Air Traffic Management Concept Baseline Definition - The Boeing ...

elated component will increase with exponential growth, especially as potential saturation
is approached. A key cost avoidance issue is the magnitude of the unimproved system
user costs in ten or twenty years.
The above analysis considered the operational costs in the current system against a closeto-ideal
operation (no flight delays, no excess routing and other procedural restrictions,
access to optimal flight levels). The inefficiency costs in the present system were thus
quantified. Another issue which also needs to be addressed is the cost of services
provided by the FAA to the users of the system. In many parts of the world, user charges
for ATC and navigation services are a recognized (and fast-growing) component of the
airline direct operating cost structure. The International Air Transport Association
(IATA) recently reported that a “concerted effort to improve operational efficiency,
reflected in airline profits of US$4 billion on international scheduled services by IATA
members last year. The same improvement ... is not reflected in airport and airspace
management operations. ... Pointing to a 36 percent improvement in capacity between
1991 and 1995, coupled with a 30 rise in costs, the airlines say that airport charges have
risen by 48 per cent and en route charges 75 per cent.” (Jane’s Airport Review, 1997)
In the U.S., the ticket tax currently masks the impact of ATC system operational efficiency
on airline productivity. But changes in the funding basis for the agency, as recommended
in the National Civil Aviation Review Commission (NCARC) report (NCARC, 1997)
portend a much higher level of user awareness and concern on the ATC system
effectiveness.
2.3.3 Operational Concept: System Agents and Functional Allocation
Figure 2.10 summarizes at a high level the primary system agents involved in the daily
planning and execution of flights in the system. The left side of the figure shows the air
traffic planning element, the Traffic Flow Management System, and its agent, the Traffic
Flow Manager. The Traffic Flow Management System can be further partitioned into the
national level (Central Flow Control Facility at Washington Dulles), center level and
airport level elements. These people and their system determine the daily schedule
demand for resources (airport and airspace) and restrict or constrain flight, as deemed
necessary, consistent with safety of flight, controller workload, etc. The airline planning
counterpart is the dispatcher and the in-flight control agents, parts of the Airline
Operational Control (AOC) system.
On the flight execution side (right side of the figure), the sector controllers, planning and
execution, provide the separation assurance function of ATC between instrument flight
rules (IFR) flights in the system. The execution controller is in very high frequency (VHF)
radio contact with the flight crew, providing flight plan amendments, as necessary, for
separation assurance.
Section 3 describes, at a functional level, the complex interrelationships among the
planning and execution elements, and how the system efficiency, capacity (as measured by
throughput) and safety measures are supported. The system operational concept is
fundamentally the assignment of roles and responsibilities to system agents and to their
automation support systems. As the future mission needs of the air traffic system are
19