Presentation of the TITAN project for the stakeholders
Presentation of the TITAN project for the stakeholders
1. Introduction of the TITAN project
The TITAN project focuses on the turnaround and will produce an advanced operational concept embracing all the processes involved while being fully compatible with, and complementary to, the SESAR Concept of Operations.
TITAN will develop a decision support tool which will provide data to airport partners improving their decision making also.
1.1 Project Objectives
The main objectives of this project are:
· Enhance efficiency of aircraft operator operations, specifically ground operations;
· Reduce operational cost during the turnaround process;
· Ensure punctual turnaround on the apron and thus a higher level of passenger service;
· Optimise the use of all resources for all involved partners;
· Increase ATFM and airport slot adherence;
· Improve punctuality (on time performance) and reduce delays.
1.2 List of Project Partners
Partner’s name / Country /Ingeniería y Economía del Transporte, INECO (Coordinator) / Spain
Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea, AENA / Spain
Jeppesen / Germany
CRIDA / Spain
ECORYS / Netherlands
Ingeniería y Sistemas para la Defensa, ISDEFE / Spain
Blusky services / Belgium
Boeing Research and Technology Europe / Spain
Slot Consulting / Hungary
ISA Software / UK
RWTH Aachen University / Germany
Table 1: List of Project Partners
2. Introduction of the TITAN system
2.1 The turnaround process
The turnaround commences when the flight arrives in blocks (AIBT, Actual In-Block Time). An accurate estimate of the in block time (derived from a variable taxi-in time) prior to landing will enable ground handlers to make more efficient use of existing facilities and resources and optimise Stand and Gate Management.
Today there is no alarm for the rest of the actors which allows some measures to be taken. Within the TITAN concept any deviation from the target in block time will trigger the corresponding alarms at the Airport’s CDM platform level and launch the corresponding correcting actions. This AIBT will either confirm or update the TOBT (Target Off-Block Time). A TOBT will initially be calculated for the link flight using defined turnaround values and an alarm will show that the flight has a potential delay. The aircraft operator/ground handler confirms the TOBT and alarms indicate any discrepancy during the turnaround such as late boarding or CTOT (Calculated Target Off-Block Time) non-compliance.
Figure 1: Turnaround times
During turnaround, certain services must be performed on the aircraft, within a given time to meet flight schedules and within a contractual time (contract between airline and ground handler).
All these processes are characterised by vehicles and personnel entering in contact with the aircraft in the protection zones allocated around the parking position. All the services required by the aircraft and the standard times and means can be obtained for each model of aircraft from the “Airport design document” produced by the manufacturers.
Aircraft dimensions, passenger capacity, passenger doors, cargo hold capacity and number of toilets are the main aircraft factors that are currently considered as most influencing for the ground handling process.
2.2 The TITAN concept
The TITAN directly addresses the integration of the airport operations into the ATM network by focusing on the turnaround phase and on the landside and airside processes which interact with it.
The aim is to develop a TITAN concept in a performance driven manner where the real benefits that stakeholders will obtain from its implementation will be proved.
TITAN also suggests providing evidence of the performance of the developed concept through an operational validation which will be performed within the framework of the E-OCVM methodology.
In order to structure the project, a problem-solution mechanism shall be followed. That is, given objectives to meet (increase of predictability, reduction of the operational costs and increase efficiency of airlines operations), the TITAN consortium shall identify the problems to which we shall provide an adequate solution in terms of definition of a concept. The concept shall be validated by means of a model, which afterwards shall be implemented in a decision support tool for the airlines, complemented with the analysis of how this concept could be integrated in the Air Transport System. The logic of the project is shown in the following figure:
Figure 2: Structure of the TITAN project
2.3 Innovation proposed by TITAN
These are the main innovations proposed by the TITAN project:
· Perform a thorough analysis of the aircraft “ground-sector”.
· Establish the key monitoring points to assess ground process performance (milestone approach) including the influence of external factors from land-side (security controls, baggage, check-in, etc) and air-side (ATC, Airport, etc).
· Follow a performance-based approach in line with SESAR, proposing how to measure aircraft ground management performance.
· Make a proposal for turnaround integration with the BT and for negotiation (ground-sector crossing time), such as inserting the stand coordinates into the RBT and adding the “stand reporting point” to the 4D contract.
· Develop a tool to support the decision making and monitoring processes related to the turnaround phase.
From the Technology development point of view, the two main innovative outputs of the TITAN project will be:
· Development of the TITAN Turnaround model.
· Development of the TITAN decision support tool to achieve a more efficient turnaround process.
3. Contacts
For more information please turn to:
Slot Consulting Ltd.
· Roland Guraly:
o
o Tel: +36-1- 2362946
o Fax: +36-1-2921052
· Noemi Kral
o
o Tel: +36-1-2903498
o Fax: +36-1-2921052
Or visit the www.titan-project.eu website.
TITAN: Turnaround Integration in Trajectory And Network Page 5 of 5