Impact of controller-pilot data link communications on oceanic ATC service

The US Oakland (ZOA) Oceanic Air Route Traffic Command Center (ARTCC) has been providing Controller-Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLQ service to Future Aviation Navigation System (FANS)-1/A aircraft since 1999. Currently, about 28% of the Oakland oceanic flights are FANS-1/A capable and 98% of these flights use CPDLC to communicate with controllers. The rest of the oceanic flights continue to communicate with controllers via a third-party radio operator (RO) using high frequency (HF) voice. Prior to implementation, FANS-1/A CPDLC was expected to provide a number of benefits to the oceanic flights, including reduced communications time and improved air traffic control (ATC) services. The fixed format CPDLC messages allow the ground ATC decision support tools to evaluate most flight plan change requests for conflicts automatically, and it was anticipated that this would enable controllers to respond to flight plan change requests more quickly. This paper compares the ATC service quality provided to FANS-1/A and HF flights and examines particular operational areas to see if benefits have been achieved and to what level.