ERASMUS contribution to the 2020 SESAR scenario

The European commission has funded ERASMUS, a 30 months project to look at ways to effectively integrate advanced automation concepts consistent with the single European sky ATM research (SESAR) framework. This paper outlines an innovative concept of operations that mixes a human factors approach, automation technologies and their relationship to the overall system performance.SESAR Air Traffic Management (ATM) proposes a service-oriented approach that is based on a performance partnership amongst stakeholders, where each single flight shall be performed according to the owner's request. This is the main driving principle for the ATM Target Concept, which is centered on the reality of the "business trajectory" that represents the airspace users' intention with respect to a given flight. Business trajectories will be expressed in all four dimensions (position and time) and flown with much higher precision than today, with reduced uncertainty and an increased reliance on airborne and ground based automation. This will open innovative ways to envisage new separation modes to allow for increased capacity. SESAR has identified new separation modes such as Trajectory Control by Speed Adjustment (TC-SA) which will use trajectory control and airborne separation systems to minimize potential conflicts and hence reduce controllers' interventions and workload.