Air Traffic Control Entities Comparison

 Hi all,

    In the ever growing world of aviation, organization plays a more important role than ever before. Incoming and outgoing flights, ground taxi support, and clearance delivery are just a few of the roles that need to be diligently performed so that these operations can be performed day to day with the utmost efficiency. For this blog I've decided to set EUROCONTROL and FAA-ATO side by side in terms of area of scope, performance data standards, and organization to see how they measure up.

    The area in which these entities perform their services is called scope. According to a study done in 2015, EUROCONTROL is responsible for 62 European Area Control Centers while the FAA-ATO is managing only 20 CONUS Centers (Comparison of Air Traffic Management-Related 2015 Operational Performance 2016). These centers are the primary method of data tracking for both entities. Items of interest include: the total IFR traffic picture used to determine the main airports in terms of IFR traffic density and flight hour counts, detailed data on individual flight plans and surveillance track sample points from actual flight trajectories,  ATM-related ground delays by airport, flight trajectories for overall flight efficiency, and a performance comparison throughout various phases of flight (Comparison of Air Traffic Management-Related 2015 Operational Performance 2016). Both have a similar function of collecting data, how that data is obtained differs. For example the United States monitors these performance indicators via the Aviation System Performance Metrics (ASPM) database, which fuses detailed airline data with data from the traffic flow management system (TFMS).  Individual air carriers are required to report performance data if they have at least 1% of total domestic scheduled-service passenger revenues. In addition there are other carriers that report voluntarily. Europe on the other hand only requires that the Central Office for Delay Analysis (CODA) collect data from airlines once a month, which was also voluntary until the end of 2010.  After that they began to require air carriers that rate more than 35 000 flights per year within the European Union  airspace are required to submit data monthly (Comparison of Air Traffic Management-Related 2015 Operational Performance 2016). 


    So how is all of this managed by each entity? They have established system-wide, centralized traffic management facilities that help with ensuring that traffic flow does not exceed safety standards, while also trying maximize the use of available capacities. A notable difference is that the Europeans have a systems that uses a combination of a large number of individual ANSPs, while the US system is operated by only one. This role being occupied by a single provider gives the Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) the ability to be more directly involved in managing traffic during the day to day operations, while Europe has to factor in a lot more voices. Also, when issues arise the the ATCSCC, in the US, has final approval authority for all national traffic management initiatives is responsible for resolving these issues. While in Europe, the Network Manager Operations Centre (NMOC) monitors the traffic situation and proposes fixes which are then requested and coordinated through a local authority (Comparison of Air Traffic Management-Related 2015 Operational Performance 2016). In terms of efficiency, I would give the edge to the US because of their clear cut hierarchy and involvement of only the necessary people to accomplish a goal. This also can be a double-edged sword in terms of workload, because when only one group is carrying the load, it can lead to stressful environments and fatigue. Both entities have different methods of accomplishing the same goals with positives and negatives attached to each.


References:

EUROCONTROL. (2016). Comparison of Air Traffic Management-Related 2015 Operational Performance. 2015 Comparison of ATM-related performance: U.S. – Europe. https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/media/us_eu_comparison_2015.pdf.

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