Effect Of Restricted Airspace On The ATM System

Abstract

Recent weather-related events have provoked discussion on how to measure their impact on aviation industry. Many flights around the globe are facing such weather challenges on daily basis. Different meteorological conditions force flights to be delayed, re-routed or in many occasions even cancelled. Depending on the size of the areas affected by different meteorological conditions, the impact on the ATM can also vary. In this paper airspace as well as weather related information for selected days will be used in order to assess the system´s performance. Main data source will be Eurocontrol´s SO6 flight information data. The methodology for this performance study is as follows: In a first step evaluation methodology for the final assessment is defined. In this paper, the evaluation methodology focuses on parameters such as number of flights, sector capacities, controller workload and number of affected flights with either departure or arrival airport within the closed airspace. In the second step a baseline scenario representing the current ATM system is created in the fast-time simulation. We will use AirTOp (Air Traffic Optimization) in the context of this en-route simulation study. In order to compare the influence of weather-related airspace closures on the system´s overall performance, different simulation scenarios will be conducted. This means that according to weather information restricted/closed areas will be represented in this scenario. In this paper, we aim to assess the influence of restricted areas on the performance of the existing air traffic management by means of fast-time simulation.