The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) awarded Germany’s COMSOFT a contract for the upgrade of ETFMS gateways

The Irish Aviation Authority upgrades their Enhanced Tactical Flow Management System (ETFMS) gateways. The systems located in Dublin and Ballycasey interface the local ANSP environment to the ETFMS network of EUROCONTROL’s CFMU (Central Flow Management Unit) in Brussels and Paris.

The Enhanced Tactical Flow Management System captures surveillance data next to flight plan data from the co-operating partner systems located at the ANSP sites, and thus enriches ATFM tactical data considerably. Thanks to accurate real-time data ETFMS can provide an overall, always up-to-date representation of the traffic situation over Europe and adjacent airspace.

The correlated position reports, complemented by information from aircraft operators and Meteo services, allow a precise anticipation of traffic demand and potential sector overload, and thus improvement of ATFM by appropriate counter-measures in terms of optimisation of slot allocation. Optimisation of this process ultimately leads to an increase of capacity in the air and reduction of delays.

Since its inception in early 2002 the ETFMS network could be expanded, including now around thirty ACCs delivering data to the CFMU. The benefits ETFMS increasingly delivers to the community of airspace users are also of environmental nature. Apart from noise reduction, decreased fuel consumption helps to lessen air pollution and operating costs, both being main topics on the agenda of airline operators today.