Roadmap towards an ECAC-wide Flight Centric ATC implementation

Abstract

The Flight Centric Air Traffic Control (FCA) concept describes a new approach to air traffic control (ATC) with the aim of reducing CO2 emissions while at the same time increasing airspace capacity. It is expected that the advantages of this concept increase with the size of the airspace in which it is applied. The feasibility of Flight Centric ATC has already been demonstrated at area control center (ACC) level. Next, the potential and obstacles of implementing FCA across the airspace of the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) states shall be investigates. This paper presents a possible roadmap for such an implementation and discusses the challenges associated with it. Challenges include the allocation of aircraft to controllers and adapting the human-machine interface (HMI) to allow controllers to guide different aircraft across Europe simultaneously. Also, new separation management tools with a higher level of automation, new air-to-ground communication technology that enables communication with few or no frequency changes across large airspaces, as well as the impact on human factors and the political and legal questions are part of the challenges. All to be solved maintaining or improving the current level of safety.