INSIGHTS ON THE ECONOMIC ESTIMATES OF THE CLIMATE COSTS OF THE AVIATION SECTOR DUE TO AIR MANAGEMENT IN 2018-19

Air navigation service providers ensure that aircrafts keep safely apart by prescribing vertical and horizontal distances to each other. In the European Union and its associated members, regulation is carried out via a performance scheme which measures and sets targets for the different key performance areas. For the environmental area, targets in terms of CO2 and other pollutants were set by assuming that there would be continuous improvements for the Key performance Environment indicator based on actual trajectory. However, although a higher Horizontal Flight Efficiency (HFE) measurement usually means a more direct flight trajectory, this does not necessarily translate into a climate optimal trajectory. Thus, vertical flight efficiency also needs to be considered. There is also an interdependency be¬tween airspace and Air Traffic Man¬agement Capacity and Environment: when the offered capacity falls short of the demand for flights, ground delays, holdings and traffic shifts to adjacent areas occur. This entails detours and a deterioration of the HFE-indicator. Results show that total climate costs for 2018 and 2019 may be as high as 1 bn EUR, of which about 34% is due to CO2 emissions. In particular, the climate costs of CO2 emissions due to capacity constraints range from 54 to 301 million EUR, depending on whether CO2 costs are measured in terms of avoidance costs or under the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). Following the first criterion and the short to medium run up to 2030, the estimated costs would amount to 112 million EUR. In the long run, from 2040 to 2060, these costs would amount to 301 Million EUR. With the estimates of the EU ETS, the cost by 2030 would be close to 54 million EUR and 153.5 million EUR for the long run. Volatility of carbon pricing may play a very significant role, but fortunately can be hedged. Therefore, a shortfall of capacity leads to delay costs and considerable environmental costs. As capacity is planned in the medium to long-term, traffic forecasts are a crucial element. This means that further research is warranted into the interdependency of traffic forecasts, capacity and environmental costs. Keywords: climate economic cost, aviation sector, capacity management

Commercialisation of Air Navigation Service Providers – Evidence from Europe

This paper deals with the on-going process of commercialisation of air navigation service providers (ANSPs) with specific focus on Europe. First part offers overview of conducted research on their commercialisation and identifies two main external drivers for the emergence of commercialisation – liberalisation of national markets and demand for other ANS related services. Our research also proposes methodology for numerical assessment of the degree of commercialisation based on the ANSP’s Commercialisation Index (ACI) and presents numerical evaluation of the ACI index of 35 European providers and proposes six different categories of providers reflecting different degree of their commercialisation. Results reveal that 63% of the European ANSPs show signs of commercialisation. On top of that, our outcomes prove that corporatisation cannot be considered a direct manifestation of commercialisation. Despite the most widely accepted view that corporatised providers are commercially active, the findings show that almost 40% of corporatised European ANSPs are not commercially active. The paper also claims that ownership of subsidiaries and joint ventures is the most dominant demonstration of commercialisation. At the same time, our outcomes show that the provision and development of commercial services and products related to ANS are the most common commercial activities of the European ANSPs.

Prospects for using near-Earth GNSS as an infrastructure for navigation support of Lunar missions

An increasing number of space agencies consider Moon exploration as a part of national and international space programs. Exploration plans include a distributed network of facilities on and around the Moon; opportunities for “driving force” projects based on the International Space Station program experience; and, on the whole, formation of the “Earth – low lunar orbit – Moon surface” payload traffic flow. The payload needs analysis shows that the cutting-edge Moon exploration program requires high quality navigation services (precise estimation of coordinates and velocity in near-real time). The subject of this paper is the issues of creating a navigation service based on the experience of the Russian segment of ISS and using the existing near-Earth GNSS systems as a navigation infrastructure.

Flight flexibility in strategic traffic planning: visualisation and mitigation use case

The concept of strategic traffic planning that takes into account changing airspace configurations, their capacity, and allows the quantification of flight flexibility is presented in this paper: the visualization of the results and an example of possible use. The concept is implemented through two deterministic optimization models. Here, we focus on the output of the models, which identifies the departure times, trajectories, flight flexibility and the list of saturated sector-hours throughout the day, based on the configurations used during the day. In order to make the output understandable to various stakeholders, we use a visualization tool and a set of performance indicators. The information on the saturated sectors, and their impact on flexibility (criticality index) is taken as an input in the example of mitigation action application by Air Navigation Service Providers, aimed at improving the situation. A mitigation strategy of increasing capacity of saturated airspace is implemented, and results show that the improvements in flexibility can be achieved.

