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The air transport industry has grown significantly over the last two decades. Forecasts show that, compared with 2006, air traffic movements in Europe may double in the next 20 years. There will therefore be a continued pressure to upgrade the capacity of the overall European ATM system in order to alleviate congestion and delays.
The existing Air Navigation System and its sub-systems suffer from technical, operational and economic shortcomings. Despite the success of EUROCONTROL EATCHIP, and the measures already in hand to provide further improvements, the current system is unlikely to be able to cope with traffic increases of the predicted magnitude. New advanced systems and concepts can offer potential improvements in terms of safety, capacity, environmental impact, efficiency and economy, provided that their implementation is based on a fully co-ordinated, harmonised, evolutionary and flexible planning process.
The ECAC Navigation Strategy has been developed, with the users requirements being the main driver, to answer this need. The main objective of the strategy is to provide a harmonised and integrated common framework which will allow a cost-effective, customer oriented evolution of the European Air Navigation System during the period 2005-2020. The evolution is described in terms of performance, functionality and corresponding infrastructure, taking due account of the principle of global interoperability.
The Navigation Strategy supports the operational developments proposed by the ATM 2000+ Strategy towards the implementation of a uniform European Air Traffic Management System. It is in line with the implementation of the ICAO Global Air Navigation Plan for CNS/ATM systems in ECAC.
The time horizon of the Strategy is split into three phases: short-term (2005-2010), medium-term (2010-2020) and long-term (2020 and beyond), and it is in line with other EUROCONTROL strategies.
The main strategic streams are aimed at:
- achieving a total performance-based RNAV environment with defined RNP values for all operations ECAC-wide;
- facilitating the implementation of the 'free routes' concept;
- supporting the continued operations of aircraft with lower capabilities as long as operationally feasible;
- implementing 4D RNAV operations to support the transition to a full gate to gate management of flight;
- supporting the continued operations of State aircraft, in line with the principles of the overall ATM 2000+ Strategy;
- providing positioning and navigation data at the required performance levels to support the various applications in the ATM/CNS environment;
- ensuring a judicious employment of the space-based infrastructure and a rationalisation of supporting ground-based infrastructure for all phases of flight, thereby ensuring the transition to GNSS, in line with ICAO recommendations.
Advances in Navigation functionality will enable improvements to be made in airspace design (structure, sectorisation, associated route network, applicable route spacing, separation minima and responsibilities, etc.), and will provide a high degree of flexibility for aircraft operations. Ultimately, with the support of appropriate ATM tools, operators will be able to conduct their flights in accordance with preferred trajectories, dynamically adjusted, in an optimum and cost-efficient manner.
The Navigation Strategy recognises the emergence of satellite technology and its future role in the global navigation environment. However, it is expected (based on current knowledge) that the rate of technological development of the system and the time needed for the resolution of institutional limitations will result in the need for a ground-based back-up system for GNSS for the foreseeable future for all phases of flight.
The feasibility of some options is still surrounded by many uncertainties and requires additional study (safety, R&D, CBA). Since all phases of flight are interrelated, constraints solved in one phase will not necessarily deliver the entire expected benefits, because of unsolved (or newly-generated) constraints for the other phases. CBAs will help to avoid the development of purely technology-driven solutions.
The Navigation Strategy aims to achieve a harmonised evolution of the overall Navigation System. In the framework of this strategy States may give preference to one implementation option or another in order to reflect sub-regional and local differences and to provide tangible and early benefits to the users. The availability of benefits should encourage the agreement and commitment of the users to the implementation plans. Furthermore, it will help the smooth transition to new systems and will minimise the period when support of both existing and new functionality will be necessary.
The full Navigation Strategy for ECAC document is available for download in Adobe Acrobat format.
The draft Navigation Strategy is expected to be endorsed first quarter 2008.
PBN Manual
Disclaimer: Please note that this manual has been posted as a final draft. However, its contents are subject to change as a result of comments received during the PBN Education Seminars scheduled to take place in all ICAO regions. Although technical changes to this manual are unlikely, the Organization accepts no responsibility or liability, in whole or in part, as to the currency, accuracy or quality of the information in the manual, nor any consequences of its use.
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