert BauchetInterview with

The EUROCONTROL CentralFlow Management Unit

(CFMU) is now internationallyrecognised and respected. Ithas become essential for the

management of the flow oftraffic across Europe in a way

that provides a much moreefficient air traffic

management system.

The CFMU has achieved thisnot on its own, but through

its ability to evolve and worktogether with its partners. Jean-Robert Bauchet, who

has been Director of theCFMU since April 2000 and is

shortly concluding his term ofoffice, discussed this

achievement with Skyway.

loads for the current situation and thenear future. This facilitates careful moni-toring of the ATFM situation and allowsATFM partners to adapt measures to fitchanging circumstances.

He also established the Air Traffic Flowand Capacity Management Strategy,which has moved the European systemfrom focusing on avoiding saturationtowards optimising the overall efficiencyof the system. The result of this change instrategy can be seen in the delay statis-tics: in 2000, the average daily delay inthe summer period was 120,000 min-utes; by 2004, the average had beenreduced to some 50,000 minutes – aremarkable achievement!

Key challenge

The CFMU’s challenge is to continue toevolve and adapt to new circumstancesand to provide better value for air navi-gation service providers and airspaceusers alike. In this connection, Jean-Robert Bauchet asserted that the chang-ing scenario resulting from the entry intoforce of the Single European Sky (SES)legislation in April 2004 represented thegreatest present and future challenge forthe CFMU and its partners.

“In the course of the last decades, theSES regulations have been a majordevelopment in European ATM,” heremarked. “It has been particularlydemanding to position the CFMU, a unitof EUROCONTROL, within this context”,especially with respect to the call for sep-aration between service provider andregulator.

Understanding customers

“Understanding the customers’ needs iscrucial”, he argued. It is precisely withthis in mind that the CFMU Director hasdeveloped over the years direct rela-tions with CFMU partners, moving awayfrom the existing formal structures ofmeetings, task forces, etc.

“I consider it vital to establish and main-tain direct contacts with all our partners,contacts that are carefully cultivated inan atmosphere of trust, and to discussissues in a transparent manner.”

The CFMU Director stressed the need topromote cooperation and the extensiveexchange of knowledge among all theirpartners. “Direct contacts are a prereq-uisite to understanding each other. Themore you know your customers and theirdemands, the more you can help themby providing the appropriate service.”

And understanding the needs of its part-ners has been a fundamental element ofthe success of the CFMU.

“By partners, we are naturally referringprimarily to the air navigation serviceproviders and airspace users,” he clari-fied, “including both civil and militaryauthorities”.

“In fact we provide a public servicewhich is equitable and does not discrim-inate between the various customers.The needs (of our partners) are not iden-tical and that is why it is so important thatwe are aware of their specific needs,” hestressed.

“To understand is to evolve,” he contin-ued. “Flexibility and adaptability arenecessary in order to meet the dynamicrequirements of ATFM”. To comprehendmeans developing flow managementfrom the current system to a more coop-erative management of capacity anddemand, involving the entire Europeannetwork.

Ongoing initiatives

A key project is currently under waywithin the Central Flow Management. Itinvolves on the one hand the merginginto a single operations division of thetwo previous “flight data operations” and“flow management” divisions, on theother hand the layout of a single “Ops

room”. Started in September 2005, thelatter project is expected to be completeby the end of 2006.

This is part of the drive to develop theCFMU into a more business-orientatedoperation and is part of Jean-RobertBauchet’s efforts to reorganise theCFMU along operational lines and toobtain the recognition the unit deservesas a centre of ATFM excellence inEurope.

This adaptation will improve service pro-vision by optimising the application ofcross-border skills, by achieving syner-gies and contributing to cost-efficiencyand enhanced decision-making througha fully integrated and transparentprocess.

“At the same time, we have recentlycompleted the extension of the contin-gency site in Brétigny (France) by dou-bling the surface of the building,” addedBauchet. “Now the CFMU in Brusselshas a complete back up. This will allowus to optimise further our contingencyarrangements, and also to think aboutthe respective responsibilities of the twosites Haren and Bretigny.”

Issues for the future, he said, will includethe development of strategies for thetechnical reorganisation and the identifi-cation of how to build up the new sys-tems required in the tasks of the newCFMU strategy.

The vision

Bauchet has expanded the influence ofthe CFMU beyond Europe. He sawATFM as not just a European but world-wide phenomenon and immediatelybegan a process of “globalisation”.

After September 11th he insisted thatthe links between the FAA CommandCentre and NavCanada be enhancedand that regular e-conferencing beintroduced as both a crisis manage-


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ment tool and a management commu-nication tool.

“Our relations with our partners acrossthe Atlantic have been furtherstrengthened since the tragic eventsof 9/11. On that day, the CFMU wasinstrumental.”

“The CFMU will be the indispensableEuropean unit dealing with ATFM,”Jean-Robert Bauchet said. “Today theCFMU is the key actor at Europeanlevel. As it is increasingly becominginterconnected with the other conti-nents, the CFMU will graduallyembrace a more global dimension.”

“There is already one ATFM unit in theUS, in Canada and in Japan and oth-ers are to be set up in Moscow andChina.”

It looks like the CFMU is set to establishcloser links with the rest of the world.After all if there is an activity that is trulyinternational, that knows no borders,that has to be interoperable – that activ-ity is aviation.

Bauchet’s legacy

Over its ten years of operations, theCFMU has steadily built up its in-houseexpertise and knowledge of ATFM, andits level of contacts with the Europeanaviation community players is secondto none.

“All these achievements have beenrealised thanks to the support from theEUROCONTROL States and the greatjob done by the CFMU staff, “Jean-Robert Bauchet proudly said. “All 550people (working at the CFMU) have atdifferent levels contributed to its suc-cess”.

“Our relationship has not always beeneasy but it is precisely though difficul-ties that we have made the CFMUstronger and consolidated its role,together,” he remarked.

He stressed that, as far as his staff wereconcerned “L’avenir leur appartient

(the future is in their hands)”since a great deal moreneeds to be done for the fur-ther advancement of thisunit.

Jean-Robert Bauchet handsover to his successor,Jacques Dopagne, adynamic unit that is con-stantly adapting to meet thedemands of the changingATM environment, expand-ing its horizons and estab-lishing ever closer relationswith its customers.

In terms of expanding the influence ofCFMU across the continents, theCooperation Agreement concludedwith the Russian Federation in 2001 bythe Director General on behalf ofEUROCONTROL will certainly be key.

“As a result of this move, Moscow ATFMCentre now has CFMU terminals whichare used daily by the Russian flow con-trollers. This allows us to have a linkwith this territory,” he stated.

“The Russian Federation is strategicallyimportant for Trans-Siberian andTranspolar traffic,” Bauchet said. “Withair traffic set to grow in Eastern Europeand in the Asian countries, it will beeven more crucial to cooperate closelywith our Russian partners.”

As Jean-Robert Bauchet put it, he hasmanaged to set a solid foot in the USand to make a step towards Russia.The latter move will have to be consoli-dated.

Of course the southern reaches of theglobe have not been forgotten. TheCFMU already enjoys close coopera-tion with the African continent. Moroccoand Algeria are part of the CFMU net-work and are very active partners.

Conclusion

Jean-Robert Bauchet has been at theforefront of European ATM for fortyyears and throughout that time he hasdemonstrated a vision and commitmentbeyond national and continentalboundaries.

At the 50th Air Traffic ControlAssociation Annual Conference andExhibition held in the United States on 1November 2005 he was the recipient ofthe “David J. Hurley Memorial Award”for his “outstanding achievement in thefield of Aviation Traffic Managementand his contribution in maximizing air-space and airport use, which hasadded to the quality efficiency and/orsafety of the National AirspaceSystems”.

This was a personal recognition but atthe same time, as Bauchet remarked, arecognition of the EUROCONTROLCFMU as a remarkable Europeanachievement which must continue intothe future. ■

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20

Interview with Jean-Robert Bauchet

Jacques Dopagne willbe the Director of theCentral FlowManagement Unit(CFMU) with effectfrom 1 January 2006.He succeeds Jean-Robert Bauchet, wholeaves the Agency afterhaving served asDirector CFMU sinceApril 2000.

