Alumni

On final approach, an Approach (APP) Air Traffic Controller (ATCo) is responsible for keeping sufficient separation between aircraft lining up on the ILS. The current industry standard is to separate these aircraft with a minimum distance, called Distance-Based Separation or DBS. European regulation requires all European airports to implement separation based on time (TBS) before 2024. Due to this implementation, effectively changing the APP ATC task from a geometrical to a time-based problem, and because of further complications such as the European Re-categorisation of aircraft types, experts fear that the theoretical gains attainable by using TBS will not be fully realised. In this research, a display tool concept to aid APP ATCos in realising the full potential of TBS, the Ideal Turn-In Point (ITIP) display is designed and evaluated with respect to the current state of the art. The ITIP display assists controllers in selecting optimal approach strategies starting from the moment aircraft enter the Terminal Control Area. The display aims to assist the operator by showing the possibilities and restrictions in the system rather than giving (restricting) advisories. In an initial proof-of-concept experiment, comparing the ITIP display to the current industry state of the art display, promising results were found; the ITIP display was shown to maintain safety and increase efficiency, whilst maintaining controller workload. The current industry state of the art display is a tool designed by the National Air Traffic Services, currently operational at London Heathrow Airport.

Graduated: June 2019

Key to enabling growth at Schiphol without compromising on safety, efficiency and the environment is to increase the predictability of traffic flows. Procedures put in place by Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) support predictable traffic flows not only at Schiphol but also in the surrounding airspace of Central Europe…Research is carried out into the effectiveness of CDM since the data -connection and the impact on operational partners at Schiphol and in the EUROCONTROL  network. The data-connection is identified to have improved the accuracy of take-off time predictions at Schiphol considerably with an average monthly increase of 6% of all departing movements regarded as having a predictable take-off time. Towards the network this take-off time predictability has increased significantly. In relation to similar major-hub airports, the increased take-off time predictability and the exchange of more accurate operational planning data between Schiphol and the NMOC are identified to have contributed to the significantly high compliance to imposed take-off times (93% of all departing movements) supporting stable Network Management. Although significant increases in delay throughout the EUROCONTROL network are increasingly affecting a stable planning of aircraft parking stands at Schiphol, indications for a reduction in stand-delay and other KPIs related to improved flow-efficiency at the airport are identified.

Graduated: April 2019

The determination of the capacity of the Lelystad Terminal Manoeuvring Area (TMA) is complex and brings different challenges. The opening of Lelystad airport for civil air traffic is the motivation to perform research into the capacity of the Lelystad TMA…The aim of this research is to help CLSK to determine the capacity factors and the capacity of the Lelystad TMA…By means of interviews and expert sessions with operational experts of CLSK, data is created to use during the research. With the data, the volume and capacity of the TMA is calculated. After this, a bottleneck analysis is conducted for the capacity of the handling process. The bottleneck in the handling process is the airport with its aircraft stands. After this, the TMA is the limiting capacity compared with the runway. Additionally, the annual maximum flight movements of 4,000 and 10,000 is feasible with the structure of the TMA. When the airport becomes operational for commercial traffic, the established capacity must be validated

Graduated: February 2019

The objective of this research is to analyse the effects of the current hand-over conditions on both horizontal and vertical flight trajectory efficiency. This analysis provides insight into the significance of how the current hand-over conditions affect operational efficiency. It will present an understanding of the impact on air traffic controller (ATCo) workload when this additional coordination is carried out. Besides analysing the impact on operational efficiency and ATCo workload, the research will provide possible solutions to the problem at hand. Solutions could range from procedural changes to technical innovations which will not negatively impact/increase controller workload.

