A 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).

The advanced arrival management system (A-AMAN) from DFS has been adapted to the LVNL system environment and passed its functional acceptance test in December 2013. DFS and LVNL have added new functions to the system. For example, the system suggests the most efficient sequence for arriving aircraft and generates exact landing times, as well as gives the controller the recommended optimal speed for a selected aircraft.

For instance, if two additional runways are put in use, the controllers can see the calculated arrival sequence for these runways, as well as a timeline for past planning on their screen.

"Approach control at Schiphol is very complex as there are six runways. This is why we expanded the display of the planning information," explained Jan Westland, project manager at LVNL.

"At any given time, the air traffic controller has a clearly arranged display of the traffic situation and can quickly change flights from one runway to another. This results in an enormous reduction of workload," added Westland.

The planning information from the arrival manager can also support coordination with upstream control centres such as Maastricht so that the traffic flow can be optimised as early as possible.

The new arrival system will be put into service at the beginning of 2015.

For more information, please contact DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung.