A Jane’s ATC Award for the iStream project

All partners of the iStream project (Air France & HOP !, DSNA, EUROCONTROL, Groupe ADP/Aéroports de Paris, Lufthansa, skyguide, SWISS, Zürich airport) are very honoured that this large scale demonstration powered by SESAR was recognised as the winner of the Enabling Technology Award for its contribution to enhanced capacity and safety. The ceremony was held during the World ATM Congress in Madrid on 7 March 2017. 

iStream stands for optimized arrival management and demonstrated that locally generated Target Times, as a complement to departure regulations, can be used to improve arrival management at two major European airports. With nearly 7,000 commercial flights, iStream has safely trialed target times on complete arrival flows at Paris-Charles De Gaulle and Zurich. 

The trials held in 2016 have resulted in reduced air traffic control delays, holding times and radar vectoring, providing improved flight efficiency with benefits for airspace users and passengers:

• Holdings have been drastically reduced for Zurich arrivals (SWISS was able to measure a reduction of 96%). Along with reduced radar vectoring, it has a positive impact on fuel burn. Delays in terminal sectors for Paris-CDG arrivals have been reduced by 30 seconds per flight.
• The target time information enabled better flight management before departure resulting in optimizing the flight profile, reducing fuel burn and improving departure punctuality.
• The target time approach meant that airspace users’ preferences could be taken into account. The procedures developed in iStream permitted the provision of arrival flexibility (AFLEX) to flights.
• The local target time assignment, based on a new local tool (iAMAN), allowed reducing delays due to air traffic control by 20% on Paris-CDG arrivals. 

The project is aligned with the Pilot Common Project, addressing the SESAR solution “Calculated Take-Off Time to Target Times for ATFCM purposes”. The iStream trials have been supported by the evolution of the Network Manager (EUROCONTROL) systems to include the Target Time information and enabled by common procedures and technical facilities amongst the members in the partnership of NM, airports, air navigation service providers and airlines. 

Next step is the xStream project (SESAR 2020): the scenarios will take into account seamless ATFCM/ATC integration (Target Time for airborne flights, Extended-AMAN horizon), the improvement of the iAMAN tool and the automatisation of the information exchanges. Live trials will be extended and include London and Paris-Orly arrivals.