DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung Air Traffic Management Consultancy and Solutions

German air navigation service provider DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung manages one of the busiest and most complex airspaces in the world.
A state-owned company under private law, DFS ensures the safe and punctual flow of air traffic over Germany. Air traffic controllers guide up to 10,000 flights in German airspace every day, and approximately three million movements every year. This makes Germany the country with the highest traffic volume in Europe.
Additionally, DFS provides consultancy services and training worldwide and sells its in-house-developed air traffic control (ATC) and air traffic management (ATM) systems to the aviation community; it is to say to airports, airlines, air navigation service organisations and civil aviation authorities.
Our services include:
- System design and implementation
- Operational concepts and airspace design
- Simulations and implementation of ATC simulators
- Safety management systems (SMS)
- Organisational concepts
- Concepts for complying with ICAO regulations (for instance, oversight implementation)
- Automation systems
- Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM)
- Training (for example, ATCO, ATSEP, safety management)
Air traffic control consultancy
For more than 20 years, DFS has been providing consultancy services to other organisations. We have extensive knowledge in corporatisation and privatisation matters, as well as in cooperation or integration of civil and military ATC.
Our operational concepts consultancy spans planning of ATS routes and design of airspace structures, civil-military concepts, capacity analyses and simulations, operational transition planning and familiarisation training.
DFS provides fast-time and real-time ATC simulations and offers simulator systems. We are also a leader in safety management, due to the development of our own comprehensive system, which is based on an assessment of all components of the complex air transport system.
A-CDM consultancy
With the aim of creating greater efficiency and easing congestion, Munich Airport and DFS provide their expertise in Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) to other interested parties. The approach to collaborative decision making is based on the European Airport CDM of the Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol). It was put into operation at Munich Airport in 2007, making it the first A-CDM of its kind implemented in Europe, and brought a 10% reduction in taxi times and lower emissions.
Our A-CDM is a coherent process, spanning from flight planning to landing and the subsequent turnaround process on the ground before the next take-off. Available capacities and operational resources can be fully used, costs reduced, emissions lowered, punctuality improved, and stronger partnerships forged.
A four-phase model provides the necessary steps for implementing an A-CDM, starting with an introductory workshop and finishing with a detailed action plan and the final implementation.
Advanced arrival management
The Advanced Arrival Management (A-AMAN) system by DFS can easily be integrated into existing environments due to its generic and modular structure. Customer-specific needs can be taken into account, ensuring the delivery of an efficient and cost-effective solution.
A-AMAN allows processing more movements at one time, reduces costs and the impact on the environment. Early results in Germany showed a reduction in the average arrival time of approximately 1960s. The arrival manager is able to register all arriving aircraft within a range of up to 200 miles and more around the airport. It then continuously calculates hand-over and landing times on the basis of different parameters, such as speed, current and predicted flight paths, traffic density and controller activities and calculates an optimal approach sequence. This way A-AMAN supports controllers in meeting safety requirements while enabling the maximum utilisation of high density airspaces.
Controllers can also optimally manage arrivals and departures by using the arrival manager together with departure managers, for example with the system from delair Air Traffic Systems.
Phoenix Tower Automation Suite
The Phoenix Tower Automation Suite (TAS) by DFS features a set of integrated ATC automation systems which can be combined and tailored to any specific air traffic control environment in large and small towers anywhere in the world.
The tower automation suite consists of the multi-sensor data fusion system Phoenix which displays the ground and air situation, so that aerodrome controllers can easily zoom in from the air to the ground.
Other integral parts of the TAS are the safety net functions, the DFS flight data processing system, as well as the position logging system (PoLo) for electronically recording working times and responsibilities of air traffic controllers.
The functionalities of PHOENIX TAS are derived from the experience of one of the world’s leading ANSPs and it is in use at several towers throughout Germany and worldwide.
Supporting systems made by DFS
More solutions developed by DFS deliver the wide range of information needed to support air traffic controllers and make air traffic control even more efficient.
These solutions include:
- The Analysis Working Position, in order to display both radar plots and flight tracks on-line simultaneously, allows the behaviour of the radar facility and trackers to be analysed
- The Operational Incident Analyser (InA) is to visualise and analyse occurrences in airspace
- The Mode S Interrogator Conflict Alerter (MICCA) detects and displays problems in connection with Mode S target acquisition
- The Meteorological Data Display System (METFROG) assists controllers in assessing weather conditions more accurately
Products and Services
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White Papers

Remote Tower Control
The German air navigation service provider DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung has been exploring remote tower solutions for several years.