Mr Dopagne has over thirty years’experience in air traffic management.Thoroughly conversant with mattersboth operational and institutional, healso has a solid background in themanagement of both people andprojects.

After two engineering degreesobtained at the prestigious Ecolenationale de l’Aviation civile inToulouse, France – his native country– he forged a career for himself in theFrench Ministry of Transport. One ofhis posts was heading an office in theGeneral Directorate of French aviationwhere he dealt with airspace organi-sation and managed large-scale airnavigation equipment programmes.Subsequently appointed advisor tothe Director of Air Navigation - a posi-tion he held for three years - he repre-sented the French civil aviationadministration at discussions held byECAC and EUROCONTROL on theATM Strategy 2000+ and the revisedConvention.

He held his latest post since 1998,serving as General Manager of theParis Regional Air Navigation Centre(Centre regional de la Navigation aéri-enne de Paris – CRNA Nord), France’sbiggest ACC with over 700 employ-ees.

Jacques Dopagne brings a great dealto EUROCONTROL: pertinent knowl-edge and experience as well as anarray of highly-honed skills in a varietyof essential areas.

And he is not new to the CFMU. As heput it: “In my past career I have hadopportunity to meet the staff of theCFMU on various occasions. I admiretheir professionalism and ability to workclosely with all the partners to find(common) solutions”.

He highlighted that the CFMU is high-ly respected and its role in air trafficflow management recognised acrossthe entire ATM community. In his view,the CFMU is a truly European suc-cess. “Whenever there is a problem(be it technical, operational or weath-er-related), the CFMU is there toaddress it and find a solution atEuropean level.”

He continued to say: “Air traffic con-trollers trust (the CFMU)” as they areprotected from overload of traffic intheir sectors and this has significantlycontributed to increasing capacityacross Europe.”

When talking about the decision to cre-ate the CFMU and to entrust its man-agement to the EUROCONTROLAgency, Dopagne stated that this wasan important strategic decision. Hewent on to stress that more specificallyhe recalled the year 1995 when he wasadvisor to the Director of AirNavigation, Philippe Jaquard, the manwho played a key role in the develop-ment of the CFMU. In this connection,he remembered very well the timewhen the French CORTA (Cellule d’or-ganisation et de regulation du trafficaérien) became the first unit to betransferred to the CFMU.

“At the beginning there were some tech-nical problems and local and regionalairlines were critical (of the CFMU) butairlines such as Air France, operatingaccross Europe, saw the great advan-tage of having the CFMU,” he explained.


Jacques Dopagneappointed to lead theCentral Flow Management Unit

21

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Dopagne is very proud to have joinedthe CFMU and he is looking forward toembarking on this new journey. Heintends to prepare for the future in aconsolidated manner, working with allstakeholders. “(At the CFMU) we needto work as a team” and he continuedto say: “I will work with all Agencyunits.”

When asked what his first prioritieswould be, Dopagne highlighted four.

First of all, he wants to learn, listen andmeet all the people who work in theCFMU and the Agency.

“Secondly I intend to pursue theexcellent work done by the CFMUover the last ten years – in a spirit ofcontinuity.”

Thirdly, one of his priorities will be tofocus on cooperation with the militaryauthorities with a view to making betteruse of the available airspace through awider implementation of the flexible useof airspace concept in Europe.

Fourthly, he stressed the importanceof working with airports. “Some ofEurope’s airports are coming underincreasing pressure in terms of traffic(they have to handle),” Dopagneargued. “There is a need to developconcrete procedures in order toinvolve all the players and to establisha consolidated approach towardsidentifying and resolving capacitybottlenecks”.

In this respect, he talked aboutDMEAN, the Dynamic Management of

the European Airspace Network, acrucial programme for the next fiveyears.

“The CFMU will be involved in this pro-gramme to a great extent,” heexplained. “This is a main challenge forEurope in the coming years.”

DMEAN is a short-term solution toenhance air traffic management, air-space efficiency and capacity, whilereinforcing cooperation between all airtraffic management partners.

The future success of the European airtraffic management system will in factdepend on how well the different play-ers collaborate.

“With the help of air navigation serviceproviders, States, civil and military air-space users, airports, we must be ableto deliver the extra needed capacity,while enhancing safety levels, and theCFMU will play fully its role in thisendeavour,” Dopagne concluded.

Skyway wishes Mr Dopagne and theCentral Flow Management Unit a peri-od of highly successful developmentunder his management. ■

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wJacques Dopagne appointed to lead the Central Flow Management Unit

Mr Angenendt, how do the airnavigation services organisa-tions benefit from the CFMU?

First of all, please allow me to congrat-ulate the CFMU on the excellent work ithas performed over the past ten years.It has firmly established itself as a multi-State institution in Europe. Over theyears, a centralised ATFM has been setup, and it is considered a fixed elementof the air transport system by all stake-holders in Europe.

This brings me on to one of the mostimportant functions of the CFMU. TheCFMU acts as a moderator betweenthe individual stakeholders in dis-cussing key issues such as capacityand flow management. It alsoenhances coordination processesbetween air navigation services organ-isations. It has always safeguarded theinterests and taken due account of theresponsibilities of the individualproviders. From the point of view of theair navigation service providers, this willcontinue to be one of the CFMU's maintasks in the future.

What role is played by theCFMU in the harmonisationof the European airspace? The CFMU has, of course, beeninvolved in the implementation of theSingle European Sky initiative. It is play-ing a major part in ensuring that theEuropean ideal of networking airspaceis put into practice. The progress madeto date has been mainly thanks to Jean-Robert Bauchet, its outgoing Director. A

great believer in European goals, Mr Bauchet has guided the CFMUalong the path to success over the pastfive years. One example of his work hasbeen the development of and responsi-bility for the European AIS Database(EAD) in close connection with CFMUoperations. Jean-Robert Bauchet hasturned the CFMU into the great organi-sation it is today.

How will the CFMU and the airnavigation service providerscooperate in the future?Roles and responsibilities must beclearly defined and be transparent toall parties. Cooperation in the futuremust be in line withthe ATFCM1 strate-gy. EstablishingFunctional AirspaceBlocks (FABs) willhave consequencesfor CFMU opera-tions. One of thekey tasks of the CFMU over the next twoyears will be to implement the ATFCMstrategy in the individual FABs anddevelop the basis for the cooperationbetween the CFMU and each of theFABs.

What impact will the SingleEuropean Sky (SES) have?In the coming years, the SES will havean even greater impact on our actionsthan has been the case up to today.Making the right decisions is crucialto air transport as a whole, and partic-ularly to air navigation services organ-

isations. Passengers and theEuropean economy as a whole alsobenefit when air navigation servicesenhance their performance. The cost-effectiveness issue will certainlybecome increasingly important in thefuture.

Can you be more specific?

The main thing is to ensure that theCFMU and air navigation serviceproviders can continue to handle airtraffic in a safe, orderly and expedi-tious manner. At the same time, the airtransport industry must remain a cre-ator of new jobs. This is particularlyimportant for promoting prosperity

in the Europeaneconomy.

Air navigationservice providerswill come underincreasing costpressure in the

future. The cost situation will beaggravated by the rising price of rawmaterials. This pressure is bound totake its toll not only on the servicesbut also on certain functions, such asATFCM. In this connection, the samecost-effectiveness parameters mustbe observed by all parties. However,in order to stay competitive, the airnavigation services organisationshave no other option but to make theirservices more productive, while main-taining the high level of safety. In otherwords, the philosophy regarding the"zero tolerance" of errors remains inplace. ■


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Skyway spoke to Andreas Angenendt, DirectorOperations of the Control Centre Business Unitat DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH, who is responsible for operations at all controlcentres in Germany, to get an air navigationservice provider’s view on the CFMU.

DFS on CFMU

1- Air TrafficFlow andCapacityManagement

Situation actuelle

Le CFMU agit sur le processus ATFMdans le cadre des principes du FUA.Hélas, ce dernier n’est pas encoreappliqué entièrement par tous lesacteurs concernés. On constate quecertains pays l’appliquent en partiealors que d’autres ont encore des diffi-cultés à le mettre en oeuvre, ou fonc-tionnent d’une manière qui ne leur per-met pas de voir facilement les béné-fices à court terme que cette applica-tion leur apporterait.

