IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v116y2018icp15-30.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Multiple remote tower for Single European Sky: The evolution from initial operational concept to regulatory approved implementation

Author

Listed:
  • Kearney, Peter
  • Li, Wen-Chin

Abstract

The European Union project of Single European Sky initiated a reorganization of European airspace and proposed additional measures for air traffic management to achieve the key objectives of improving efficiency and capacity while at the same time enhancing safety. The concept of multiple remote tower operation is that air traffic controllers (ATCOs) can control several airfields from a distant virtual control centre. The control of multiple airfields can be centralised to a virtual centre permitting the more efficient use of ATCO resources. This research was sponsored by the Single European Sky ATM Research Program and the ATM Operations Division of the Irish Aviation Authority. A safety case was developed for migration of multiple remote tower services to live operations. This research conducted 50 large scale demonstration trials of remote tower operations from single tower operations to multiple tower operations for safety assessment by air navigation safety regulators in 2016. A dedicated team of air traffic controllers and technology experts successfully completed the safety assessment of multiple remote tower operations in real time. The implementation of this innovative technology requires a careful balance between cost-efficiency and the safety of the air traffic control in terms of capacity and human performance. The live trial exercises demonstrated that the air traffic services provided by the remote tower for a single airport and two medium airports by a single ATCO with ‘in sequence’ and ‘simultaneous’ aircraft operation was at least as safe as provided by the local towers at Cork and Shannon aerodromes. No safety occurrence was reported nor did any operational safety issue arise during the conduct of the fifty live trial exercises.

Suggested Citation

  • Kearney, Peter & Li, Wen-Chin, 2018. "Multiple remote tower for Single European Sky: The evolution from initial operational concept to regulatory approved implementation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 15-30.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:116:y:2018:i:c:p:15-30
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2018.06.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856417303397
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2018.06.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. MacLean, Leonard & Richman, Alex & MacLean, Stuart, 2016. "Benchmarking airports with specific safety performance measures," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 349-364.
    2. Pellegrini, Paola & Rodriguez, Joaquin, 2013. "Single European Sky and Single European Railway Area: A system level analysis of air and rail transportation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 64-86.
    3. Tobaruela, Gonzalo & Schuster, Wolfgang & Majumdar, Arnab & Ochieng, Washington Y. & Martinez, Luis & Hendrickx, Peter, 2014. "A method to estimate air traffic controller mental workload based on traffic clearances," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 59-71.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Decker, Christopher & Chiambaretto, Paul, 2022. "Economic policy choices and trade-offs for Unmanned aircraft systems Traffic Management (UTM): Insights from Europe and the United States," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 40-58.
    2. Jianping Zhang & Xiaoqiang Tian & Jian Pan & Zhenling Chen & Xiang Zou, 2022. "A Field Study on Safety Performance of Apron Controllers at a Large-Scale Airport Based on Digital Tower," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-13, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Seidenglanz, Daniel & Taczanowski, Jakub & Król, Marcin & Horňák, Marcel & Nigrin, Tomáš, 2021. "Quo vadis, international long-distance railway services? Evidence from Central Europe," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    2. Baltazar, Maria Emília & Rosa, Tiago & Silva, Jorge, 2018. "Global decision support for airport performance and efficiency assessment," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 220-242.
    3. Cleophas, Catherine & Cottrill, Caitlin & Ehmke, Jan Fabian & Tierney, Kevin, 2019. "Collaborative urban transportation: Recent advances in theory and practice," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 273(3), pages 801-816.
    4. Bongo, Miriam F. & Alimpangog, Kissy Mae S. & Loar, Jennifer F. & Montefalcon, Jason A. & Ocampo, Lanndon A., 2018. "An application of DEMATEL-ANP and PROMETHEE II approach for air traffic controllers’ workload stress problem: A case of Mactan Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 198-213.
    5. Li, Xiaowei & Tang, Junqing & Hu, Xiaojiao & Wang, Wei, 2020. "Assessing intercity multimodal choice behavior in a Touristy City: A factor analysis," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    6. Efthymiou, Marina & Papatheodorou, Andreas, 2018. "Environmental considerations in the Single European Sky: A Delphi approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 556-566.
    7. Esposito, Giovanni & Cicatiello, Lorenzo & Ercolano, Salvatore, 2020. "Reforming railways in the EU: An empirical assessment of liberalisation policies in the European rail freight market," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 606-613.
    8. Marcella Samà & Andrea D’Ariano & Konstantin Palagachev & Matthias Gerdts, 2019. "Integration methods for aircraft scheduling and trajectory optimization at a busy terminal manoeuvring area," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 41(3), pages 641-681, September.
    9. Ibáñez-Gijón, Jorge & Travieso, David & Navia, José A. & Montes, Aitor & Jacobs, David M. & Frutos, Patricia L., 2023. "Experimental validation of COMETA model of mental workload in air traffic control," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    10. Samà, Marcella & D'Ariano, Andrea & Corman, Francesco & Pacciarelli, Dario, 2018. "Coordination of scheduling decisions in the management of airport airspace and taxiway operations," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 114(PB), pages 398-411.
    11. Eshtaiwi, Mohamed & Badi, Ibrahim & Abdulshahed, Ali & Erkan, Turan Erman, 2018. "Determination of key performance indicators for measuring airport success: A case study in Libya," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 28-34.
    12. Yoon, Man Geun & Kim, Jin Ki, 2022. "Evaluation methodology for safety maturity in air navigation safety," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    13. Ohneiser, Oliver & Helmke, Hartmut & Shetty, Shruthi & Kleinert, Matthias & Ehr, Heiko & Murauskas, Šarūnas & Pagirys, Tomas, 2021. "Prediction and extraction of tower controller commands for speech recognition applications," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    14. Bezerra, George C.L. & Gomes, Carlos F., 2018. "Performance measurement practices in airports: Multidimensionality and utilization patterns," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 113-125.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:116:y:2018:i:c:p:15-30. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.