Graduated: July 2018

Large-scale (e.g. Tour de France, Nuclear Security Summit, etc) or other special events can mean a temporary  increase in (concentrated) traffic in the airspace. These interruptions of normal operations can have impact on the airspace capacity and air traffic controller workload. The objectives of the research is to analyse and evaluate the impact of past events, to provide insight in the capacity impact of an event. To do so, operational requirements of different events are evaluated and analysed, with the aim to provide possible improvements to be better prepared for future events. Improvement could include procedural recommendations to manage special events in the airspace, to ensure that capacity is managed in efficient ways in the future. How do current procedures, to determine the impact of special events on airspace capacity, justify the impact on operations to stakeholders in Dutch airspace?

Graduated: July 2018

The airside infrastructure layout of AAS is very complicated, and bottlenecks are easily formed. With this growing amount of movements, bottlenecks will occur more often and influence the capacity. Every stakeholder has its own perspective on the current problems and cooperation is difficult to achieve. The research gives an overview of the current bottlenecks at the runways, taxiways and gate/buffer areas to create more awareness of the seriousness of the problem. More awareness will stimulate a better cooperation between the main stakeholders of AAS’ airside infrastructure. Also, a list of possible solutions is created.

Graduated: July 2018

How do airline characteristics, ranging from business model differences to variation in actual procedures, affect AAS airside capacity? Schiphol airport is reaching its limit based on the cap of 500.000 movements per year. For reaching this amount of movements a lot of capacity constraints have already been tackled, not all of them however. There are numerous airlines operating at Schiphol, and all of these airlines have various differences and equalities ranging from differences between business models to differences between pilots. The fleet size or structure of an airline for example can impact the maximum number of movements per hour of a runway as bigger aircraft need to have more separation than smaller aircraft. Another issue is the communication between airlines and airport. This may lead to congestion as the airport wouldn’t be able to plan the gate capacity well in advance. When the impacts of airline strategies are known in more detail, AAS and LVNL would be able to plan accordingly to have less capacity congestion.

Graduated: July 2018

AAS is at the final stage of having Airport- collaborative decision making (A-CDM) completely implemented. The last step is to connect the network manager and then AAS will be a CDM airport. The network manager is currently not yet connected and, therefore, not taken into account in this study since there is not any data available yet. Local A-CDM is currently implemented at AAS which includes the four other main stakeholders (Airport operator, Aircraft operator, ATC and ground handlers). Local A-CDM should improve the stakeholders’ operational efficiency by improving the predictability and decision making.  It is likely that A-CDM has been beneficial for the operation of each involved stakeholder at AAS. However, for all stakeholders it is still uncertain how much the operational efficiency has improved thanks to the implementation of local A-CDM. The aim of this study is researching how local A-CDM has exactly improved the operation’s efficiency for each involved A-CDM stakeholder at Mainport Schiphol until now, and what the exact benefits are.

Graduated: July 2018

ATC controllers are respected for their high-performance jobs, training is consistent and on high quality level, still the individual controller has the opportunity to guide air traffic in the most efficient way for that moment. An analysis of ATC decision making (taxiway, gates, runway usage, approach and take-off routing), finding deviations and variations in the operation, should determine the current way of working and should form the basis to work towards APOC. In APOC, a key difference between the current situation is the way of information sharing and availability, this difference with the current situation should be analyzed, providing the insight how to transition towards the use of APOC. The results must provide how the current decision-making process impacts capacity and to what extent can these deviations and variations be reduced when APOC is used. Furthermore, what are benefits and what are the requirements to transition to this future situation. In addition, also maintaining sufficient flexibility in the operations after the decisions have been made.

Graduated: March 2018

Schiphol has the most runways in Europe with respect to major hub airports, this does not automatically translate to the highest ATMs. During the day runway use is changed, primarily because of the noise restrictions surrounding Schiphol. An analysis of the impact on the capacity on the ground and in air, is needed to determine, how this already complex change of runways also increases the complexity in other parts of the system. Included in the analysis the effect on TATs can be determined possibly through A-CDM data, also information from the ORS (Omgevingsraad Schiphol) must be considered as input. The results must provide an effect analysis on specific parts of the system and the reasoning, the related stakeholders need to be covered also the cost and benefits in operational sense need to be addressed.

Graduated: March 2018