Il s’ensuit que le CFMU n’est souventpas en mesure d’exploiter complète-ment et à l’échelle européenne lesdisponibilités potentielles d’espacedans les délais requis.

L’une des raisons qui expliquent cetétat de fait est que le CFMU ne disposepas de toutes les informations traitéespar les AMC, mais seulement d’infor-mations parcellaires selon l’origine et lanature de la source d’information (posi-tions FMP5 par exemple).

Par ailleurs, on constate que l’espacerendu disponible, et identifié commetel, est trop souvent insuffisammentutilisé et ne modifie la capacitéannoncée par les CCR que de façonrelative.

Évolution

La situation actuelle construite sur uneapplication partielle du FUA montreque le système a atteint la limite per-mise par les conditions dans lesquellesil est appliqué, dans les pays où c’estle cas.

Une évolution est donc indispensablepour pouvoir améliorer la gestion de l’e-space aérien et l’exploitation opéra-tionnelle efficace de l’espace rendudisponible.

L’application complètedu concept FUA

Le défi actuel et futurSt

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Le CFMU1 est, du point de vue militaire, indis-sociable du concept FUA2. En effet, la gestionsouple de l’espace et la libération, par laDéfense, d’espaces d’entraînement au profitdu trafic commercial constituent le principalcanal d’action des militaires vis-à-vis del’ATFM3.

Ces dispositions ont permis une améliorationde l’écoulement et de la fluidité du traficgrâce à une meilleure gestion de l’espaceaérien.

Cependant, la situation actuelle n’est pasoptimale et devra être améliorée pour faireface au défi de la croissance constante dutrafic.

Le FUA a provoqué une révolution dans lesméthodes de travail des armées de l’air despays qui l’appliquent. Cet effort est accepté,mais seulement s’il conduit à un résultat opti-mal dans l’utilisation des espaces rendusdisponibles.

Cela ne sera possible que si sont garanties :■ une coordination étroite entre les AMC4

nationales et le CFMU ;■ une exploitation rapide des informations

utiles ;■ une réactivité appropriée de la part de tous

les acteurs.

Le défi actuel et futur sera d’atteindre l’opti-misation du fonctionnement du CFMU dans lecadre du FUA, compte tenu notamment de saprise en compte par le projet Ciel unique.

Par le Général Jean-Robert Cazarré, Présidentdésigné du Comitépermanent d'inter-face civile-militairepour 2006-2007

1- Organisme central de gestion des courants de trafic aérien 2- Utilisation flexible de l’espace aérien

3- Gestion des courants de trafic aérien 4- Cellules de gestion de l’espace aérien5- Poste de gestion des courants de trafic

Les développements actuels du projetde Ciel unique européen conduisent àl’application complète, à court terme,des principes du FUA dans les pays del’Union européenne.

Améliorations possibles

Par l’ensemble des acteursUne première voie d’amélioration seraitde formaliser la mise en oeuvre d’unecoordination systématique entre leCFMU et les AMC nationales, ce quipermettrait d’obtenir une vision globalede la disponibilité de l’espace àl’échelle européenne.

Le deuxième et incontournable progrèsserait l’application complète, dans tousles pays concernés, des niveauxstratégique, pré-tactique et tactique duFUA.

Il serait possible d’aller plus loin encoreen accélérant l’exploitation et la circula-tion des informations sur la disponibilitédes espaces et des routes, aussi biendans le sens ascendant que dans lesens descendant. L’accélération de laremontée des informations vers leCFMU doit en particulier permettre à cedernier d’établir au plus tôt la situationde l’espace disponible et d’en informerles compagnies aériennes et les CCR.

Finalement, améliorer la réactivité et lasouplesse des services ATS6 et des util-isateurs pour l’exploitation des routesaériennes disponibles permettrait incon-testablement de revoir la capacité glob-ale à la hausse, tout en réalisant deséconomies sur les trajets parcourus etles attentes éventuelles. Pour cela, il estindispensable qu’à la suite de la col-lecte, de l’exploitation et de la diffusionrapide de l’information par le CFMU, lesAMC comme les CCR/FMP ajustent leurcapacité à la hausse grâce à l’espaceobtenu et que les compagnies aéri-

ennes fassent preuve de la réactiviténécessaire en utilisant cet espace etcette capacité pour optimiser leurs vols.

Par la DéfenseDans le contexte des mesures à prendrepour améliorer globalement l’ATFCM7,les acteurs de la Défense peuvent con-tribuer par plusieurs actions.

La première est certainement de se rap-procher du CFMU afin de s’intégrer auplus près dans le processus de mise àdisposition de l’espace disponible, etde raccourcir au maximum la boucle decirculation de l’information entre l’utilisa-teur qui libère un espace et celui qui vapouvoir en bénéficier.

Mais ce rapprochement ne peut êtrepleinement efficace que si les militairess’impliquent dans une participationactive au sein de leur AMC nationale,assurant ainsi un rôle d’acteur proactifau sein de cette structure.

L’action des militaires pourrait égale-ment consister à faciliter et accélérer lacirculation des informations pertinentesen amont comme en aval, tout enaméliorant la connaissance et la com-préhension mutuelles des difficultésdes uns et des autres.

L’intégration efficace des acteursDéfense dans le processus ATFCM leurpermettrait aussi, en connaissance decause, de détecter et d’identifier plus tôtet plus facilement les points bloquantsprévisibles par rapport à leurs planningsd’activité à moyen et long terme.

De plus, à la lumière de l’expérienceacquise auprès du CFMU, leur partici-pation à la définition des réseaux deroutes conduirait naturellement à desrésultats supérieurs, et l’acquisition decette « vision CFMU » leur permettraitde prendre part activement et efficace-

ment à l’analyse des causes des pointsbloquants à l’origine des régulations.

À l’heure où le Ciel unique annonce desévolutions réglementaires majeures, ilest indispensable de veiller à ce quel’organisation de l’ATFCM accompagneles changements qui vont intervenir etcontinue de poursuivre une gestion opti-male de l’espace aérien et de son utili-sation.

Pour cela, il sera nécessaire de recon-sidérer les habitudes actuelles et deveiller à ce que tous les organismesconcernés travaillent ensemble au plusjuste niveau. Cela impliquera une coor-dination renforcée entre les AMCnationales (voire sub-régionales un jour)et le CFMU, un traitement rapide et effi-cace des informations disponibles et,surtout, une exploitation réactive de cesdonnées par tous les acteurs de la nav-igation aérienne, au sol comme en vol.

Les militaires sont prêts à participer àune telle démarche d’implication sup-plémentaire, qui leur permettra de mieuxvoir et de mieux défendre les bénéficesproduits par les efforts consentis lors dela mise en oeuvre du FUA. ■


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6- Services dela circulationaérienne

7- Gestion descourants detrafic aérienet de la capacité

Airlines were sending expertsto work alongside the IATA sec-retariat, not only European-based airlines such asLufthansa, Air France, KLM andBritish Airways but also PanAmerican and TWA wereinvolved using managers fromtheir European dispatch cen-tres, adding weight to the input.

The initial answer from theproviders to use 13 regionalflow units was a step forwardbut was very cumbersome and

airlines would need to hold on the tele-phone for long periods waiting for a'slot'. The system became a little moreproductive when the 13 units werereduced to 5 but still the telephonecalls between the airlines and the flowunits took up a lot of time.

When the ICAO Centralised TrafficManagement Organisation conceptwas approved in October 1988, thenews was welcomed by IATA as theonly way forward and with the approvalof the CFMU Implementation Plan inApril 1989, IATA again stepped up itsinvolvement, this time playing an activepart in the EUROCONTROL meetingstructure. The Flight Data FlightManagement (FDFM) Support Groupdealing with many of the developmentactivities was actually chaired by air-lines representatives, first from Dan Airand then British Airways.

