2025 Agenda

SUMMARY
Fewer delays for airlines and travellers. This is the goal of the Decision Support Tool (DST) developed by Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL). To keep the volume of flights to Schiphol in balance with the capacity of the airspace, LVNL must frequently delay flights by regulating them. Regulating involves delaying flights at their departure airport by holding at the gate, causing the flights to arrive at Schiphol later. These delays are costly for airlines and annoying for travellers. DST uses new simulation techniques and machine learning to achieve an optimal balance between capacity and sustainability, well before flights enter the Dutch airspace.

OUTLINE
DST is a Decision Support System for ACC Supervisors and the Flow Management Position Controllers (FMPC) at Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL). DST aims to reduce delays for airlines and travellers by providing decision intelligence for the Supervisor and FMPC for more informed ATFM decisions for Amsterdam Schiphol airport and the Dutch FIR. In doing so, the system not only saves valuable time and money for passengers and airlines but also decreases environmental impact by preventing unnecessary fuel usage. The development of the system started in 2019 and the system has been in operation since 2023. The system joins B2B SWIM Flightplan information and detailed weather predictions to forecast runway configurations at Schiphol, dynamic landing runway capacities, controller workload and enhanced traffic load information through machine learning technologies. The fusion of all this information assists the users in the balancing process of the ATFM Demand and Capacity Balancing (DCB) objective. This high level of integration of all multidisciplinary information into a single overview combined with simulation capabilities provides instantaneous evaluation possibilities of Flow measures. These simulation capabilities not only include ATFM regulations but also Flow Exclusion and Short Term ATFM Measures (STAM) in an unprecedented and innovative way.

New DST innovations are developed continuously. Recent developments include:

• Staff Planning: DST now also supports the integral operational staff planning on the day of operation at Amsterdam ACC. In this way DST helps LVNL to optimize the deployment of LVNL’s most valuable resource: the Air Traffic Controllers.
• Collaborative Decision Making (CDM): Implementation of CDM connections with other Stakeholders at the Mainport Schiphol, allowing tighter integration with Airport and Airline operations while taking into account predicted airport operations and airline CDM information, not available through B2B with NM.
• AMAN/DMAN: Integration with AMAN/DMAN functions to connect ATFM to the Gate-to-Gate concept for Schiphol. This integration allows, for example synchronization of demand, capacity, delay patterns and runway configuration information, facilitating earlier planning of critical resources in the Capacity Management Concepts at Schiphol airport and the Amsterdam FIR.