Correcting Subsurface Seismic Depth Uncertainty in Real-Time Using Reservoir Navigation Distance-to-Bed Mapping

The most common challenge in horizontal drilling is depth uncertainty which can be due to poor seismic data or interpretation. It is arguable that a successful landing of the wellbore in the reservoir optimally and within the desired zone is the most challenging in most geosteering operation. The presence of fluid contacts such as oil-water-contact (OWC) and gas-oil-contact (GOC) complicates the whole drilling process, most especially if these fluid contacts are not well defined or known. Additionally, the ability to map the boundaries of the reservoir as the BHA drills the lateral section is an added advantage to remaining within the desired reservoir section. The success of any reservoir navigation service where seismic uncertainty at the reservoir top is high will rely largely on how effective the geosteering system is and how the geosteering engineer is able to react promptly to changes while landing the well in the reservoir and drilling the lateral section with without exiting the reservoir. Reservoir Navigation Service (RNS) provides the means for the drilling near horizontal or horizontal wells for the purpose of increasing hydrocarbon extraction from the earth's subsurface. This involves the use of a pre-defined bottom hole assembly (BHA) with inbuilt downhole logging while drilling (LWD) and measurement while drilling (MWD) sensors. The measurements from these downhole sensors are uplinked to the surface of the wellbore where they are converted to meaningful petrophysical data. The goal is to use the downhole petrophysical data such as gamma ray, propagation resistivity and so on, to update an existing pre-well geological model of a section of the earth in such a way that the final result depicts the true model picture of the earth subsurface. This paper focuses on using well CBH-44L to showcase how the use of real-time distance-to-boundary (D2B) measurement from a deep reading azimuthal propagation resistivity tool is use to correct for depth uncertainty in seismic, thereby, improving the chance of successfully landing and drilling a horizontal well.

Causal Analysis of Lateral Deviation of Flights in Terminal Airspace

Aircraft arrival and departure procedures are designed by air navigation service providers to enable the orderly and safe flow of air traffic. However, in actual operations, flights often deviate from standard routes, especially within terminal airspace. In this context, this paper presents an analysis of the determining factors for the lateral deviation (LD) of flight paths compared with the standard aeronautical departure and arrival procedures. For that, aircraft tracking data recorded by surveillance systems were leveraged and a linear regression model was employed to map structural and operational factors into LD. Our results indicate that LD tends to decrease with increased demand and low ceiling or visibility conditions. On the other hand, convective weather tends to increase LDs as additional holdings and rerouting may be necessary. Besides, significant levels of deviation can be associated with some specific arrival and departure procedures.

Use and Perceptions of Pedestrian Navigation Apps: Findings from Bologna and Porto

Pedestrian Navigation Applications (PNAs) provide assistance in terms of self-localization, space recognition, and turn-by-turn navigation. The use, motivations and perceptions associated with these applications have been under investigated due to users being insufficiently involved in their design and development. This paper analyses the extent to which PNAs are used for assisting people to walk, the frequencies and reasons of using these applications, the perceptions about them, and the barriers preventing them from being used. The study is supported by a questionnaire (N = 1438) that was administered in Bologna (Italy) and Porto (Portugal). Results indicated that 42% of the respondents use PNAs mainly on an occasional basis to find locations and the shortest routes. Google Maps was the preferred navigation service. Statistical tests showed that PNAs were more likely to be used by younger adults and students. The lack of need was the main reason for not using these apps, due to the good spatial knowledge of the cities or the non-use of the pedestrian mode for regular trips. Respondents would like to have apps that are more accurate, usable, and adjusted to pedestrian navigation. The findings described in this paper could be helpful for future designs of PNAs, especially to match pedestrian needs more effectively and to enhance the role of these apps in promoting healthier and sustainable lifestyles.