Software Simulation for the Airspace Reconfiguration Project in Europe and its Impact on Bosnia and Herzegovina Airspace

Abstract

In this study, the implementation of Free Route Airspace (FRA) in Europe is presented, with special reference to the merge of SECSI FRA (South East Common Sky Initiative Free Route Airspace) and FRA IT(Free Route Airspace in Italy) in to the SECSI IT FRA. Free Route Airspace is a certain volume of airspace in which users are free to plan a route between defined entry and exit points. Depending on the availability of airspace, routing is possible via waypoints, without calling the Air Traffic Service (ATS) route network. The purpose of this paper is to show how the implementation of free route airspace in Europe, affects traffic indicators in terms of flight length, fuel consumption, environmental impact and economy. This paper will also show a slight decrease in air traffic controller load as a result of the implementation of free route airspace. We also wanted to show how, the merge of SECSI FRA and FRA IT, affects Bosnia and Herzegovina airspace. When fully implemented at European level, it should allow the following savings, compared to the current situation: 1 billion nautical miles in terms of flight length, 6 million tons of fuel savings, and 5 billion euros less costs in in terms of fuel savings.