S’pore, Japan, Thailand and US testing new way to manage flights more efficiently across regions

SINGAPORE - A Boeing 787 jet took off from Tokyo and landed at Changi Airport on Tuesday night, showcasing how air traffic controllers could optimise its route across multiple flight regions.

This new air traffic management concept, which is called trajectory-based operations, allows the aircraft to take a more direct and quicker route across different airspaces.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) had worked with its counterparts in Thailand, Japan and the United States to plan the plane’s entire journey across a multi-leg test flight of the concept.

On Wednesday, CAAS hailed the flight as a major step in a multi-regional effort towards managing international air traffic more seamlessly, and reducing carbon emissions in the aviation sector.

The new mode of operations can potentially reduce fuel burn by up to 10 per cent, said CAAS in a statement, and benefit passengers by minimising flight disruptions and reducing travel time and cost.

Currently, international flights are managed in a tactical, reactive manner, with each country’s air traffic authority providing air navigation services separately and independently, as and when an aircraft travels within their respective airspaces.

With trajectory-based operations, an aircraft’s entire flight path across regions and countries is jointly planned and fine-tuned, with factors such as weather, airspace closures and aerial traffic taken into account.

The Boeing demonstration flight that landed in Changi Airport on Tuesday was conducted to test the capabilities that have been developed for this, including the exchange of live flight information between ground and air.

CAAS said it has – along with the Aeronautical Radio of Thailand, the US Federal Aviation Administration and the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau – spent three years working on a project to make trajectory-based operations a reality.

The four authorities signed a joint declaration with Boeing on Wednesday to reaffirm their commitment to the initiative.

The successful completion of the Boeing test flight will validate the technological capabilities that were developed and tested in the lab as part of the three-year collaboration, CAAS said.

The test flight had started its journey from Seattle to Tokyo on Sunday, before making its way to Singapore.

It will depart for Bangkok on Wednesday evening, before returning to Seattle to complete its six-day journey around the globe.

CAAS director-general Han Kok Juan said the idea of trajectory-based operations has been talked about for many years, but little progress has been made.

“While simple in concept, implementation is hard,” he added.

Impediments include heavy traffic in the skies, especially in crowded airspaces and around busy airports; weather conditions that are hard to predict; and gaps in communication and coordination between air navigation service providers, as well as between aircraft and ground control.

Mr Han said the Boeing demonstration flight shows the world that multi-regional trajectory-based operations are possible, and the next step is to show it can work for multiple flights across multiple regions.

“Many countries around the world are making heavy investments in airports and runways to meet the rising demand for air travel post-Covid-19,” he said.

“Enhanced capacity on the ground has to be matched by capacity in the skies, which can be improved by reorganising the way that we manage air traffic today,” he added.

Mr Han said the tests so far have demonstrated there is no need for every country to come on board to realise the full benefits of the new concept of operations.

But he also noted that it will take time for the concept to be accepted globally, and more work is needed to adjust procedures, equip planes and ground control, and set common standards and rules.

Dr Kirk Vining, who has been manning the Boeing demonstration flight with a crew of 17 others, said trajectory-based operations can help with situations such as flight hazards, route changes or issues at the destination airport’s gate.

“Communication is sometimes difficult, so to be able to have a graphical image of how things are going and to see all the stakeholders collaborating together, it gives assurance,” said Dr Vining, Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ chief pilot for product development.

To further reduce carbon emissions, the Boeing test flight has been using a blend of regular jet fuel and sustainable aviation fuel made from waste materials, such as used cooking oil and animal fat, during its six-day trip.

Mr Han said a blend made up of 35 per cent sustainable aviation fuel has been purchased for the flight departing from Changi Airport, and this blend will be pumped directly into the airport’s fuel hydrant system for the aircraft to use.

The implementation of trajectory-based operations at Changi Airport was

among 15 recommendations mooted in 2022

by an international panel of experts to make the airport, airlines and air traffic management here greener.

The Government is currently studying these 15 proposals, with a view towards incorporating them into a blueprint that will outline Singapore’s 2030 and 2050 goals for a more environmentally sustainable air hub.

This blueprint is slated to be published later in 2023.