Dublin Airport Hosts Delegation From the European Commission to assess SESAR Deployment on site

Dublin Airport was delighted to welcome a delegation of the European Commission, INEA and SESAR Deployment Manager to the airport recently. Dublin is part of a wider grouping of airports, airlines and Air Navigation Service Providers across Europe who are working together on the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research or SESAR project.

Dublin Airport Managing Director Vincent Harrison said: “Dublin Airport is extremely proud to partner with colleagues from across the EU to work together and deliver the Single European Sky vision.”

“We were delighted to welcome delegates from the European Commission and INEA and our colleagues from SESAR Deployment Manager, along with representatives of the local Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, to Dublin Airport to view the various funded projects under the coordination of SDM that are both ongoing and completed. Dublin Airport is committed to SESAR core ethos of making air travel easier and, most importantly, more sustainable,” he added.

Mariagrazia La Piscopia, Chief Strategy & Programme Management at SESAR Deployment Manager said: “SESAR Deployment Manager is happy to be able to facilitate these visits where SESAR deployment is showcased on site by the operational stakeholders. They bring clear and tangible proof that SESAR delivers performance benefits and are crucial to assess the actual realizations on site. Today we have 115 fully completed SESAR deployment projects bringing concrete benefits to EU passengers, citizens and economy.”

SESAR is a Europe-wide project that aims to improve air space capacity and management in EU Member States. The deployment  is funded by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Transport, a key EU funding stream that supports targeted infrastructure investment at European level.The Connecting Europe Facility for Transport aims to improve the use of infrastructure, reduce the environmental impact of transport, enhance energy efficiency and increase safety.

The SESAR Deployment Manager (SDM) is in charge of coordinating the implementation of the Pilot Common Project (PCP) regulation – Reg. (EU) 716/2014, funded by CEF through INEA (Innovation and Networks Executive Agency), from the planning to the execution.

Dublin Airport, supported by SDM, since 2014 has identified a number of PCP deployment projects that are suitable for INEA funding. A total of nine projects have received approved funding of €10.3 million – approximately 47% of the total combined costs of the projects.

The implementation of Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) at Dublin Airport is one of the projects that received funding.

A-CDM focuses on aircraft turnaround times and pre-departure sequencing processes to boost air traffic flow and operational efficiency of all airport operators by reducing delays and increasing the predictability of events.

The recent installation of the Advanced Visual Docking Guidance System at Dublin Airport also received funding from SESAR.  AVDGS is an electronic display above aircraft parking stands which provides real time information to pilots as they are parking aircraft on arrival or pushing back for departure.

This information means that airline baggage and ground handlers can get to the aircraft quicker to ensure faster aircraft turn-around thereby helping to reduce potential delays for the airline and its passengers. It also means that the aircraft and its support vehicles are not running engines unnecessarily, which in turn can help reduce carbon emissions from the airfield.

The group were also briefed by Ryanair and the Irish Aviation Authority on SESAR deployment funded projects they have undertaken to further secure and enhance Ireland’s connectivity.

Dublin Airport, which is Ireland’s key aviation gateway, welcomed 31.5 million passengers last year. It has flights to almost 200 destinations in 43 countries, operated by 53 airlines and is the 11th busiest airport in the European Union.