Date: 18 February 2008 Federal Aviation Administration Collaborative Decision Making at the FAA/ATO A look at how CDM is applied in the U.S.

2 Federal Aviation Administration 2 CDM in the US - Outline Overview of the problem CDM is addressing Early successes with FAA/ATO data sharing Airport arrival constraints and managing equity thru ground delay programs Airspace flow program (AFP) focused on en route constraints CDM tools in development

3 Federal Aviation Administration Jan-00 Jul-00 Jan-01 Jul-01 Jan-02 Jul-02 Jan-03 Jul-03 Jan-04 Jul-04 Jan-05 Jul-05 Jan-06 Jul-06 Jan-07 Jul-07 Annual Ops (Million) Annual Ops Monthly Delay Avg. Total Delay Annual Delay Major US Airports - Demand vs. Delay

4 Federal Aviation Administration 4 ATO Dash Board

5 Federal Aviation Administration 5 Early CDM Accomplishments NAS status information is available on the Internet at Special Use Airspace data is available - Special Use Airspace data is available Runway visual range data is available at 28 airports Runway visual range data is available at 28 airports TRACON Radar tracks available to airlines at major airports TRACON Radar tracks available to airlines at major airports

6 Federal Aviation Administration 6 Sample Benefits of FAA Data Sharing Approach radar tracks available to Airlines –Enhanced terminal area situational awareness to Airline Operations Centers Reduced the number of diversions –Estimated diversions avoided per week during inclement weather ($5K - $100K each) Improved recovery from missed approaches –Improved gate management at ramp tower Increased accuracy on touchdown and gate times Improved management of airline/airport resources

7 Federal Aviation Administration 7 Highlights: CDM for Traffic Flow Management in the US Initial CDM concepts were developed starting in the mid- 90’s. CDM-based decision support tool (FSM – the flight schedule monitor) and information exchange network (CDM-net) became operational in 1998 for the planning and control of ground delay programs (GDP’s). Broad participation by FAA operations personnel and nearly all air carriers and more recently business jet operators. “CDM-Group” meets regularly to develop new computer- based tools and operational procedures, to analyze air traffic data and problem areas and to solve pressing problems.

8 Federal Aviation Administration 8 CDM Concepts and Features Philosophical components: –improved information and common situational awareness –distributed control and decision making: Decision made by most appropriate party Economic tradeoffs made by appropriate flight operator –strong and continuous interaction among airspace system managers and flight operators FAA—airlines airline—airline; peer pressure Technical accomplishments: –new fair allocation principles –shared decision support tool (FSM) –shared communications network (CDMnet) –Airspace Flow Program Reliance on data analysis and objective critique

9 Federal Aviation Administration 9 Motivation for Ground Delay Programs: airline schedules “assume” good weather SFO: scheduled arrivals: VMC airport acceptance rate: IMC airport acceptance rate:

10 Federal Aviation Administration 10 Flight Schedule Monitor (FSM) Decision support tool to monitor and control arrival demand at airports Receives regular flight list updates from ETMS Provides graphical and statistical displays of arrival demand Flight Lists Hourly Demand Graphs

11 Federal Aviation Administration 11 Ground Delay Programs delayed departures delayed departures delayed arrivals/ no airborne holding control = flight departure time decision variable = flight arrival time (slot)

12 Federal Aviation Administration 12 Ground Delay Programs (GDPs) Used to control excess arrival demand at airports Executed through FSM Assigns ‘arrival slots’ to flights based on airport capacity Releases each flight from its departure airport in time to meet its arrival slot Excess demand … … delayed to match capacity

13 Federal Aviation Administration 13 Equity is the Challenge in Assigning Airline Delay CDM provides a Slot Exchange: - Intra-Airline Slot Exchange -- Cancellation and Substitution Process: slot-to-flight allocation viewed as slot-to-airline allocation; airlines can reassign slots they “own” to their flights in any way possible – as part of process they may cancel certain flights. - Inter-Airline Slot Exchange -- Compression: implements a type of inter-airline slot exchange in situation where airlines are assigned slots they are otherwise unable to use.

14 Federal Aviation Administration 14 Arrival slot allocations Normal Capacity: arrival rate = 60/hr Degraded Conditions: arrival rate = 30/hr

15 Federal Aviation Administration 15 GDPs under CDM Resource Allocation Process: FAA: initial “fair” slot allocation [Ration-by-schedule] Airlines: flight-slot assignments/reassignments [Cancellations and substitutions] FAA: periodic reallocation to maximize slot utilization [Compression] Estimated that millions of minutes of delay are saved each year due to better use of available capacity.

16 Federal Aviation Administration 16 Convective Weather Problem

17 Federal Aviation Administration 17 GDPs as an Airspace Tool Control the Wrong Flights Many flights in the FCA are not controlled because they aren’t going to the GDP airports Uncontrolled flights in the FCA Many flights not in the FCA are unnecessarily delayed because they are going to GDP airports Delayed flights not in the FCA

18 Federal Aviation Administration 18 Airspace Flow Programs (AFPs) Uses FSM scheduling technology matched airspace demand and capacity problems Lets traffic managers apply coordinated delays to flights overloading en route resources Create a Flow Constrained Area ETMS manages data exchange Meter flights in the FCA through FSM FCA parametersFCA flight list Flight delaysUpdated demand

19 Federal Aviation Administration 19 AFP Operations Uses established infrastructure and procedures for distributing and maintaining controlled departure times Customers can avoid imposed ground delay by routing around constrained area –Resulting drop in demand will reduce all delay through ‘compression’ Programs can be revised as demand and weather change, to make full use of all available capacity

20 Federal Aviation Administration 20 AFP Benefits Much more precise control of airspace demand –Reduce Ground Stops, diversions and airborne holding versus Distribute delay fairly among flights contributing to the excess demand Avoid imposing unnecessary delay on flights that don’t use constrained resources Provide customers more predictability and flexibility / options The AFP is a building block for airspace congestion management Before AFPWith AFP

21 Federal Aviation Administration 21 Other CDM Activities Concept Engineering Activities –TFM Surface Data Initiative (TSDI) –Surface Traffic Count Monitor (STCM) –Departure Flow Management (DFM) –Route Availability Prototype Tool (RAPT)

22 Federal Aviation Administration 22 END