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Projecte llegit

Títol: Study of benefits Free Route areas in Europe

Estudiants que han llegit aquest projecte:

Director/a: BARRADO MUXÍ, CRISTINA

Departament: DAC

Títol: Study of benefits Free Route areas in Europe

Data inici oferta: 17-01-2019     Data finalització oferta: 17-09-2019


Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
    GR ENG SIST AEROESP
Tipus: Individual
 
Lloc de realització: EETAC
 
Nom del segon director/a (UPC): Cesar Nava Gaxiola
Departament 2n director/a:
 
Paraules clau:
Airspace, free route, evaluation, conflicts, complexity
 
Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
The future airspace of Europe is addressing new challenges to support the increase of the air traffic. The free route airspace (FRA) is a new concept to restructure the sectors and air ways that gives more flexibility to air space users to create better and more efficient routes. In this project we will study three different FRA areas in Europe, two existing ones and a new created one to measure the impact of the new structure in the air traffic demand.
The project will use the NEST tool, from Eurocontrol, to simulate the traffic with and without FRA. We will also address future prognosis to support the long-term evaluation of the FRA concept.
 
Overview (resum en anglès):
The current airspace configuration is fragmented, defined by national airspaces according political borders that affects directly to the environment, aircraft and air navigation service costs.

The future airspace of Europe is addressing new challenges to support the increase of the air traffic in a new airspace configuration. The free route airspace (FRA) is a new concept to restructure the sectors and airways that gives more flexibility to airspace users to create better and more efficient routes. In Free Route areas users may plan a route between a defined entry point and a defined exit point without reference to ATS network, always subject to air traffic control.

This project aims to study the benefits of free route areas in two scenarios. One existing and a created one. The first scenario studies the advantages in the North European Free Route area which were implemented since 2015. The second scenario studies the impact of a free route airspace in a large scale.

This project uses the NEST tool, from Eurocontrol, to simulate the traffic with and without FRA. Also, will be addressed future prognosis to support the long-term evaluation of the FRA concept.

The structure of this project starts with a brief theory review of the Free Route Airspace concept and the first scenario evaluated. Then this project includes all the design steps and evaluation process in order to obtain the metrics evaluated. Finally, results of NEFRA and EUROFRA are presented.

In general, the results of this project show that airspace users are greatly benefited from the implementation of Free Route Areas. Airlines can save money and fuel travelling shorter distance while safety is maintained. Also, environment is benefited in terms of greenhouse emissions. With the implementation of EUROFRA, approximately 5 thousand tons of CO2 can be saved per day.

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