The Client

SESAR Joint Undertaking  

The Challenge

The European Parliament requested the European Commission to conduct a study on the Single European Sky (SES) airspace architecture and more specifically, how changes to the existing airspace architecture could support implementation of the Single European Sky.  The European Commission delegated the delivery of the airspace architecture study (AAS) to the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU).

To achieve this, the SJU requested expert support to ensure that the study conclusions were evidence based, beneficial at EU level and acceptable to the diverse stakeholders that make up the European ATM system.

Our Approach

AAS was developed by a project team from the SJU, Network Manager and Eurocontrol. Think worked closely with the project team, reviewing the interim materials, developing additional suggestions covering potential future architectures, scenarios, implementation challenges and risks as well as supporting the drafting of the final report.

The Outcome

The study proposes a future European ATM System based on a tighter coupling of a new airspace design based on traffic flows and a service orientated physical architecture designed to enable ANSPs and the Network Manager to seamlessly collaborate in the provision of Air Traffic Management Services. The proposed architecture provides a framework for the continued digitalisation of ATM enabling capacity enhancements in line with the most optimistic long term traffic forecasts.

The high delays in Summer 2018, highlighted the need to modernise ATM. The study estimated that implementing the proposed new architecture could save airspace users up to €40Billion in terms of delay avoidance and fuel burn reduction.

The Airspace Architecture Study was successfully presented to the European Parliament in March 2019 and is available from the SJU Website: https://www.sesarju.eu/node/3253