Following some direct cooperationbetween the fledgling CEU, the FrenchDirector General of Civil Aviation andIATA/IACA1 during a French strike in1990 the seed was sown for an Airline

Operators Liaison Cell to be part of theCFMU. This took the cooperation a fur-ther stage with a permanent presencewithin the CFMU management area ofrepresentatives from both IATA andIACA with the brief to rep-resent the interests of allaircraft operators, not onlytheir own members. Latein 1993 the cell was set upassisting with pretacticalplanning. The role of thecell has changed anddeveloped over the years and is stillconsidered by the airlines to be a veryuseful interface.

The key was and still is the existence ofindependent airline experts directlywithin the CFMU management corridorwho need to maintain credibility withthe aircraft operators and have openaccess to all levels within the CFMU.

When CFMU tactical operations startedprogressively in 1995 there was a newway of working for everybody.Suddenly the delay pattern changedwith many domestic flights that had

previously not beenrestricted receiving delays.The result of this was thatthe longer flights were sub-ject to less delay thanbefore and we started tosee much more equity inthe system. However, there

were also a lot of confusion because ofa multitude of new messages to learnand a lot of man-hours were spent ineducating the airlines.

Many airlines were initially doubtfulthat the CFMU was a benefit.Progressively, however, the airlinesgained more confidence in the systemand confirmed their full acceptance

IATA and the CFMU

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By Cees Gresnigt,IATA Director Safety,

Operations andInfrastructure –

Europe,North Atlantic and

North America

Airline traffic has always had periods of growth and then stabilisation followed by moregrowth. During the mid-1980s we saw growth at rates that had not been forecast by theindustry at the beginning of the decade. Suddenly delays were increasing significantly andIATA raised its level of activity in international meetings, working with ICAO and the States tofind solutions to the high delays.

1- InternationalAir CarrierAssociation

that the CFMU had been the right wayforward and considered that any sug-gestion to go back to a de-centralisedstructure would be a backward step.

Along with the benefits from a coordinat-ed approach to flow restrictions hasbeen the development of tools enablingairlines to interface with the system insome detail. From the start of the systemplanning, it was the airlines themselveswho insisted on a transparent approachincluding the flight plan details of everyflight being open to all concerned. Theinitial tool (the RTA computer terminal)and the new message exchanges werevery advanced compared with the oldtelephone but the current internet-basedinterface is a major step forward layingthe foundations for even better graphicsin the future. IATA believes that theCFMU should continue to develop thistool and supports moves towards 3Dgraphics.

We have seen some exceptionalincreases in traffic over the last fewyears that have stretched the system tothe limits. Airlines have had to acceptmore reroutes and level capping inorder to avoid or reduce delays. Some

of the measures have been difficult toaccept but the comments from the air-lines again point to the fact that withoutcentralised coordination through theCFMU the delays would have beenunbearable.

How the CFMU is currently managedand financed will probably change butthe important point is that IATA wants tocontinue to be closely involved withboth the current operational problemsand future developments. Only throughgood collaboration and cooperation willthe travelling public be properlyserved. The providers and the airlinesmust continually work together andunderstand each others’ problemsworking to overcome them.

Can the CFMU improve its perform-ance? Yes of course it can, it is no dif-ferent from any other part of the systemand must not become complacent sim-ply because delays have been signifi-cantly reduced. There is room forimprovement in data capture, strategiccoordination, handling of significant dis-ruption and staff knowledge of the prob-lems that airlines face. As far as we seeit, the CFMU is taking all of this onboard.The operations room has seen changesin the way it is managed but furtherwork can be done in this respect andIATA welcomes the combining of thetwo separate operations rooms at Hareninto one, after all this is the way that air-lines have always operated.

We see the challenge for the CFMU asone of maintaining a central role over-

seeing the network in Europe but at thesame time allowing local initiatives thatavoid the loss of available short-noticecapacity. This does not mean that wewant any kind of fragmentation. All localinitiatives will only work if properly coor-dinated via a centralised function.

As we go forward with the SingleEuropean Sky, we want to see theCFMU move away from mostly flowmanagement to a role of traffic andcapacity management. It will notreplace the role of air traffic control butrather enable ATC to do their job moreefficiently acting in a way as a brokerbetween several ACCs and as a tool toensure that the ATM system works tothe benefit of aviation.

IATA wants less complexity and moreflexibility in the future ATM system. TheCFMU must play its part to achieve this.Air traffic will continue to grow. This ispart of the general economic develop-ment of Europe and indeed the world.We all need to revisit our methods ofoperating to ensure that we make thebest use of current capacity.

There is no shortage of airspace inEurope but we are limited in how muchtraffic it can accept because of humancapabilities, airspace structure andseparation limitations. Technical devel-opments will allow more aircraft to behandled, they must in order to accom-modate the doubling of traffic by 2020and beyond. The service provided bythe CFMU must keep up with thesedevelopments. ■


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CFMU essentially acts as acoordination centre forEuropean flight planning. Itscore activity is management ofthe Integrated Initial Flight PlanProcessing System (IFPS)through which more than 38,000messages are processed everysingle day and distributed to allrelevant Air Traffic Control (ATC)units in more than thirty-fourEuropean States known collec-tively as the IFPS Zone. CFMU

further uses the data it collects throughthis activity to ensure that at any givenmoment there is sufficient ATC capacityavailable to handle demand on the air-space in as efficient a manner as possi-ble through its Air Traffic Flow andCapacity Management (ATFCM) pro-gramme, which is designed to ensurethat the capacity of the airspace is fullyexploited and that no one part of thesystem becomes overloaded, thus gen-erating delays.

Some 25,000 flights use IFPS Zone air-space every single day and it is testa-ment to the efforts of the CFMU, thatafter a peak in delays in the later part ofthe 1990s, while demand on the air-space has increased year on year, thedelays have decreased. In 2004, the lastyear for which data is presently avail-able, 8.87 million aircraft passed

through the IFPS Zone while the averagedelay per flight has fallen to just 1.7 min-utes. The cut in delay has beenachieved primarily through judiciousapplication of strategic, pre-tactical andtactical ATFCM.

With demand from air traffic increasingin the core IFPS Zone an average of 5%per year, there are still issues to beaddressed in managing the airspaceefficiently and maximising further still thecapacity of the system. On this, the 10thanniversary of CMU there is no room forcomplacency and still many challengesahead believes Head of OperationsDivision, John Byrom. Several distinctchallenges lay ahead, he says, and, ifCFMU is to maintain and preferablyreduce further still delays withinEuropean airspace, it must develop inthe area of capacity management,improve traffic flow management,enhance network management andensure a quality of service to airspaceusers. He adds that by focusing on theareas above, CFMU is aiming at manag-ing the airspace to the extent that flowcontrol measures will only be needed inexceptional circumstances.

Given the continual rise in air trafficdemand on what is a finite amount ofairspace, that is a lofty goal by anystretch of the imagination, but one

that CFMU believes is attainable. He believes that better training andimproved communication are two of thekey elements in attaining that goal.

On the training side he says that it isimperative that Airline Operators (AOs)must ensure that those responsible forflight planning correctly follow the stan-dard procedures. Presently, some 80%of flight plans are processed automati-cally, which suggests that the remaining20% are having to be resolved manual-ly. Although CFMU manages to resolvethese errors in the majority of casesquite rapidly, it follows that they do, insome way, contribute to delay, or thepotential for delay. According to Byrom,errors in syntax are a particular problemand he suggests that AOs shouldensure, to the fullest extent possible, thatflight planning departments avail them-selves of the latest and highly effectiveCFMU training materials in an effort tostamp out the problem. He adds thatCFMU is considering establishing aleague table of the best and the worst.

The message, essentially, is that while theCFMU is there to service the needs of thestakeholders (AOs), so the stakeholdersmust take an element of responsibility ifthey wish to continue to receive the levelsof on-time performance they havebecome accustomed to in recent years.

CFMU moves into nextdecade with strong plans to enhance performance

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EUROCONTROL’s Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU) this year celebrates its 10thanniversary as an integral and vital part of Europe’s air traffic management system.Established in the mid 1990s with the goal of reducing delays to airspace usersthrough effectively managing the flow of air traffic in the busy skies above thecontinent, the past decade has seen the unit successfully achieve those objectivesagainst a backdrop of constantly increasing demand from the airline community.

