All military airspace in the Amsterdam Flight Information Region (FIR) falls under the concept of Flexible Use of Airspace (FUA), which no longer considers airspace as purely ‘civil’ or ‘military’ but rather as a continuum to be allocated temporarily according to user requirements. The complexity of FUA lies in the challenge to harmonize the airspace usage according to these requirements, which largely contradict one another. On the one hand, the military user benefits from using the airspace flexibly, as the effectiveness of their missions and exercises depend on the availability of weather and equipment conditions. On the other hand, the civil users benefit from a high plannability to efficiently execute their operations. By modeling the fuel consumption of civil traffic, the effects of availability and plannability of the FUA in Amsterdam FIR can be computed. While FUA availability determines the route followed by a flight, FUA plannability determines how early the true trajectory is known. Announcing the FUA usage earlier results in avoiding to carry a surplus fuel, which increases the weight and thus fuel burnt of the aircraft. By understanding these effects, new guidelines of FUA usage and plannability may be proposed in the context of the ongoing Dutch Airspace Redesign Programme.
Graduated: August 2022