Rainer Koelle

Cyber Security Incident Management in the Aviation Domain

Cyber Security Incident Management is an emerging paradigm and capability within the aviation domain. To date, limited research has addressed the requirements and developed tangible solutions for the deployment of such a capability. This paper leverages good practice and experiences from other critical infrastructure settings in order to sketch a recommendation for cyber incident response management for the aviation domain.

Assessing vertical flight profiles in the US and Europe Marc Meekma

■ Vertical flight efficiency in the descent phase of flight ■ Less level flight in Europe than in the US (2016) ■ Europe: 15.3 NM/flight ■ US: 28.7 NM/flight ■ Level flight trends (2015 vs. 2016) ■ Europe: More level flight detected (traffic growth) ■ US: Downward trend in level flight (new CDO-compliant arrival procedures) ■ Same average potential fuel savings in both regions

Comparison of ATFM practices and performance in the U.S. and Europe

The FAA and EUROCONTROL have a long history of collaboration on air traffic management performance measurement and benchmarking. Every couple of years this results in the joint publication of their report US/Europe Comparison of Air Traffic Management Related Operational Performance.

Assessing vertical flight profiles in the US and Europe

Air traffic management analysis efforts today are focusing more on trajectory-based operations as a basis for better air traffic control and modernization. Developing proper indicators that correctly characterize these operations has been a key activity for both EUROCONTROL and the FAA. Both organizations are working jointly towards harmonizing the generation of existing metrics to allow for a more analogous comparison between ATM in Europe and in the USA. Harmonization efforts have been challenging due to numerous factors, e.g. missing data or processes that cannot be easily changed due to various system dependencies. One such topic under consideration is vertical flight efficiency, which measures the amount of level flight occurring after the top of descent until an aircraft reaches its destination airport. Various causes of level flight include weather conditions, airport capacity, airspace design and restrictions, and air traffic flow control. A higher level flight value (in terms of the number of level-offs, the total time flown level, or the total level distance) is an indicator of reduced vertical flight efficiency, since a gradual, consistent descent without level-offs from the TOD to the runway is seen as ideal. Benefits of a continuous descent operation or optimized profile descent include better fuel economy, reduced noise, and less pollution. The results of this study show that flights into European airports undergo less level flight on average than flights into US airports: the average level distance per flight is 15.3 NM in Europe and 28.7 NM in the US. Nevertheless, the potential fuel savings are similar: on average 43.5 kg and 43.9 kg of fuel per flight in the US and Europe, respectively. The results of this study are promoted for wider usage by the international ATM performance benchmarking community.

Provisioning for a distributed ATM security management: The GAMMA approach

Air transportation represents a complex network of stakeholders that include air navigation service providers (ANSPs), airport operation centers, airlines, manufacturers, government and security agencies, and airspace policy authorities, passengers, etc. The security management in this federated and multistakeholder environment faces legal, institutional, and technical challenges. The current state in aviation security is outlined by the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) Annex 17 of the Chicago Convention that was adopted in 1974 and subsequently updated several times [1]. With its most recent update, Annex 17 recognizes the security contribution of ANSPs and identifies cyber security as a further dimension of aviation security.

Towards a common analysis of vertical flight efficiency

Significant efforts are underway to modernize global air traffic management systems. Flight efficiency is a major political design criterion. This paper addresses the identification and measurement of ATM related constraints on vertical flight efficiency with a focus on continuous descent operations. Efficiency of flight operations has become a key driver for identifying bottlenecks and constraints imposed by ATM on airspace user preferred flight trajectories. In particular, measures aiming at fuel-efficient operations attract a lot of attention. This paper reports on the work jointly performed by the FAA and EUROCONTROL to address vertical flight efficiency. Based on an empirical study of trajectory data for US and European airports, a vertical profile analysis algorithm has been developed considering research experiences and stakeholder consultations of both teams. This work was performed as the preparatory action of the joint US/Europe comparison report. The results include a joint and harmonized algorithm to describe the vertical trajectory profile and the initial definition of metrics for the performance measurement. This harmonized algorithm will be further be validated and refined as part of the US/Europe comparison report including a wider set of airports. Demonstrating the general feasibility, the algorithm will be further promoted for use in international performance activities under ICAO.

Operational resilience performance of European airports

• concept of “resilience” has become a buzzword • this study: focus on operational application within operational ANS at airports • allows for the specification of nominal / non-nominal performance thresholds • within Europe, disruptions more prominent for departure process and turnaround (dependency) • direct correlation between capacity utilisation, impact level, and recovery time for higher capacity utilisation quotas (requires better planning) • lower utilisation / schedule buffers are not always used efficiently to recover from disruptions.

Towards Harmonising the Legislative, Regulatory, and Standards-Based Framework for ATM Security: Developing a Software Support Tool

This research-in-progress paper addresses the elementary capabilities and underlying challenges pertaining to the development of a software tool to support the identification and harmonisation of legislation, regulation, standards, and best practices for ATM Security. The consistent application of ATM Security requirements throughout the SESAR Joint Undertaking Work Programme is a challenge. There is a need to provide a tool for security experts, concept developers and technical experts to ensure compliance with the underlying framework for ATM Security. The software tool described in this paper addresses this issue. In particular, it supports functions that allow for the extraction, categorisation, association, and harmonisation of the rules imposed by the framework. The approach and challenges to the design of the envisaged tool capabilities are outlined. Initial lessons learnt are presented based on the findings at the current prototyping stage. It is reasoned that the feasibility stage is completed and that further development can adhere to the identified capabilities and design outline. User interaction specification and development will be facilitated with an iterative user-based agile software development process.