DFS Consulting Services Brochure
DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung has come a long way over the last 60 years providing air navigation services in Germany's complex airspace.
Press Release
DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung continues to grow its sales and consulting business for air navigation services. In January 2016, DFS opened a new office in Singapore, to be followed by another regional office in Beijing at the end of 2016.
Read moreDFS will provide military air traffic management training from 1 January 2017. In future, DFS will train military air traffic control personnel in Kaufbeuren in cooperation with the Bundeswehr.
Read moreAir Navigation Solutions (ANS) successfully took over air traffic control services at Gatwick Airport at midnight on 29 February. The transfer of operations from the current provider NATS is the culmination of a 14-month transition effort, the largest of its kind ever completed.
Read moreThe Mode S Interrogator Code Conflict Alerter (MICCA) has been brought into operation by the Romanian Air Traffic Services Administration (ROMATSA).
Read moreDFS Deutsche Flugsicherung has contracted Austrian supplier Frequentis to provide its remote tower solution to Saarbrücken Airport.
Read moreLead by DFS, a recently formed consortium of European airlines and air navigation service providers will explore optimised descent profiles (ODP) from upper airspace to terminal manoeuvring areas.
Read moreAt Madrid's World ATM Congress on 10 March 2015, iTEC (interoperability Through European Collaboration) executive members signed a formal agreement, which extended the technical confines of the collaboration, and committed members to conditions for developing the common iTEC controller working position (CWP).
Read moreAt IHS Jane's ATC Awards on 9 March, the Free Route Airspace Maastricht and Karlsruhe (FRAMaK) project has won an award in the environment category, prior to the World ATM Congress.
Read moreWith a total of 466 direct routes published in the upper airspace controlled by the Karlsruhe Upper Area Control Centre of DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung and EUROCONTROL's Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre, the network of cross-border routes available as a flight plan option has expanded considerably.
Read moreAt the end of July, Brazilian system manufacturer Atech won the bid issued by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to provide an air traffic flow management (ATFM) system.
Read moreA new arrival management system will support air traffic controllers in organising incoming air traffic at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. The system is being introduced as part of a cooperation agreement between German air navigation service provider DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung and its Dutch counterpart, Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL).
Read moreLatvijas Gaisa Satiksme (LGS), the Latvian air navigation service provider, is introducing DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung's Mode S Interrogator Code Conflict Alerter (MICCA), which detects and displays Mode S target acquisition problems in real time.
Read moreThe World ATM Congress is being held in Madrid from 12 to 14 February for the first time. DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH will present new developments and tried-and-tested solutions for the air navigation industry at its stand 834, hall 9. DFS is increasingly positioning itself as a global partner in a variety of projects in aviation management.
Read moreIn December last year, the Siberian airport operator JSC Airport Tolmachevo and the western Siberian branch of the Russian air navigation services authority State ATM Corporation, secured the services of the German air navigation service provider DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung to develop an operational concept for simultaneous operations of the two runways at Novosibirsk Tolmachevo Airport.
Read moreThe air navigation service provider of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kazaeronavigatsia, is now using the multi-sensor data-fusion system Phoenix from the German air navigation service provider, DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung. It was chosen for air traffic control service in their new contingency tower at Almaty International Airport.
Read moreIn a letter of intent signed at the end of June 2012, the German air navigation service provider DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung and the Air Traffic Management Bureau (ATMB) of Civil Aviation Administration of China agreed to intensify their cooperation.
Read moreFor the first time DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung will be presenting the Mode S Interrogator Code Conflict Alerter (MICCA) at ATC Global 2012 from 6 to 8 March on stand H208.
Read moreDFS Deutsche Flugsicherung has signed an agreement with Spider Tracks to distribute, sell and market spidertracks, the satellite-based tracking system, in Europe.
Read moreAt this year’s air traffic control conference (ATC Global) in Amsterdam, the Swiss system supplier for the aviation community, SkySoft-ATM and the German air navigation service provider, DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung will present their newly developed air traffic management system, SkyManager.
Read moreGermany’s air traffic control company, DFS GmbH will be introducing its distant aerodrome control service for the first time at the ATC Global Amsterdam from 8 to 10 March. Using the distant aerodrome control service, aerodrome controllers can switch between the display of visual information and
Read moreAt stand H 208 at ATC Global 2010, the German air navigation service provider DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung showed several of its new developments and solutions for the air traffic services community. A newly built tower console was be at the stand plus the further enhanced radar-data processing
Read moreRegional Offices
Aeronautical Solutions
Am DFS-Campus 10
63225 Langen
Germany