By Chris Yates,free-lance aviation

journalist

Communication between CFMU andEurope’s ATC providers, he says isgood, but could be improved still fur-ther. The adoption of e-conferencetools has helped immeasurably, but insome areas there is still no substitutefor face-to-face contact. Membershipof the European Civil AviationConference (ECAC) has grown expo-nentially. Naturally, the CFMU has hadto absorb that growth and encouragethose new Member States to adopt thepractices that have long been adoptedwithin the core of Europe.

Asked where the primary growth indemand on European airspace wouldcome from in future years JohnByrom highlighted traffic from theRussian Federation and China, as wellas the continuing growth in low-cost

operations throughout the continent.EUROCONTROL has already begun toexperience a significant growth in traf-fic from the Russian Federation and,while data sharing is a challenge,CFMU works closely with the RussianATC authorities to coordinate that trafficwithin the busy European skies. Giventhe explosive growth within the Chineseeconomy he sees additional and, quiteprobably significant demands beingplaced on the confined airspace assetsof Europe, from the East over the nextdecade and longer. Low cost opera-tions, particularly within the core area ofEurope, also present particular chal-lenges.

The message is a simple but, con-versely, a complicated one. Europeanairports, airspace providers and the

stakeholders within the system haveto get better and also more flexible ifall parties are to continue to benefitfrom the continued growth in demandfrom the consumer base. Without con-tinued enhancement and reform thosewho would benefit most from the con-tinued growth in demand for air trafficservices will ultimately loose out.Punctuality is important to sustainedgrowth in the air transportation sectorand the reduction of direct and indi-rect costs associated with freedom ofmovement to follow flexible, preferredand direct flight profiles with delay ishighly desirable. EUROCONTROL’sByrom says the CFMU can, andstands ready to assist, all stakehold-ers in that quest. ■


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The Forum recorded high attendancewith some 200 participants from 35 dif-ferent countries, representing aircraftoperators, handling companies, air-ports, air navigation service providers(mostly Flow Management Positionmanagers) and industry.

The event has consistently grown overthe years with more and more empha-sis being placed on the operationalsystems, services and cooperation ofthe EUROCONTROL Agency partnerswithin the ATM community. Evolvingfrom an annual debriefing meeting forexternal CFMU users focussed on theevaluation of the developing CFMUsystems through an open door-type of

gathering, in recent years the event hasdeveloped into a Forum focusing on avariety of topics such as operations,general services and communication.

Currently 3,500 end-users are connect-ed to the CFMU flow management sys-tem, which comprises 75 en-route cen-tres (within which there are 450 ATCsectors), 84 flow management posi-tions, 560 airports, 250 aircraft opera-tors, resulting in a daily contact with466 CFMU staff. Against this back-ground, the opportunity to presentdirectly to its customers the latestCFMU developments as well as thepossibility to socialise and network withthe participants is highly valued. CFMU

User Fora therefore create an excellentoccasion to share views, expectationsand needs between the various cus-tomers and the CFMU staff and to lookforward to further developments andinteractions.

The main objectives of this year’s forumwere to provide the participants withthe opportunity to discuss specificoperational issues with CFMU staffmembers and, where possible, to pro-vide a demonstration of new functional-ities available within the CFMU 11release (the next software release to beintroduced in spring 2006) as well as areview of ATFM operations.

The EUROCONTROL Director General,Víctor M. Aguado, welcomed the visi-tors, and the Director CFMU, Jean-Robert Bauchet opened the two-dayevent. The following presentations cov-ered general trends in the fields of reg-ulation, CFMU and DMEAN1, airspacemanagement and ATFCM2 measures,flight planning and airports as well asCFMU planning, organisation and com-munication issues.

Further changes in the CFMU 11release covering Integrated InitialFlight Plan Processing System (IFPS),airspace data management,Enhanced Tactical Flow ManagementSystem (ETFMS), operational ATFCMprocedures and CFMU HumanMachine Interface (CHMI) were elabo-rated upon, together with clarifica-tions on the overview of the opera-tions situation, CFMU interface for air-craft operators, flight plan evolutionsand operations, European AISDatabase (EAD). On-line training ande-learning (WBT), operational ATFCMprocedures, ATFM daily plan e-con-ferencing and RAD, e-RAD andNOTAM evolutions were presented.

16-17 November 2005, Brussels

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Once again, the Central Flow Management Unit held its UserForum with this year’s event taking place on 16-17 November at its premises in Brussels.

CFMU User Forum:a great success

All these presentations are available on the CFMU website athttp://www.cfmu.eurocontrol.int/cfmu/public/standard_page/userforum_presentations.html

1- DynamicManagement ofthe EuropeanAirspaceNetwork

2- Air TrafficFlow andCapacityManagement

To assist the participants in sharingviews and clarifying questions as wellas to facilitate general interactivity,various documented stands with on-line access to CFMU services, wereorganised. These focussed on exist-ing CFMU services and further ongo-ing development activities. Detailedexplanations were provided indomains such as CHMI demonstra-tion, flight planning operations, ATFMoperations, EAD, airspace data andRPL, CFMU training, customer satis-faction survey, on line CFMU services(registration/access, reporting/statis-tics, users documentation, claim han-dling).

This year’s forum was also an out-standing occasion to involve partici-patnts in the celebration of the 10thAnniversary of the CFMU.

In line with the CFMU quality stan-dards, a couple of in-depth interviewswere made to ascertain the cus-tomers’ views in relation to the 2004Customer Satisfaction Survey. Thefeedback received from the partici-pating CFMU clients revealed an

overall 82% satisfaction rate, with thecomposition of the various displaysand the networking with CFMU staffand also with the other participantsduring the event receiving higher thanthe overall satisfaction rate.Conference facilities and documenta-tion and some presentations, such asRAD (Route Availability Document),also obtained a similar appreciationvalue.

Various suggestions for improvementwere gathered and the CFMU aims toincorporate these in the future cus-tomised CFMU User Fora in its con-stant search for excellence

Interaction, discussions, documentedoperational exchanges and furthercooperation within the ATM communi-ty will remain the focus of the nextCFMU User Fora. ■


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"Implementing RNP" was aimed at explor-ing future navigation developments fromthe present to 2025. There was strongsupport from all areas of the aviationindustry, with over 420 delegates, and theglobal dimension was further empha-sised by the attendance of participantsfrom all over the world, including Russia,Japan, China, Brazil and Australia, toname but a few countries.

The first day was devoted to the variousregional navigation strategies, currentRNAV developments, the need forRequired Navigation Performance(RNP), fixed navigation infrastructuredecommissioning possibilities and alter-natives to GNSS.

On the second day, aircraft and avion-ics equipment manufacturers explainedtheir plans for future navigation systemsand instrument procedure designersdemonstrated interesting concepts forenhanced runway access. The finalpresentations showed the respectivecertification requirements on either sideof the Atlantic Ocean.

An Open Forum constituted the lastpart of the workshop and was co-moderated by Alex Hendriks (Head ofthe Airspace/Flow Management andNavigation Business Division, EURO-CONTROL) and Jeff Williams (RNPProgramme Manager, FAA); dele-gates were given the opportunity tomake their views known on the wayforward to a harmonised and cost-effective deployment of navigationapplications.

"Avionics for 2010 and Beyond" wasaimed at exploring the growing inte-gration of air-ground systems and, inparticular, the relationship betweenoperational concepts, architectureand research. This event was chairedby Dan Hawkes on behalf of EURO-

CONTROL and Ron Stroup for theFederal Aviation Administration.

The anticipated evolution of airbornesystems was explored with the pres-entation of the "Avionics StudyReport" developed within the frame-work of EUROCONTROL’s OverallCNS/ATM Target Architecture (OATA)Project.

The first three sessions emphasisedthe role of trajectory management asa means of evolving current ATMservices. Several speakers talked ofthe need to negotiate trajectory infor-mation in order to ensure commonunderstanding between air andground systems. The remainder of thefinal session on Research andDevelopment focussed on the emerg-ing role of ASAS3 in delivering bene-fits within the operational concept.

The workshop demonstrated thatfuture concepts require global coop-eration in order to ensure that interop-erability is achieved. Aircraft flyaround the world and need to operatein diverse types of airspace. In orderto do so in the future, as air-groundintegration increases, global agree-ment will be required on the expecta-tions and requirements placed on theairborne elements of the overallATM/CNS system.

