Improving flight efficiency and reducing emissions through demand-capacity balancing in European ATM

Purpose Many flights in Europe today are routed on longer routes either due to capacity shortages in the network or because Airspace Users (AUs) choose longer routes to avoid countries with high en-route charges. We analyse how better demand-capacity balancing of ATM can reduce detours and hence emissions. Approach We model the effects of two demand-capacity balancing mechanisms: network-oriented capacities and trajectory-independent ATM charges. The idea is that capacity decisions, which consider both network effects and emissions, reduce capacity shortages in the system, and thus also unnecessary re-routings. Also, if AUs pay ATM charges that are independent of flight path, they choose the most fuel-efficient and environmentally-friendly route. We test both mechanisms in a case study with 4000 flights. Findings We find that network-oriented capacities can reduce emissions from detours by 64%, with an increase in capacity cost of just 5%. We also find that current en-route airspace charges create around 320k tons of additional CO2 per year from detours of intra-European flights alone, which could be avoided by using trajectory-independent ATM charges. Such a charging scheme would need to be accompanied by changes in capacity that reflect the shift in demand towards shorter trajectories. Contribution Our research complements existing studies on trajectory optimization (which focuses on airborne flights) by evaluating how better capacity and demand decisions in the planning phase of ATM impact flight efficiency and emissions. In contrast to existing research, we include capacity constraints in the network when modeling the routing of flights. We also extend the methodology for ATM capacity planning by including emission cost in the decision. Finally, we formulate clear policy implications