Airline and Airport Operational Efficiency

The glass is half full; Increasing Schiphol DCL Utilisation to improve the outbound process  Can we realise short-term improvements to the outbound process by reducing the workload for controller and pilots? This depends on increased use of ACARS for pre-departure clearance (DCL). This is the result of the KDC project, ‘Optimising Outbound Cluster (2017)’. The […]

Schiphol might seem rather chaotic, but it’s not!  To an outsider, Schiphol is so busy that it may seem rather chaotic. The airport is constantly swarming with aircrafts, vehicles, buses and pushback trucks. There’s little room for manoeuvre, with aircrafts constantly taxiing and being towed and pushed back. How can Schiphol carry on growing amidst […]

Can efficiency be improved even further? The control tower at Schiphol-Centre (TWR) is a hive of activity: runway controllers, ground controllers, assistants, AAS gate planners, AAS bus coordinators and many others constantly strive to ensure that traffic flows smoothly at the airport. But how does this work in practice? How do these individuals cooperate with […]

Greater runway capacity thanks to shorter distances Tailgating. An irritating and dangerous habit on the roads. This doesn’t happen in the air. Aircraft need a safe distance from one another. If the second aircraft is too close behind the first, it can be affected by wake turbulence. That’s why a minimum distance is prescribed between […]

Queue here! How do we manage 500,000 aircraft manoeuvres in 2020?  Statistics don’t lie. Air traffic has increased dramatically over the past couple of years. In 2015, over 450,000 aircraft took off and landed at Schiphol. This figure will rise to 475,000 in 2016. We expect the number of aircraft manoeuvres to grow to 500,000 […]

While you sit back and relax… …the ground controller’s workload increases.  Everyone wants to go off on holiday in the summer. A fun city trip to Barcelona or a beach holiday on Curaçao. The airports experience their busiest periods during the peak holiday season. And this affects ground controllers at Schiphol too. While your average […]

A future without delays; seeking the best-possible sequence for incoming aircraft.   Extra inconvenience and high costs. As a passenger it’s really annoying if you miss your connection because the aircraft is delayed. Especially if that turns out to depend on chance. The first aircraft to arrive at the airport is also the first to land. […]

System or spider’s web? Towards a new system for Europe.  Radio or digital. Communications can be conducted in different ways. It looks like a spider’s web when you draw a diagram of it. Take, for instance, air traffic control at Schiphol Oost. It uses lots of different systems to communicate on planning. Some systems are […]

Strong winds, yet no delays: a study into the options provided by TBS.  Strong winds can cause severe delays at Schiphol. Or even cause flights to be cancelled. A potential solution has now been found for this: Time Based Separation (TBS). It is already a huge success at London Heathrow. So Schiphol, what are we […]