Airside Slot Capacity Assistant

The objective of Matchbox is to provide an unobstructed flow of operations at the airport. All parties involved are given real-time access to exactly those data they require to solve their tasks. This in turn provides high flexibility and adaptability of all operating EDP systems. Under the Matchbox project Barco Orthogon AG in Stuttgart together with Fraport AG have developed a new product, Arcas (Airside Slot Capacity Assistant). The software system relieves the staff involved of their routine work thereby contributing to more efficient flight plan management via quicker preparation of data and automatic matching of the different information sources. The system allows the user to quickly and flexibly react to changing conditions without the overhead of routine flight plan data-related tasks.

The situation to date

The existing Fraport system software failed to adequately support tasks arising from the high amount of daily flight plan data. The process of checking flight plans and matching them with the data of the airport coordinator required significant manpower and effort. Flight Data analysis required a great deal of time and employed a number of inefficient processes and workaround solutions.

The Target

Arcas was developed under the project name "Matchbox" to offer the airport management
a transparent solution to manage flight data. Its aim is to provide direct access to data for analysis and prediction of the future flight traffic. The system automatically supplies the data so the personnel involved are relieved of routine jobs thereby reducing a common source of errors. Users have up-to-date and usable information available, right from the start of the day. In addition, Arcas documents all changes to the data by the airport coordinator and the airport's internal flight plan system. Because historic data are linked
with information sources these changes can be reproduced at any time.

Improvements by Arcas

The data saved in the airport's database are much more reliable with the new system because they are compared to the data of the airport coordination and up-dated daily, which remarkably improves the operational work flow. At the same time, the system may produce fully automatic daily flight schedules and user-defined section views. Upon request, these user-defined reports can be sent to internal or external customers, in various file formats as well as by fax, through the communication module of Arcas. The manifold analysis functions of Arcas provide the user a better vantage point to evaluate existing resources (slots). Thanks to the so-called "mismatch" procedure, discrepancies can be identified at an early stage early in the process and resolved early in the process. Moreover, the system enables the user to draw up flight plan scenarios and simulations of constraints and as a consequence, to make qualified predictions on the future traffic structure. Various capacity-relevant impacts may be simulated and analyzed in advance. These features give the flight plan manager the ability to quickly react to changes and develop appropriate counter-measures. Arcas is a highly modular system and can thus be easily adapted to the requirements and technical infrastructure of other airports.

Outlook

Continuing enhancements of Arcas will make processes even easier, user-friendly and better managed than today. The visualization of different analytical functions will be extended thereby supporting more detailed surveys of the flight plan structures. For instance, additional databases will be integrated allowing airlines to swap slots. The successful airport of tomorrow will only emerge by comprehensively assessing and selectively overhauling airport management processes used today. Arcas provides the foundation for future slot allocation and airside capacity management of tomorrow.