BOBASIO 3-WP/15 22-24//13 The Third ATS Coordination Meeting of Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean Region (BOBASIO/3) Hyderabad, India. 22 nd 24 th October 13 Agenda Item 4: BOBASIO Region Seamless ATM Status and Implementation PROPOSAL TO INTRODUCE NM REDUCED LONGITUDINAL SEPARATION IN THE BAY OF BENGAL ARABIAN SEA INDIAN OCEAN (BOBASIO) AIRSPACE (Presented by Airports Authority of India) SUMMARY This paper presents the proposal by India to introduce NM Reduced Longitudinal Separation in the Bay of Bengal Arabian Sea Indian Ocean Airspace in a Phased manner and also the need to carry forward the Scope of Work of the Bay of Bengal Reduced Horizontal Separation Task Force (BOB-RHS/TF). This paper relates to Strategic Objectives: A: Safety Enhance global civil aviation safety C: Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development of Air Transport Foster harmonized and economically viable development of international civil aviation that does not unduly harm the environment Global Plan Initiatives: GPI-5 GPI-7 GPI-8 GI-17 RNAV and RNP (Performance-based navigation) Dynamic and flexible ATS route management Collaborative airspace design and management Data link applications 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 With the Bay of Bengal Reduced Horizontal Separation Task Force being dissolved during the last meeting in May 12 and the residual tasks being delegated to the South Asia/Indian Ocean ATM Coordination Group (SAIOACG).This assignment has been listed as one of action items in the task list of (SAIOACG/3) meeting. It is felt that the concerned states are present and this would be the appropriate forum to carry forward the work to achieve the objectives of implementing RNP 4 PBN specifications within the Bay of Bengal area and the Oceanic area of the Mumbai FIR.
-2-2. DISCUSSION 2.1 The Phased implementation of 5 NM RHS in the BOBASIO airspace taking into consideration the constraints of all member states involved has given enough experience to the policy makers within the individual ANSPs on the issues involved in planning and implementing uniform separation standards over airspaces covering more than one member state. 2.2 It is India s proposal that before we embark on a project to implement :(Reduced longitudinal and reduced lateral separation), which would require a complete redrawing/restructuring of the RNP routes in the entire airspace, we introduce NM reduced longitudinal separation on the existing RNP routes in a phased manner and then progress to reducing the lateral separation to NM. 2.3 An analysis of the existing RNP routes in the airspace shows that four routes M, N571, P57 & P574 which traverse the entire BOBASIO airspace in an east - west direction over an average distance of 5 NM and an average flying time of 4Hours Minutes, cater to medium density traffic and are used by long haul aircrafts flying between airports in South east Asia and the Middle east & Europe. Even if other adjoining states are not in a position to provide NM RLS within their FIRs, aircrafts on these routes could still benefit if NM RLS is provided within the Indian airspace, as the distance flown across the Indian FIRs of Chennai & Mumbai accounts for a major portion of their flying time. 2.4 An analysis of the data link capability of aircrafts using the BOBASIO airspace was conducted using data collected over a period of 4 months from July 12 to October 12. Figure1 & 2 below show the percentage of data link capable aircrafts on the four routes in the Mumbai and Chennai FIRs. The figures also indicate the percentage of aircraft that actually log on to data link. % DATA LINK CAPABLE 9 8 7 6 5 4 N571 P574 M P57 %CAPABLE %LOGGED Figure1. Data link capable flights on 4 Routes in Mumbai FIR 2.5 Figure2 & 3 shows the top Operators and type of aircraft which are data link capable and operate on these four routes. It can be seen that the majority of the data link capable flights are operated by other than Indian airlines. Long haul aircrafts such as B77W, A332, A333 and B772 etc are the types of aircraft that are normally equipped with data link capability and aircraft that normally fly short durations are not equipped with data link. 9 % D A T A L I N K C A P A B L E 8 7 6 5 4 UAE QTR ETD ALK AIC SVA SIA GFA MAS JAI SQC
