Operational measures to reduce environmental impact of arrivals using fixed routes and higher initial approaches

Since the Paris Climate agreement and the European Green Deal that aims to make Europe climate neutral by 2050, the environmental impact of aviation is scrutinized strongly by the wider public and the government, at least in the Netherlands. This is mainly related to noise hindrance and NOx emissions (and NOx deposition), but also CO
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-emissions. To reduce this impact, a vast number of measures are implemented or considered. In general three categories apply: (a) reduce the number of traffic movements at an airport, (b) fleet renewal - replace older aircraft by newer ones, and (c) operational measures.The operational measures studied in the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) project ‘Integrated TMA, Airport and Runway Operations (ITARO)’ focusses on future operations and traffic handling by Air Traffic Control (ATC) within the Terminal Manoeuvring Area (TMA). The timeframe considered is around 2035.This paper describes the results of human-in-the-loop Real-Time Simulations (RTSs) carried out for project ITARO using NLR’s ATC Research Simulation (NARSIM) facility, where a new operational method has been implemented and evaluated within the Schiphol TMA environment. The new operational method is an integration of a number of operational improvements, including several SESAR Solutions, to support knowledge development on a potential new operational concept foreseen by the Dutch Airspace Redesign Programme (DARP):•Fixed arrival and approach routes designed based on Required Navigation Performance (RNP) specifications, e.g., RNP-AR (Authorization Required) to enable Established on RNP (EoR) operations in support of independent parallel approaches;•Fixed angle initial approach segments out of FL100;•Schedule delivery at the TMA entry points improved to an accuracy in the order of ±30 seconds;•The controllers are provided with a merge support tool;•Interval Management (IM) operations available to the controller’s toolbox to very accurately control the inter-aircraft spacing at the merge point in the TMA and further down to the Final Approach Point; and•Separation minima on the final approach track is based on RECAT-EU Pair-Wise Separation (PWS). The tool to inform the controller about the minimum distance between aircraft pairs also includes compression on final approach, the Minimum Radar Separation (MRS) and Runway Occupancy Times (ROT).One of the identified gaps is the radar separation minimum to be applied during the intercept of the final approach track; it transitions from 3 NM in the TMA to 2.5 (or even 2.0) NM on final approach. Another gap is the discrepancy between the time-based IM operations and the distance-based merge support tool. The RTSs also included a number of non-normal events (e.g., go-arounds, less accurate delivery at the TMA entry points for some flights, aircraft being unable to perform RNP and/or IM operations, unfavorable strong winds). A point of attention of the new operational concept is a gross schedule deviation at the TMA entry points, causing (late) sequence changes. The general conclusion was however that the integration of the above-mentioned operational improvements worked quite seamlessly and was straightforward for the controllers to deal with.