Aeroporti di Roma’s commitments to SESAR projects

The European Commission launched the Single European Sky project in 1999, which aims to better organise air traffic to make it more efficient, competitive and safe, reducing the fragmentation that follows the borders of national states. SESAR – ‘Single European Sky ATM Research’ – a research project for the management of air traffic in the Single European Sky, is the enabler of this ambitious goal.

SESAR aims to achieve the following results:

• To develop systems for reducing air traffic management costs, fuel consumption, CO₂ emissions and flight time
• To increase operational efficiency for airspace users, reducing delays and increasing the range of air capacity, considering that many European airports will face possible congestion problems at the current rate of air traffic growth.

Aeroporti di Roma has been very committed in recent years to be at the forefront of innovation and environmental protection, contributing to SESAR with projects of the highest technological level in the airport sector:

• The AirPort Operations Centre (APOC) Room                
• The Airport Operation Plan (AOP) and Network Operations Plan (NOP) systems
• The Advanced-Surface Movement Guidance and Control System (ASMGCS)
• The Visual Docking Guidance System (VDGS)
• The System Wide Information Management (SWIM).                      

ADR’s overall investment for these projects amounts to over €30 million, of which €10 million have been funded by the EU. All projects are following the plan shared with the SESAR deployment manager. Specifically: the APOC room, the AOP systems, the VDGS and SWIM are 100 per cent complete, the ASMGCS is 98 per cent complete and the integration between the AOP and NOP systems is currently 70 per cent complete. The latter are both scheduled by 2022.

Let us look at some details below:

1. AirPort Operations Centre (APOC)

The centralised control room AirPort Operation Centre (APOC), inaugurated last November (2021) at the Fiumicino Airport, includes 16 control rooms hosting 110 workstations. The new hall is the vital centre of airport operations and allows for faster and more effective communication, facilitating decision-making processes thanks to the latest generation of IT systems and innovative tools. The APOC guarantees the continuity of airport operations, ensuring the highest levels of safety and quality.

2. Airport Operation Plan (AOP) and Network Operations Plan (NOP)

We then have the Airport Operation Plan (AOP), quipped with information and data from airport systems and, in particular, from the A-CDM (Airport Collaborative Decision Making), which allow for the monitoring of the status of resources in real time and of airport operations and to re-plan the airside and landside infrastructures according to operational needs, optimising traffic in the airport and minimising delays. The system ‘communicates with other systems’. In fact, the Airport Operation Plan (AOP) exchanges its data with the Network Operations Plan (NOP), a central planning system managed by Eurocontrol. The integration of these systems allows for the capacity to be increased on a European level and for the improvement in the performance of the air traffic management network.

3. Advanced-Surface Movement Guidance and Control System (ASMGCS)

ADR, in partnership with ENAV, is also finalising the implementation of the ASMGCS system at Fiumicino Airport, with the aim of improving the surveillance of vehicles and aircraft operating within the airport manoeuvring area. Through the installation of a modern antenna park on the airport grounds and the use of software, real-time information is available on traffic trends, thanks to a map that monitors the presence of vehicles and aircraft in real time. manoeuvring area and the status of operations in progress. This entails significant benefits in terms of safety in the airport manoeuvring areas.

4. Visual Docking Guidance System (VDGS)

The VDGS optical guide system has been operational since December 2021 on 90 lay-bys at Fiumicino airport. The system provides support to the pilot in the parking phase of the aircraft, through an accurate monitoring of the status of the parking areas, signalling the presence of any obstacles on the ground and guiding the pilot from the phase of entering the apron up to the moment in which the aircraft is parked.

5. System Wide Information Management (SWIM)

ADR conducted an assessment of the internal IT architecture and the implemented cybersecurity measures, in order to identify the possible gaps to be filled for the implementation of the System Wide Information Management (SWIM) protocol at Fiumicino. The introduction of SWIM has brought tangible advantages to the airport, in terms of efficiency and continuity of airport operations, through the adoption of the highest levels of IT security, in order to protect the IT infrastructure of the airport from possible attacks by cybersecurity.

ADR, the first Italian airport hub and the best in Europe in the last three years, has chosen to focus on digitalisation, safety, innovation and environmental sustainability and has long since started a process aimed at zeroing CO₂ emissions in 2030, in advance of targets set by the European airport sector, in addition to being Carbon Neutral for 10 years, confirming its determination in terms of sustainability and in particular in the fight against climate change. With the ever-constant and maximum commitment aimed at the goal of the full recovery of a strategic sector for our country.