1. Free Routing Airspace in Europe
Implementation concepts and benefits for airspace users
Lennert Bentrup - City University London
Max Hoffmann - Lufthansa Systems GmbH & Co. KG
ICRAT 2016, Philadelphia, 06/21-06/25

2. How much profit does a ticket generate?
How much is left in average after deduction of all costs?
Ticket price
-16.8%
Labour costs
-22.1%
Taxes and fees
0.9%
Profit
-25.8%
Fuel costs
-34.4%
Other costs*
*Aircraft acquisition, maintenance, etc.
How much profit does a ticket generate? Source: Bundesverband der Deutschen Luftverkehrswirtschaft e.V. (BDL), [Price of tickets - Is flying too cheap?]. (In German) [Redrawn and translated from German]

3. Free Routing Airspace New concept of flight execution
Trajectories not based on a fixed network of waypoints interlinked with airway segments
Airspace user chooses trajectories using user-defined segments between published and/or user-defined points
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

4. Example airspace with structural restrictions
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

5. Exemplarily ATS routing options for EGLL-UUDD flight January 2016
Map data: Google, Data SIO; NOAA; U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO, Image Landsat
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

6. Exemplarily FRA routing options for EGLL-UUDD flight January 2016
Map data: Google, Data SIO; NOAA; U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO, Image Landsat
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

7. Advantage of FRA
Cost and Fuel savings due to more flight planning opportunities
Better usage of prevailing winds
More options to avoid expensive airspaces
More options to avoid restricted areas
Might address capacity problems, too
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

8. Aim of study
Estimate benefits that Free Routing Airspace can provide for airspace users with regard to
Flight efficiency
Costs savings
Fuel savings
Based on recent and future FR developments in Europe
with focus on cost saving potential for different airspace designs
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

9. Agenda Current status of Free Routing Airspace in Europe
Detailed description of used environment for trajectory calculations
Presentation of results and discussion what impact different design options have on potential benefits
Conclusion and outlook on possible follow-up studies
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

10. Current status of Free Routing Airspace in Europe
Detailed description of used environment for trajectory calculations
Presentation of results and discussion what impact different design options have on potential benefits
Conclusion and outlook on possible follow-up studies
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

11. Status of Free Routing Airspace in Europe
Development and implementation of FRA
initiated and coordinated by EUROCONTROL in 2008
Forms part of common Flight Efficiency Plan [1]
Developed in cooperation between IATA, Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), and EUROCONTROL
Becomes standard in 2022, above FL310 [2]
[1] Source: EUROCONTROL, European Free Route Airspace Developments, Edition 1.0, 16 March 2015
[2] Source: European Commission, 2014, Official Journal of the European Union, Implementing Regulation (EU) No716/2014 – ANNEX 3.3
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

12. Status of Free Routing Airspace in Europe
Source: EUROCONTROL, European Route Network Improvement Plan - Part 2 - ARN Version
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

13. Status of Free Routing Airspace in Europe
Source: EUROCONTROL, European Route Network Improvement Plan - Part 2 - ARN Version
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

14. No standardized operational requirements
Differences can be:
Availability
Volume availability
Time Availability (day, night, 24 hours)
Flight planning rules
Vertical and Horizontal entry/exit
Usage of intermediate (published and unpublished) points for flight planning
Min and Max segment length
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

15. Detailed description of used environment for trajectory calculations
Current status of Free Routing Airspace in Europe
Detailed description of used environment for trajectory calculations
Presentation of results and discussion what impact different design options have on potential benefits
Conclusion and outlook on possible follow-up studies
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

16. Simulation setup
Representative trajectory calculation with Lido/Flight by Lufthansa Systems
Designed to find optimized trajectory
Minimum Fuel Track (MFT)
Minimum Cost Track (MCT) Total costs = Fuel + Time + ATC
Minimum Time Track (MTT)
Minimum Distance Track (MDT)
Traffic Flow Restrictions (TFRs)
NOTAMs of airports, airspaces and traffic
Weather (current and prognoses)
Aircraft performance
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

17. Simulated FRA Europe
Map data: US Dept. of State Geographer, Data SIO; NOAA; U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO, Image Landsat
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

18. Simulation setup (cont’d)
Single homogenous airspace helps to avoid inefficiencies (cross-border routing restrictions)
GND to FL660
Constant weather conditions: ISA STD and June
Aircraft: Airbus A with CFM56 engines and 80% load factor
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

19. Simulation setup (cont’d) Flight sample
Top 997 city-pairs by passengers carried in 2014
Source: Eurostat
4 trajectories for each single flight:
MFT ATS network
MCT ATS network
MFT FRA
MCT FRA
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

20. Overview of used flight sample configuration
NO TFR
ISA WX
NO UDP
NO TFR
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

21. Presentation of results and discussion what impact different design options have on potential benefits
Current status of Free Routing Airspace in Europe
Detailed description of used environment for trajectory calculations
Presentation of results and discussion what impact different design options have on potential benefits
Conclusion and outlook on possible follow-up studies
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

22. Ratio of trajectories in FRA with less total costs and less fuel consumption compared to ATS trajectories
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

23. Total costs reduction (percentage) due to FRA trajectories per sample number
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

24. Scenario 4 – The influence of the maximum segment length
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

25. Fuel consumption reduction (percentage) due to FRA trajectories per sample number
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

26. Conclusion and outlook on possible follow-up studies
Current status of Free Routing Airspace in Europe
Detailed description of used environment for trajectory calculations
Presentation of results and discussion what impact different design options have on potential benefits
Conclusion and outlook on possible follow-up studies
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

27. Conclusion and Recommendations
Expected to provide high benefits
For all evaluated scenarios the AU can expect high cost and fuel savings
However,
different implementations characteristics effect the maximum achievable efficiency
Design options have influence, but are not independent of each other. Max segment length does not matter, as long as UDPs are allowed to be used
Important step for AU towards improved flight efficiency, in terms of cost and fuel
Beneficial for environment
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

28. Conclusion and Recommendations
Results calculated in optimum airspace
Restrictions should be as many as needed, but as few as possible
restrict only if
sufficient traffic separation cannot be ensured
Airport and sector capacity reaches limits
Flights through restricted airspaces are planned
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann

29. Follow-up studies Follow-up studies could evaluate the effect of
Restrictions of already implemented FRA in Europe
Regional differences due to different published waypoint densities
Influence of different weather
Free Routing Airspace in Europe | ICRAT 2016 | L. Bentrup, M. Hoffmann