The Future Regulation of Aviation in Europe by EASA

Contents

Glossary

Background

Tower - Aerodrome Control Service

Apron Management Service

EASA rules and reglementation

Position of the European Parliament

Consequences for the airport management

Consequences for the customer

Summary

Sources

Glossary

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Background

EASA will expand its competence on airports and ANSP‘s. FRA and MUC are

executing Apron Management Service.

- Can this service be considered as an ANSP-function?
- Would then the airport operator has to apply for an ANSP-licence under the future EASA rules?
- What will be the consequence for the airport management (qualification, training and licensing of staff)?
- Should there be an outsourcing? With which consequence?
- Should this service be “handed back” to DFS as ANSP? What will be the consequence for the airport and the customers (e.g. charges)?

Introduction

Air Navigation Service is provided worldwide by around 200 providers of Air Navigation Service (ANSP). Most of them are owned by the government and just some of them are fully privatized. To get on overview of nearly all ANSP around the world, have a look at the homepage of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation: www.canso.org. They describe themselve as the “global voice of the companies that provide air traffic control. Founded in 1996, it represents the interests of the Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) worldwide.”¹

In Germany the “Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH (DFS)” is entrusted with controlling air traffic and providing air navigation services out of five control centres and at 16 international airports.² Two of these airports are Frankfurt Tower and Munich Tower, where two different kinds of controllers are working: “air traffic controllers” employed by the DFS as well as “apron controllers” employed by the airport operators Fraport respectively FMG. Here we come to the important legal issue: Are both to be considered as “controllers“ within the meaning of air navigation service providers and have to be licensed as such? Where is the difference between the service they are providing?

Tower - Aerodrome Control Service

On airports like FRA and MUC, the DFS occupies three working positions at the aerodrome control tower: PL, delivery and ground. The training at the DFS-academy in Langen to become an tower air traffic controller consists of all three elements, so that a licensed tower controller is able to work at all positions.³ The watch-supervisor of the shift assigns the operating positions to be occupied to the air traffic controllers - normally in a rotative manner:

- PL (“Platzlotse“): controller, who is responsible for all active runways as well as the controlled airspace within a defined area around the aerodrome, known as Controlled Zone (CTR, in Germany airspace class “D“).
- Delivery: controller, who activates the flight-plan of a scheduled flight and issues IFR clearances (departure route and en-route instructions) directly to the pilot
- Ground: controller, who is responsible for the airport‘s movement areas like taxiways, intersections, inactive runways and holding areas. His job is to issue taxi-clearances and get aircraft from the aprons to the runway and back safely, with minimal delay. The ground controller will also issue IFR clearances when Delivery is not open, or just plain doesn't exist at the given airport.

Like many major international airports which handle large volumes of traffic at several runways and are many times the size of municipal airfields, FRA and MUC have divided the responsibility of ground control. Aircraft that are in the areas nearest the terminal buildings, known as the "ramp" or "apron", are under the guidance of "Apron Control". From this facility apron controllers are responsible for the safe and smooth flow of aircraft movements between the taxiways and the final parking position at terminal buildings. Aircraft movements are coordinated with ground controllers even in cases like FRA and MUC, where the apron control facility is (partially) located in a building other than the aerodrome control tower.

Both together, ground and apron controllers are responsible for the safe, smooth and orderly flow of traffic on the taxiways and aprons.

[...]

¹ http://www.canso.org/cms/showpage.aspx?id=186

² http://www.dfs.de/dfs/internet_2008/module/unternehmen_dfs/englisch/about_dfs/locations/index.html

³ http://www.dfs.de/dfs/internet_2008/module/fluglotse_werden/deutsch/fluglotse_werden/der_job/ tower_arbeitsplatz/index.html