The feedback from delegates will beused, through cooperation betweenEUROCONTROL and the FAA, toreview their strategies to achieve thebenefits sought by the aviation indus-try. This task presents a consider-able challenge. However, it wasencouraging to note the willingnessof all parties to work together toachieve ATM benefits in cost, capac-ity, efficiency and environmentalterms. ■

Working together towardsglobal implementation

Navigation and Avionics Workshops4-7 October 2005, Toulouse

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EUROCONTROL and the FAA co-hosted two very successfulworkshops entitled "Implementing RNP1" and "Avionics for2011 and Beyond" on 4-7 October 2005 at the BaudisConference Centre in Toulouse. In parallel, a technical indus-try exhibition of navigation and avionics products and services(including the EUROCONTROL User Support Cell and OATA2) washeld and aroused a great deal of interest.

EUROCONTROL& FAA

cohosting the workshop

1- RequiredNavigationPerformance

2- OverallCNS/ATM TargetArchitecture

3- AirborneSeparationAssuranceSystem

CAATS Safety R&D WorkPackage – the safety survey

The objective of the safety R&D workpackage of the CAATS project is togather and disseminate emerginggood practice information on safetyR&D conducted by the aviation organi-sations in Europe and to identify gapsand user needs. Despite previousreviews of safety R&D in European ATM(e.g. via ARDEP), it remains a frag-mented field of research, one for whichit is difficult to gain a coherent picture.

The approach in this work packagewas therefore to establish from

researchers and stakeholders alike,what research was taking place, andwhat were seen as the priorities forATM. This entailed carrying out adetailed survey of the European ATMSafety R&D community. Thirty sixinterviews were carried out in sixteencountries, in which forty three per-sons from thirty two ATM-relatedEuropean organisations were inter-viewed.

The Safety R&D survey team was NLR(the Netherlands), ISDEFE (Spain),Boeing Research & TechnologyEurope (Spain) and the EURO-CONTROL Experimental Centre.

The CAATS Safety R&DWorkshop

The Workshop had two main objec-tives:■ to identify safety research needs

and priorities in order to improvecoordination and collaboration onkey European ATM safety R&Dissues;

■ to disseminate and promulgate theidentified up–to-date CAATS bestpractices on safety methodologies.

The Chairman of the workshop, Dr BarryKirwan, Safety R&D coordinator, EURO-CONTROL Experimental Centre, andMorton Jensen, European CommissionDirectorate General for Energy andTransport, opened the workshop. MrsMariken Everdij, NLR, presented theresults of the R&D survey and this setthe context for the remainder of theWorkshop. While the complete results ofthe survey will be published with the finalreport, four main directions were identi-fied in which harmonisation and coordi-nation on safety R&D can be improved:

■ Centralisation of the coordination ofsafety R&D, through an independentfocal point.

■ Creation and maintainance of acommon database on who is doingwhat in ATM safety R&D.


Date

linesImproving coordination

of ATM safety

CAATS Safety R&D Workshop, EUROCONTROL Headquarters, 18-20 October 2005

CAATS, Cooperative Approach to Air Traffic Services, is aEuropean Commission FP61 Project, with the objective of coor-dinating processes and methodologies across the EC FP6 ATM projects in relation to safety, human factors and validation.

1- 6thFrameworkProgramme

■ Large research projects shouldhave shared objectives and havesafety as a priority.

■ Safety R&D organisations shouldlearn from each other.

Stakeholders including regulators, airnavigation service providers, aviationsafety R&D organisations, AviationSafety Departments of Universities,Professional and Trade Union organisa-tions and the United States FAA, all hadthe opportunity to present their identi-fied current, mid- and long-term safetyR&D needs, as well as setting out theirviews on the best ways to meet thoseneeds through current and plannedactivities.

On the second day, the participantsbroke out into a number training semi-nars which allowed participants todevelop an understanding of varioussafety processes as follows:

■ How to carry out a PSSA. ■ Human error identification using task

analysis, HAZOP and TRACER. ■ The JSSI/FAST hazard identification

and management process. ■ TLS application to safety cases in

ATM.■ The TOPAZ risk assessment

methodology. ■ How to conduct a human factors

case.

On Day 3, a number of brain stormingsessions were held with the objective of(a) bringing together the main threadsof the Workshop activities and (b) pro-viding indications as to the way for-ward. These ‘mini’ workshops had thefollowing themes:

■ R&D development process – identi-fying the changes we want;

■ Key safety R&D areas – developingthe capability to change;

■ Organisational framework – makingit happen.

The output from the sessions are cur-rently being summarised into aWorkshop report, and as with all CAATSmaterial, will be available on the web-site at [email protected].

Conclusions

The feedback received from partici-pants was very positive. The Workshopgave the ATM safety R&D community awelcome opportunity to come togetherand to share not only experiences, butalso concerns and hopes for the future.The Workshop was not an end in itself,

but is seen as a path on the road to bet-ter coordination of ATM safety R&Dactivities, leading to the common goalof enhanced safety of ATM and aviationto the benefit of society.

The way forward is to finalise the keyareas for safety R&D collaboration inEuropean ATM, and then present theseto the European Commission to considerin the 7th Framework Programme. Thisshould then lead to future resources inthis area being focused on the rightissues, in the right timeframe, and withthe right allocation of competencies inthe R&D community. This will maximisethe benefits of safety R&D to current andfuture operational ATM. ■

Participating organisations:NATS, NLR, LFV, ENAV, Austrocontrol,CANSO, JSSI/FAST, Boeing R&TE,DGTL, IFATCA, DTI/SDER, FAA, Dedale,Skyguide, Helios Technologies, DGAC-F/DAST/SEA, Dresden, Cranfield,Leiden and Delft Universities, EURO-CONTROL (DAS/SSM, DAP/SAF, CRDS,EEC and IANS), INECO, ISDEFE, DeepBlue, APAC GesmbH, Slot ConsultingLtd., Thales ATM.

Date

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34

Improving coordination of ATM safety


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By Frank Riquet, EATM TechnicalCommunications, and Paul Conroy, CPDLC Operations,Maastricht UAC

Cockpits and air traffic control cen-tres are usually closed places forthe general public. Not many peopleget to see the exciting work that isdone in either place. Even fewer getto see the implementation of newtechnologies such as data link, thatare currently being deployed in airtraffic management systems, bothon the ground and in the air.

Here are some examples, as cap-tured on a recent flight, of the datalink messaging and the associatedhuman-machine interface (HMI) thatis currently being used inEUROCONTROL’s Maastricht UpperArea Control Centre, the LINK2000+Programme’s Pioneer ACC, and inthe cockpit of one of Spanish airlineAir Europa’s new B737-800.

On the morning of 4 November2005, as Air Europa’s flight AEA1312

progressed from Warsaw toMadrid, it was about to conduct thecompany’s first operational con-troller pilot data link communica-tion (CPDLC) fl ight over theMaastricht area.

At the controls of the B737-800,Capts Jose Maturana and JordiManzano initiated the CPDLCprocess by logging-on to EDYY, thefacility designator for Maastricht.The CPDLC connection was estab-lished and shortly afterwards thecrew received a message CURRENTATC UNIT EDYY MAASTRICHT CEN-TER which was sent to them auto-matically when the flight was‘assumed’ and under the control ofthe Maastricht controllers.

Flying through the Maastricht air-space the flight penetrated three dif-ferent Maastricht sectors and usedCPDLC in each one.

HANNOVER sectors

CPDLC data link allows the uplink-ing and downlinking of ATC instruc-tions and responses, and also ofrequests via text messages,between controllers and suitablyequipped aircraft. The CPDLC mes-sages themselves, on both the airand ground side, are generally com-posed and sent via a selection ofpreformatted menus and submenus.Like the SMS messages on yourmobile phone, records of theexchanges [history], can be quicklyretrieved and referred to by bothcontrollers and aircrew.

In Maastricht, the state of a CPDLCexchange – whether it is ongoing,awaiting a response or closed – isalso indicated by colour.

In this section of a screen shot, taken inthe early stages of the flight, the aircraftis actually in the process of downlinkinga request [Request FL370] to theground.

