Air traffic is now recovering from the COVID downturn. The challenge for many airports is how the traffic can be managed more sustainably and efficiently while considering emissions and the needs of local communities. Additional capacity from new runways and ground infrastructure is expensive and can be subject to lengthy and complicated planning. In some cases, it’s simply not possible.
Experience with the Intelligent Approach system—initially developed for London Heathrow and now operating at Toronto Pearson and Amsterdam Schiphol—is a great showcase, demonstrating that technology really can help. Just ask the airports, airlines and air traffic controllers that use it.
What is Intelligent Approach?
Intelligent Approach is a suite of controller tools, jointly developed by Leidos and navigation service provider NATS. The system safely optimises arrival spacing to maximise runway capacity, enabling increased operational resilience, reducing fuel burn and CO2 emissions, and delivering better on-time performance. It can be integrated into any air traffic management system, providing dynamic separation indicators for air traffic controllers to maximize available runway capacity.
Intelligent Approach simplifies the separation of aircraft for air traffic controllers, offering capacity gains usually equivalent to two or three additional landings per hour per runway. The Time Based Separation functionality automatically adjusts spacing based on real-time wind data downlinked directly from each aircraft. This has been shown to reduce the impact of headwinds on runway capacity by over 60%.
For air traffic controllers using the tools, the concept is simple. The controllers are presented with a dynamic indicator, which shows the minimum safe separation that should be used and is automatically adjusted for aircraft type and real-time wind conditions. The indicator also automatically shows the controllers if the lead aircraft will need more time to allow it to exit the runway and considers the compression that happens when the lead aircraft slows to its landing speed, providing accurate indicators all the way to the runway threshold.
What are the benefits of using Intelligent Approach?
In January 2023, Amsterdam Schiphol became the most recent airport to adopt the technology, immediately seeing a significant capacity and operational resilience benefit. After a year in use, LVNL (the Netherland’s air traffic service provider) has reported three to six additional landings per hour on each of its runways under headwind conditions. The additional tactical capacity has allowed increased use of the noise preferential runway at Schiphol, reducing noise impact on local communities.
Soon after implementation, LVNL CEO Michiel van Dorst commented, “By implementing RECAT-TBS, we contribute to improving the residential quality and living environment for people living in the local community by using the most noise sensitive runways less. We also achieve safer and better throughput in landing air traffic flows which results in airlines suffering less from delayed flights during high winds at Schiphol.”
At Heathrow, Intelligent Approach is enabling savings of some 45,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum and significantly improving the airport’s operational punctuality. A British Airways operations director described it as essential to maintaining efficient operations and providing the best service possible to the airline's passengers.
Toronto Pearson is seeing similar benefits, with early data showing a reduction of 6% or more in spacing between both wake and non-wake pairs. It is anticipated that this will lead to a corresponding increase in runway capacity in both high wind and indeed, low wind conditions.
And that’s not the end of the story. With the typical payback period for the cost of Intelligent Approach being measured in a few months, not years, more airports are adopting this technology.