On 3 March 2014, Rome Fiumicino Airport became the 10th A-CDM airport. 18% of the departures in the Network Manager’s area are now from A-CDM airports. Rome Fiumicino follows Munich, Brussels, Paris CDG, Frankfurt, London Heathrow, Helsinki, Düsseldorf, Zurich and Oslo in implementing A-CDM.
A-CDM makes for much improved cooperation on the day of operations; it is based on the timely exchange of information between operational users, the suppliers of services at airports and the Network Manager.
A-CDM makes the flight’s turnaround process as efficient and as predictable as possible. At the heart of A-CDM is the information sharing between airport partners, involving four main groups: the ATC tower, airport operators (e.g. stand and gate management), ground handling services and aircraft operators.
To both improve network predictability and reduce delays, it is essential for airports to share dynamic and highly accurate data with the European ATM Network Manager.
A-CDM is a powerful enabler for reducing airport and en-route delays in Europe as it integrates airports with the ATM network. A-CDM enhances the current decision-making processes, linking them to the aircraft turnaround process, so increasing airport efficiency.
Flight punctuality and network efficiency improve as airport partners work together to optimise aircraft turnaround, reduce taxi times and make the most of existing airport capacity.
Target Off Block Time
A-CDM brings a range of quantifiable benefits, including making better use of available resources, that can be directly linked to A-CDM features such as Target Off Block Time (TOBT). The TOBT is an accurate estimation of the time when the aircraft is ready to “move”, i.e. doors closed and is basically provided by the Handling Agent.
Target Start-up Approval Time
Getting the aircraft from the apron to the runway efficiently, and in the right order for departure, uses another A-CDM feature called TSAT, (Target Start-up Approval Time). The TSAT pre-departure sequence gives air traffic controllers the possibility to optimise the order in which aircraft arrive at the runway. TSAT is a time provided to the pilot by ATC and is a notification of the time at which the pilot can expect to receive engine start-up approval. The TSAT time takes account of the TOBT and the traffic situation. The TSATs reduce queuing times at the runway while allowing the controller to maintain high runway utilisation. The airport operator uses the TSAT to know when the flight has been planned to leave the stand and the ground handling companies use it to plan and provide their services to carry out the final actions in readying a flight for departure. For example, the average buffer of time allocated for a pushback truck to be available for a flight is estimated at around 15 minutes: the actual process takes just five minutes.
Getting to and from the runway
Having the ground resources at the right place at the right time is a necessity at all airports, but the result of bad planning is felt more at large, complex airports. At large airports, the layout of the infrastructure of runways and taxiways can cause significant differences in taxi times for aircraft getting to and from the runway(s) in use. The Variable Taxi Time (VTT) element of A-CDM is a set of parameters that describe and distribute accurate taxi in and taxi out times to all A-CDM partners, so allowing ground resources to be managed more efficiently and with better predictability for the entire ATM Network.
A-CDM also delivers significant environmental benefits by reducing fuel burn and consequently lowering CO2 and other noxious gas emissions.
With 10 airports now having implemented A-CDM, the benefits for individual airports and the network are becoming clear – and this will increase as more airports adopt the A-CDM platform. The Network Manager expects that 17-20 airports will have adopted the platform by the end of 2014; this will represent 25-30% of all network departures.
Currently, over 30 airports in Europe are at various stages of implementing A-CDM, with progress reported in November each year.
With this many airports involved, one of the main issues is that of harmonising implementation. With this in mind - and in order to anticipate and control the implementation of A-CDM in a consistent way -, EUROCONTROL formed a harmonisation group: the A-CDM Harmonisation Task Force. The Task Force addresses a number of issues and has agreed on a number of procedures and processes that will be incorporated into the next version of the A-CDM Implementation Manual, due for release in Q2 2014.
For more information, you can contact the A-CDM Office.
Airport | Gains |
Brussels | |
| Absorption of delay at the gate and no longer at the runway resulted in annual savings of: |
|
| Average reduction of taxi time outbound | 3 minutes |
Munich | |
| Average ATFM slot adherence | 93% in 2011 |
Average reduction in taxi time
| 10% |
| Fuel saving | 2.65M €/year |
Paris Charles de Gaulle | |
| Average taxi out time reduction | 2 minutes and 4 minutes in adverse conditions |
| Reduced fuel consumption | 14T/day |
| Reduced emissions | 44T CO2/day |
Frankfurt | |
| Improved runway usage and take off flow | |
| Reduction of the impact of arrival dealy leading to a more punctual departure and stable TOBT process |
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