Downlinks are indicated to the con-troller by the white colour in the radarposition symbol, by the white callsign inthe datalink window, by the white L atthe beginning of the line of the mes-sage, and also by the use of the letter Rin the text for the downlink [RF 370above means Request Flight-level 370].

The history of previous CPDLC mes-sages is also displayed here in this win-dow, but these must be read from rightto left to read them correctly. The lastmessage for a type of dialogue alwaysgoes in at the beginning of the line forthat type. For instance, on the Routeline in this picture [second of the 4lines, denoted by R] the CPDLC historyfor the flight so far reads:■ DCT to NOR

[A controller uplink of a ‘Direct toNOR’ message]

■ WCO[The aircrew WILCO response to thismessage]

■ R DCT KENUM[Which is a pilot Request for Directto KENUM]

■ UAB[the controller's UNABLE responseto the downlinked route request]

Controller Pilot Data LinkCommunication

The operator’s perspective

36

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Captains Jordi Manzano and Jose Maturana

In this screen picture, we are a little fur-ther into the flight (but in the second ofthe two HANNOVER sectors visited bythe flight) and here we have a betterview of the current Maastricht CPDLCcontroller interface, captured here as amessage is being composed for uplink.

In this instance the controller has alreadyselected the menu buttons for ROUTE,and also for TURN R (the submenu but-ton for turning an aircraft a specifiednumber of degrees to the right).

The controller is then presented withoptions for pre-set amounts for headingturns (5 degrees, 10 degrees etc.). Heis here selecting the 5 degrees option,which was uplinked to the aircraft short-ly afterwards.

To note, also, the text of the uplink mes-sage is also being displayed as it isbeing composed [beside the callsign inthe top line]. This is checked by thecontrollers before the uplink is sent.

BRUSSELS sectors

In this last shot of the ground HMI wesee the flight in the process of beingtransferred to REIMS.

The uplink instruction to CONTACT[REIMS] 132.390 is in progress.

This is shown by the light green colourof the aircraft callsign in the window,and the light green colour of the V atthe start of the CONTACT line. Theradar position symbol of the flight isalso displaying light green.

Shortly after the WILCO to this uplinkwas received the CPDLC connectionwith the flight was terminated.

Since the flight is some way further onthan in the last picture there is alsosome additional history in the window,including several turns, and a deliber-ate controller time-out [for test purpos-es] to another downlinked request bythe aircraft.

On board

On board the aircraft the aircrew has itsown airborne HMI for conductingCPDLC operations.

This HMI has several pages dedicatedto CPDLC, so that the crew, as well asbeing presented with the uplinked mes-sages as they arrive, can also access alog of previous CPDLC messaging forthe flight.

The crew can see at a glance theCPDLC messages for the flight, andwhether they are ongoing [OPEN] orclosed [CLOSED / ACCEPTED].

They can also see whether the mes-sage was an uplink or downlink, whattime the exchange took place at, andthe identifier for the ground system[EDYY].

Benefits

The implementation of this new air-ground communication medium leadsto savings in voice communication timeand greater potential for a better work-load distribution between planning andthe executive controllers. The use ofCPDLC also helps aircrew and con-trollers reduce misunderstandings thatcan sometimes occur with traditionalvoice communications.

Its operational benefits have generatedconsiderable interest in the nationalmedia in Spain and a later flight, on 24November, saw a Spanish PublicTelevision (TVE) crew make an exten-sive on-board video and interview thepilots as they flew through theMaastricht airspace.

CPDLC implementation in Europe isbeing coordinated by EUROCONTROL'sLINK 2000+ Programme. CPDLC isscheduled for implementation inGermany, Switzerland, Italy, Ireland,Portugal, France, Spain and UK. ■

Pictures courtesy of Air Europa andEUROCONTROL’s Maastricht UAC


Revi

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Air Europacrew

38

The Aerodrome Data Display (ADD) pro-vides air traffic controllers with airport-relevant data ranging from weatherreports to the status of navigation equip-ment and information on the runways.The Digital Flight Strip (DIFLIS) system— the first of its kind — digitally repre-sents the paper flight strips previouslyused on the touch screens in animproved form, resulting in a consider-able increase in efficiency.

Voice communication between pilotsand air traffic controllers, and betweenair traffic controllers themselves, is han-dled by a digital system. This is extreme-ly fail-safe, and is among the most mod-ern of its kind anywhere in the world. Adigital voice recording system ensuresthat all radio traffic is recorded.

All aircraft and vehicle movements onthe runways, taxiways and apronsdetected by the ground radar and multi-lateration systems at the airport are dis-played with the aid of the Airport SurfaceMovement Tracking Observation andControl System (ASTOS). This technolo-gy is another first for Vienna InternationalAirport.

The tower has been brought into opera-tion in phases. The aviation weatherservice, ATS Engineering and apron con-trol services moved first. The air traffic

control staff and aeronautical informa-tion service (responsible for pre-flightbriefing, cartography and aeronauticalpublications) followed in mid-October.Finally, the approach control centre willbe relocated from the Air Traffic ControlCentre in the third district in Vienna inearly 2006.

The aviation weather service providesvital support for the air traffic controllers,and thus for flight operations. Its systemsare located at the top of the tower, underthe cab. Efforts to achieve maximumaccuracy in forecasts of storms and windshear on approach and departureroutes, and of runway conditions afterrain, are increasingly central to localshort-range and terminal weather obser-vation, owing to their importance to con-trolling operational costs at the airport.The move to the new control tower andthe all-round vision it provides will be amajor advance towards holistic weatherobservation and improved forecasting ofshort-term weather phenomena. ■

The new tower at Vienna International Airport (VIA) is thelargest in Europe, standing at 109 metres tall. It providesstate-of-the-art facilities for Austro Control staff to guaranteesafe, efficient and punctual air traffic. The new tower wasofficially inaugurated on 13 September 2005 after two yearsof construction. Operations started in mid-October.

New control towerat Vienna Airport

The new tower testifies tothe role that ViennaAirport plays as a majorhub. Replacing a 40-metre tower from the1960s, the new tower takes account offuture plans to build a third runway inresponse to the need for extra capacityto handle the expected increase in traf-fic safely and punctually.

In line with ICAO regulations, the newcontrol tower provides a clear andunimpeded view of all runways, taxi-ways and air traffic in the vicinity ofthe airport. From this point, AustroControl controllers will be able tomonitor traffic and instruct cockpitcrews when to start their engines,taxi and take off, and also designateflight paths after take-off.

The new tower also represents aremarkable landmark for the regionsurrounding the airport. It is a state-of-the-art building. The design andconstruction of the tower by Zechner& Zechner received the 2005European Steel Design Award and aEuropean Award for EmergingArchitecture.

High-performance computers processand display incoming data on the air traf-fic controllers’ monitors in a user-friendlyform. Most of the data comes from theATC Centre in Vienna. This includes theair situation display which constantlyshows aircraft positions, heights, direc-tions, speeds and identifications.

New

s


On 17 November 2005, the DirectorGeneral of EUROCONTROL, VíctorM. Aguado, together with JacquesBarrot, Vice-President of theEuropean Commission andCommissioner for Transport, theEuropean Commission and represen-tatives from a wide cross-section ofEuropean industry launched a majorprogramme to develop a Europeanair traffic management Master Plan.Known as SESAR, this plan willaccelerate the evolution of air trafficmanagement, synchronise and inte-grate plans from research to opera-tions and coordinate airborne andground deployments.

The current European air traffic man-agement system has improved sub-stantially. Since 1999, traffic hasgrown by 15% while delays have

reduced by 75%. However, with trafficpredicted to double by 2020, Europeneeds a programme that in the longer-term can deliver the increase in addi-tional capacity that will be requiredwhile enhancing safety.

According to Víctor M. Aguado,Director General of EUROCONTROL,“this initiative is key to ensuring thatEurope will develop an air traffic man-agement system that can face thesafety, capacity and cost-efficiencychallenges of the 21st century.”

EUROCONTROL has signed a con-tract for SESAR together with a con-sortium of 30 of Europe’s leading air-space users, airlines, air navigationservice providers, airports and man-ufacturing industry. This is the firsttime that such a grouping has come

together to develop the future gener-ation of air traffic management inEurope. EUROCONTROL brings tothe programme its technical opera-tional and institutional civil and mili-tary expertise.