-3- Figure2. Operator distribution of Data link capable flights on 4 Routes in Mumbai FIR 9 8 D A T A L I NK C AP AB L E 7 6 5 4 B77W A332 A333 B772 A321 B744 B773 B77L A388 A346 A343 Figure3. Type distribution of Data link capable flights on 4 Routes in Mumbai FIR 2.6 An analysis of the Traffic Sample Data of December 12 indicates that about 6% of the traffic on the RNP routes of the Bay of Bengal Arabian sea Indian Ocean airspace are international flights that either originate from or terminate at airports in India and most of these flights are not data link capable. The data on aircraft that are not data link capable on the four routes of Mumbai FIR indicate that 81 % of these are international flights operating into and out of Indian airports. Figure4 below shows the distribution of which are not data link capable. 9 8 % DATA LINK NOT CAP AB L E 7 6 5 4 Series1 INDIA_FLIGHTS OVER_FLYING Figure4. Distribution of Data link not capable flights on 4 Routes in Mumbai FIR 2.7 For Chennai FIR, data was collected only for 2 routes N571 and P574 as the other two routes transit for a very short distance within the oceanic airspace of Chennai before entering into the terminal control area of Mangalore & Trivandrum and then on to Colombo FIR. Figure5 shows the percentage of data link capable aircraft on the two routes N571 & P574. 9 % D A T A L IN K C A P A B L E 8 7 6 5 4 % LOGGED N571 P574 Figure5. Data link capable flights on 2 Routes in Chennai FIR 2.8 Figure6 & 7 shows the top Operators and type of aircraft used by the data link capable flights on the two routes. 3
-4- % DATA LINK CAPABLE 25 15 5 UAE SIA QTR MAS ETD SQC OMA SLK JAI SVA Figure 6. Operator distribution of Data link capable flights on 2 Routes in Chennai FIR 9 % D A T A L I N K C A P A B L E 8 7 6 5 4 B77W B 772 A 333 A 332 B 744 A 388 B 77L B 773 A 3 B 738 Figure7. Type distribution of Data link capable flights on 2 Routes in Chennai FIR 2.9 Figure 8 shows the distribution of data link not capable flights on the two routes in Chennai FIR. 9 8 % DATA LINK NOT CAP ABLE 7 6 5 4 Series1 INDIA_FLIGHTS OVER_FLYING Figure8. Distribution of Data link not capable flights on 2 Routes in Chennai FIR 2. It needs to be emphasized that though 5 NM reduced longitudinal separation has been introduced in the region since December 11 not many states are actually using it. This greatly affects the seamless flow of traffic and burdens Indian controllers who have to enlarge the separation or resort to vertical separation at the boundary before transferring the aircraft to the next adjacent ATS Unit. Still implementation of reduced longitudinal separations like 5:5 or :5 will greatly help controllers in conflict resolution and for giving early climb/descend to aircraft through the level of the reciprocal traffic once they cross each other in addition to enhancing the airspace capacity. 2.11 An analysis of the performance of data link capable aircraft on the four routes to assess CPDLC transaction performance was conducted using data collected from Chennai and Mumbai ground station for the period 1 st July 12 to th October 12. The graphs depict measured performance against the RCP requirements at the 95% and 99.9% level for RCP24. Figure 9 & show graphs illustrating ACP as measured in Chennai and Mumbai.
-5- Figure9. Actual Commn Performance in Chennai FIR. Figure. Actual Commn Performance in Mumbai FIR. 2.12 Airports Authority of India has a tripartite agreement with IATA and Boeing wherein Boeing provides the services of a Central Reporting Agency for the airspace of Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. Boeing conducts the data link performance monitoring of the data link ground stations at Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata whereby the CPDLC RCP and the ADS-C surveillance data transit time are monitored. 2.13 The En-route Monitoring Agency BOBASMA will conduct the pre-implementation and post implementation qualitative safety assessment for the introduction of NM reduced longitudinal separation. 3. CONCLUSION It can be concluded that there exists enough scope for the introduction of NM Reduced longitudinal separation on the four routes N571, M, P57 & P574, and aircraft stand to benefit even if it is implemented only within the Indian FIRs. India is ready to implement NM reduced longitudinal separation on these four routes as a first step towards full implementation of :5 Horizontal separation. There is an urgent need for states to the west and east of India to implement the 5 NM reduced longitudinal separation introduced in 11-12 in both letter and spirit to enhance the benefits of a uniform application of separation standard across the entire BOBASIO airspace. Full benefits of any implementation of reduced horizontal separation cannot be achieved unless more aircraft, particularly those that operate to and from India cities acquire data link capability. 4. ACTION BY THE MEETING The meeting is invited to: a) note the readiness of India to introduce NM RLS on N571, M, P57 & P574. b) urge Malaysia, Oman and Indonesia in the sub-region to implement NM RLS c) urge airline operators to equip aircraft with FANS/1A data link capability. 5