Politics limits congestion improvements

Integration of Asia-Pacific air traffic management is an achingly complicated process. Airlines and airports are lobbying governments hard to fully implement the huge efficiencies seamless skies would bring to their operations – and their bottom lines.

by CHIEF CORRESPONDENT, TOM BALLANTYNE  

May 1st 2016

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If there is one issue that unites airlines, air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and airports it is the belief that the region’s governments are not moving fast enough to address the damage the region’s increasingly crowded skies is doing to their businesses. Read More »

“It is happening in some parts of the Asia-Pacific, but this is not universal,” International Air Transport Association (IATA) director general and CEO, Tony Tyler, has said.

CANSO CEO, Jeff Poole: partnerships between nations critical to improving ATM in the Asia-Pacific

The Civil Air Navigation Service Organization’s (CANSO) director general, Jeff Poole, said some nations fully accept the concept of seamless airspace. They recognize the [positive] impact it would have on capacity, efficiency and connectivity and the boost it would give to the region’s collective economy. “But unfortunately others are focused solely on their own national airspace,” he said.

Speaking at a CANSO Asia Pacific Conference, Poole said a clear message had been sent to all nations and their ANSPs. They needed to recognize the value of aviation to their economies and accept the necessity of investing in ATM to ensure sufficient capacity was offered to airlines and efficient operations were maintained.

The Seamless Asian Sky project is at the heart of CANSO and IATA ATM strategy for the region and is a pivotal element in the strategic plan for the ATM industry, Vision 2020.

Industry insiders said, however, adoption of Seamless Asian Skies has to overcome the hurdles of the region’s vast geographic and cultural differences. “Some three billion dollars is being spent to improve air traffic capacity and management in the region,” said Tyler.

“Depending on how you define ‘Asia-Pacific’, there are more than 40 air navigation service providers, mostly nationally based. Many journeys require airlines to fly through airspace managed by multiple providers. The Seamless Asian Sky project has the commonsense aim of using joined-up thinking to make it as safe and efficient as possible to fly across the region and into adjacent airspace as well.”

Poole said seamless skies would allow aircraft to navigate across national borders and FIRs (Flight Information Regions) in the whole region, selecting the most efficient route for each flight. “Achieving seamless skies is an ambitious goal, but it is achievable with the right attitude and the drive to make it happen,” he said.

Tyler calls on China to revise its system of sharing military and civilian airspace IATA director general and CEO, Tony Tyler, pointed out there is one market in Asia that towers above all others in scale. “Nearly 70,000 flights a week operate to, from or within mainland China. This is about 10% of the global total,” he said. “Although much progress has been made in improving the efficiency of China’s air traffic management, flight delays in China are a major issue for airlines. The cost of the frustration to both passengers and airlines is real in terms of lost productivity. Without compromising on safety, urgent solutions for China’s delays are both needed and possible.” Tyler said much more capacity could be made available with   better sharing of airspace between civilian and military operations and by opening domestic routes to international operations. “Flexibility and predictability would help. In the first instance, that means giving airlines more options to plan their flight routes in light of prevailing weather and traffic conditions. If that is combined with ‘flow management’ techniques, there would be a further efficiency dividend from greater predictability,” he said. “This will be a big undertaking. We will not have a solution overnight. But I am confident that with a continued and concerted focus on efficiency, it will not be too long before the bottlenecks in China’s airspace are freed up.”

“While seamless skies is a single concept in a region as large and diverse as Asia Pacific, there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution. We must take account of many different factors. The region has more than 40 States spread over a huge geographic area, made up of large populations of different races, cultures, history and religions, with many languages that differ completely from the way they are spoken and written.”

Another factor in achieving full seamless skies was the differences in economic development among countries in the region. “Strong economies mean high traffic growth in a number of Asia-Pacific nations. Traffic levels range from some of the world’s busiest city pairs to low density oceanic routes. In some cases, demand is outstripping airport and airspace capacity,” Poole said.

“Also, ANSPs are at various stages of development and have different organizational structures, capabilities and resources. Flights could experience different levels of ATM service as they cross national boundaries and it is the lowest common denominator that determines airspace capacity, safety and efficiency.”

Other operational issues to be resolved are the differences airlines encounter when crossing FIR in a region with such large areas of airspace reserved for the military.

“There are different approaches by States to regulation as well as the management of airspace,” said Poole. “Some countries recognize that airspace can be organized better over larger areas, but others continue to maintain artificial national boundaries in the sky.

“Each State has its own aviation regulations and priorities about providing and regulating ATM. Unlike Europe, there is no single aviation regulator, which means new technology and procedures have to be approved multiple times.”

CANSO advocates that:

• National ATM plans must be consistent with and integrate into the Regional Plan so improvements are optimized and synchronized across the region.

• States and their ANSPs must ensure timely implementation of ATM Plans for the delivery of systems and hardware and the recruitment and training of staff.

• States and their ANSPs should engage in much closer ATM collaboration among neighbours, within sub-regions and in the region as a whole as well as ensuring closer civil military cooperation and the flexible use of airspace.

Poole said three important developments gave the Asia-Pacific a unique opportunity to modernize the region’s ATM: technological advances; a greater willingness to cooperate across national boundaries and the commitment of nations to implement system upgrades.

“All the parties believed the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Aviation System Block Upgrades (ASBUs) are an important catalyst for achieving seamless skies. ASBUs enable States to modernize their air navigation infrastructure at a pace appropriate for each of them,” he said.

“ABSUs focus on improvement: airport operations, global matching and integration of systems and data, optimum capacity and flexible flights and efficient flight paths.”

Tyler said: “there is no off-the-shelf solution, but there are some strategies which have been proven effective. A second strategy is to work in partnership.”

Cathay tackles US$130 million congestion blowout When Cathay Pacific Airways chief executive, Ivan Chu, announced the airline’s 2015 results in March, he said operational challenges, ranging from continued air traffic control adjustments in the Greater China region to increasing congestion at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), cost the airline HK$1 billion (US$130 million) for the year. “Naturally, we are not prepared to sit back and do nothing,” he said in his chief executive’s column in the April edition of the airline’s CX World magazine. The company has developed a Ground Time Optimisation project at its home hub to improve on time performance, quicken aircraft towing around the terminal, introduce more efficient “pit stop” turnaround times for aircraft, eliminate time wasting cleaning practices of aircraft and enforce more stringent departure times for “first wave aircraft” from 7 am to 10 am at the airport. A second initiative, the Operations Enhancement Project, is formulating a longer term strategy to provide a framework for the airline to adjust from slot planning stage to on-the-day aircraft rotation to cope with the “new normal’ of the Greater China operating environment. “We can see positive trends, but overall On-Time-Performance is still low and the operation is still under pressure day by day,” Cathay’s General Manager HKIA, Liza Ng, said in CX World.