Funding for the definition phase is€43 million. A second, developmentphase anticipated to cost in theregion of €300 million annually. Thedefinition phase is jointly funded bythe European Commission under aTrans-European Network – Transport(TEN-T) scheme, and by EURO-CONTROL. ■

Repo

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SESAR

From left to right: Jacques Barrot, Vice-President of the European Commission, Víctor M. Aguado, Director General of EUROCONTROL, Olaf Dlugi, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the SESAR Consortium

Both the general and specialised pressattended the event

By Edith Klapwijk, Member of the R4E Task Force

On Wednesday 30November 2005, Mr ChrisLebeer, Chief ExecutiveOfficer of the EuropeanFoundation for QualityManagement (EFQM),officially presented theEUROCONTROL Agencywith the "Recognised forExcellence" Certificate.

This official ceremony took place afterthe reception of the feedback reportproduced by the EFQM Assessors. Inthis report the external Assessor Teampresent their findings on the Agency’sstrengths and areas for improvement.In their introduction to the report, theassessors made the following state-ment:

“The aviation industry and EURO-CONTROL are faced with increasingpressures, such as increased traffic,increased number of Member States,the need for increased efficiencies, and,in response to this, EUROCONTROLhas undertaken a structured review ofthe extent to which its infrastructure andoperations are appropriate in such achallenging environment. The shift inemphasis from a “public sector” back-drop to a more “business focused” envi-ronment has been managed in a delib-erately systematic manner.”

The report is very positive in confirmingthe strengths of the Agency such as theelaborate stakeholder consultationprocess and it serves as a basis for fur-ther improvements for the functioningof the EUROCONTROL Agency. Allimprovement actions will be incorporat-ed in the overall Agency ImprovementAction Plan outlining its Roadmap toExcellence.

The Champion Director for Excellence,Mr Massimo Fusco, opened the cere-mony with a tribute to the full participa-tion and support of all EUROCONTROLstaff, especially those who, back in1996, have been the pioneers ofExcellence in the Agency. Their visionlaid the foundation for today’s achieve-ment.

The Chief Executive Officer of EFQM,Mr Chris Lebeer continued with praisefor EUROCONTROL as one of the mostproactive public sector organisations inthe EFQM membership. He stressed

the importance of the Organisation’srole in the European network for thedeployment of sustainable excellenceand looked forward to further achieve-ments in the coming years.

The Director General of the Agency, MrVíctor M. Aguado, closed the ceremonywith the following words:

“We are proud to be the first Europeanintergovernmental organisation to befully “Recognised for Excellence inEurope”. This is an acknowledgementof both the way we conduct our busi-ness and the results we deliver. Aboveall, it reflects the great effort and pro-fessionalism of each and every one ofour staff members. This is a milestoneon our roadmap to excellence. I haveset out our next target to qualify asEuropean Quality Award finalist in2008. I know it is a challenging targetand that our Organisation is not perfect,but I believe we have now created themomentum to make a difference inEuropean aviation.” ■

For further information, please contact:[email protected]

Excellence in action European Foundation for Quality Management

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40

Recognisedfor Excellence

in Europe

EUROCONTROL

September 2005

Certificate number: R4E2005049

Massimo Fusco, Agency Champion Director

for Excellence

1996 The Agency Quality Group (AQG) iscreated.

▼

1997 The Agency Quality Policy is signed bythe Director General. The Agencybecomes a member of EFQM.

▼

1997Self-Assessment techniques are intro-duced in some Directorates. Overallprogress remains variable throughoutthe Agency.

▼

2001The Agency Excellence Policy isapproved by the General Meeting ofDirectors (GMD). The Agency Groupfor Excellence (AGE) replaces theAQG. The Institute for Air NavigationServices (Luxembourg) takes the leadand is invited by the EFQM to partici-pate in the R4E pilot. It is successful.

▼

2002The GMD approves the cross-Agency approach to Excellence andsets a corporate objective to achievethe EFQM Recognised for Excellenceaward for the Agency in 2005. TheExcellence journey is led from thetop through the Agency ChampionDirector for Excellence (D/CRCO)and is coordinated by the AgencyGroup for Excellence AGE. All direc-torates now conduct annual Self-Assessments.

▼

2004The First simulation of an Agency sub-mission to become ‘Recognised forExcellence’ takes place. TheDirectorate of the General Secretariat(DGS) is the first Support Directorate tobe validated as ‘Committed toExcellence’ by the EFQM.

▼

2005The Second simulation of an Agencysubmission for EFQM R4E takes placein April 2005. It is followed by a finalsubmission in June 2005. The Site Visittakes place in September and theAgency is successful. The Agency setsthe next target: to become a EuropeanQuality Award Finalist in 2008.


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EUROCONTROL’s Journey to Excellence

The R4E Task ForceMembers:(from left to right) Patrick Lynam,Frank Donnelly,Edith Klapwijk andJens Fischer

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42

On 3 November, a delegation of the Norwegian CivilAviation Authority was received at headquarters for a

visit of the CFMU operations room and a briefing on ATCsafety and Single European Sky issues.

On 4 October the German Armed Forces StaffCollege of Hamburg visited EUROCONTROL’s head-

quarters for an overview of EUROCONTROL and brie-fing on the concept of Flexible Use of Airspace, airsafety and the short-term Dynamic Management of

the European Airspace Network. A visit to the CFMUoperations room was also part of the programme.

visits &agreementsMeeting our stakeholders

On 5 December, the Director General met Mr Michael Liapis, Minister of Transport andCommunications of Greece. The Minister wasaccompanied by a delegation, including theGovernor and the Director General of the HellenicCivil Aviation Authority, Mr Stamatis and Mr Iliou,respectively. On 6 December the delegation visitedthe Upper Area Control Centre in Maastricht.

On 24 October the Director General welcomed Dr Christoph Franz, President and CEO of Swiss International Airlines. Among othertopics, EUROCONTROL’s role in supporting airlines’ performance was discussed. The programme was concluded with a visit to the CFMU operations room.

EUROCONTROL Website:www.eurocontrol.int

Forthcoming Events

■ 14-16 February 2006ATC Maastricht 2006

■ 6-8 June 2006ATCA-EUROCONTROL Conference &Exhibition, Brussels

■ 27-29 June 2006Global AIS Congress, Madrid

■ 29 October - 1 November 2006ATCA 51st Annual Conference & Exposition,Washington

. . . . . . . . . .The Spring 2006 issue of Skyway will focus on:

ATM R&D


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©© EEuurrooppeeaann OOrrggaanniissaattiioonn ffoorr tthhee SSaaffeettyy ooff AAiirr NNaavviiggaattiioonn ((EEUURROOCCOONNTTRROOLL))AApprriill 22000033

This document is published by EUROCONTROL in the interests of exchange of information.It may be copied in whole or in part, providing that the copyright notice and disclaimer are included.The information contained in this document may not be modifiedwithout prior written permission from EUROCONTROL.

EUROCONTROL makes no warranty,either implied or express, for the information contained in this document,neither does it assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy,completeness or usefulness of this information.

FFoorr mmoorree iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn,,contact EUROCONTROL External and Public Relations,General Secretariat Directorate96, rue de la Fusée, B-1130 Brussels, BelgiumTTeelleepphhoonnee:: +32 2 729 90 11FFaaxx:: +32 2 729 91 98

© European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL)December 2005

This document is published by EUROCONTROL in the interests of exchange of information.It may be copied in whole or in part, providing that the copyright notice and disclaimer are included.The information contained in this document may not be modifiedwithout prior written permission from EUROCONTROL.

EUROCONTROL makes no warranty,either implied or express, for the information contained in this document,neither does it assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy,completeness or usefulness of this information.

FFoorr mmoorree iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn,,contact EUROCONTROL External and Public Relations,General Secretariat Directorate96, rue de la Fusée, B-1130 Brussels, BelgiumTTeelleepphhoonnee:: +32 2 729 34 20FFaaxx:: +32 2 729 91 98ee--mmaaiill:: [email protected]

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