Olympics 2012 Managing Special Events Brendan Kelly, Head of Operational Policy
Contents The shock and scale Olympics gives you 7 years notice, in ATM terms you need every minute Mobilisation It is not just an AMSP problem, airports, governments, military, airlines and international partners all have a role to play The reality and solutions In project terms the date does not move! No slippage, only delivery matters. Design airspace, create capacity and satisfy security Delivery It is a sporting event, ATM cannot be the news story, create the story after delivery and not during.
The shock and scale However much notice you get it requires immediate planning
The shock and scale Every event is different - influencing factors include the level of international travel associated with such events and of most importance the global location. Really difficult to learn from previous events, if you win the Olympics, don t just look at previous Olympics as Beijing traffic flows and airspace demand was totally different to Sydney, London and probably will be different to Rio and Tokyo. Start you work earlier than you would imagine. We started the work the moment we knew we had won, 6 years passes really quickly. Every Olympics for 30 years has had all sorts of military systems and capability deployed Build - at the earliest stage - the relationship with those parts of your government and military that will identify the threat and mitigations to ensure that it is integrated into your ATM system with no impact on that system. We were lucky to have true Joint and Integrated Operations but even then it was hard, political and 4 years work. Get cross government work started, we were demanding before government started worrying. Objective to maintain a seamless service despite the increase in demand
Mobilisation Don t do it on your own, governments find it hard to plan beyond an election but the Olympics will make them.
Mobilisation First ask yourself some really honest and searching questions If all of the runways capable of generating IFR movements into your TMAs or Airways would you cope? If there was that level of demand would your existing airspace be safe? Then work with others that have experienced such dramatic short term demand management to understand the risks and mitigations. There is a tool box of options If extra airspace is required, there is a long lead time to develop and train for these procedures. For London 2012 that alone was a 3 year effort for less than 2 months of extra airspace and sectors. Politically are you in a place to create new capacity and manage/satisfy that demand? Or will you have to restrict demand as further capacity is not possible? Work with airport owners and airlines (and corporate charter organisations) to understand their constraints. Urge you departments of transport (government level) to take ownership of the event from an aviation perspective as a National Event
Reality and solutions Generate capacity, integrate security, enhance service levels through innovation
Reality and solutions Be worried about unconstrained demand UK Government schedule limited most airports in South East of UK New temporary airspace deployed to take smaller airports flows out of the core TMA flows. Be very clear about Military and Civil responsibilities, but keep it integrated Plan staffing in advance De conflict other strategic activity, exercises, maintenance, airspace change Work with neighbours, new routes, different flows Understand VIP demand, the UK Government did not permit CAT D/C discriminators to prevent wasted capacity and reducing complexity Build relationships with Olympic Broadcasting Whatever the military do they will want to practice, so plan on this disruption maybe more than during the event itself Lobby hard to keep security proportionate and something that does not affect commercial traffic at all
Delivery ATM must not be the news story, it is a sporting event!
Delivery Developed tools to allocate the scarce resources - runway slots, terminals, customs, security, airspace capacity, frequencies. Make sure that Air Traffic Control is not the news story but that the successful event is Four key enablers worked, first was the establishment of temporary controlled airspace in order to take the second and third tier airports out of most of the core TMA traffic flows. Second was the removal of unconstrained demand from the system through wide spread schedule limit, removal of VIP status and management of danger area activity. The third was the effort to maximise staff deployment. The fourth and final was to ensure that the day to day security regimes, both ATLAS and CAT B had a minimal impact of core TMA Operations. Safety: No risk bearing losses of separation attributed to the Olympics and no systems issues. There were just 11 infringements of NATS temporary controlled airspace by General Aviation aircraft. Service: Just 593 minutes of delay attributable to NATS throughout the whole Olympics period, compared with 13,300 over the same month in 2011 - a 95% reduction. Including the Paralympics period, delay stood at just 1,900 minutes. Value: In one of the most challenging periods ever for UK air traffic, NATS generated just 0.1% of total European delay attributable to ATC, despite handling nearly a quarter of Europe s traffic.