ACI Europe and SDM showcase the airports’ commitment to modernise European ATM

A newly published leaflet highlights how airports are enabling a safer, greener, and more efficient European sky as frontrunners of operational change through coordinated SESAR deployment.

ACI Europe represents more than 500 airports across 55 countries and works closely with the SESAR Deployment Manager to deploy Common Project One (CP1) which delivers concrete improvements to daily airport operations, strengthen operational performance, and, ultimately, improve passengers’ experience.

Airports sit at the interface between ground and air operations, connecting uniquely local performance with network-wide performance. Such panoptic position confers airports across Europe the driving force to make their infrastructures more digital, more resilient, and more interoperable, making them indispensable enablers of air traffic management (ATM) transformation.

SESAR technical modernisation concepts such as Departure and Arrival Management (DMAN/AMAN), Airport Collaborative Decision-Making (A-CDM), Airports Operations Plan (AOP), and its extended integration with the Network Operations Plan (NOP) have a huge, positive impact for passengers, airlines, and the environment when deployed in the synchronised, timely manner the SESAR Deployment Manager stands out for.

AMAN/DMAN integration calculates optimum pre-departure sequences and arrival flows to the airport for an efficient utilisation of runways, allowing airport operators to mitigate demand and capacity imbalances and reducing taxi times. Arrival Management Extended to En-route Airspace (E-AMAN) amplifies the scope of arrival sequencing management to 180 nautical miles (about 333 kilometres), ensuring a smooth traffic flow to reduce delays.

This all-encompassing leaflet puts Vienna Airport on the spotlight as a key Collaborative Decision Management (CDM) implementing partner, a pre-requisite for AOP/NOP integration. The improved communication between stakeholders sharing real-time aeronautical data prompted by the combination of these SESAR solutions, when operationally ready and widely deployed across the European ATM network, brings optimised flight departure sequencing and enhanced predictability. It’s worth noting that Vienna Airport recently became the very first airport to make Extended AOP/NOP integration an operational reality.

European airports are showing outstanding commitment to the SDM mission and CP1 implementation through collective efforts poured onto two SESAR Deployment Manager-coordinated multistakeholder projects: BEACON and EXOPAN. Both ongoing modernisation projects are aimed at boosting the deployment of SESAR solutions Extended AOP and AOP/NOP Integration. By strategically assigning specific tasks to the implementing partners involved in these projects, implementation gaps (defined by the combination of the required technical or operational elements and the location where they must be deployed) are efficiently addressed.

Finally, the joint ACI-SESAR Deployment Manager leaflet, sheds some light on how the investment commitment from airports is being encouraged by EU co-funding support. This financial support remains an essential incentive to continue the ATM transformation endeavour where airports represent a substantial share and demonstrate strong industry ownership together as one team with SESAR Deployment Manager.