Air Traffic Management

Control of air traffic was almost unknown

in 1944. Today, air traffic control, flight
information and alerting services, which
together comprise air traffic services, are
indispensable ground support facilities
which ensure the safety and efficient
operation of air traffic throughout the
world
 The objectives of air traffic services

• to prevent collisions between aircraft,

whether taxiing on the manoeuvring area,
taking off, landing, en route or in the holding
pattern at the destination aerodrome
• expediting and maintaining an orderly flow of
air traffic
• providing advice and information for the safe
and efficient conduct of flights
• alerting service for aircraft in distress
 Different phases of flight:

• Taxiing from the parking bay to the runway

• Take off
• Climb
• Cruise or en-route
• Descent or approach
• Landing
• Taxiing to the parking bay
To prevent collisions, ATC enforces, traffic
separation rules to ensure each aircraft
maintains a minimum amount of empty space
around it at all times. These rules are framed
by International Civil Aviation Organization
and adopted by the aviation regulators of the
member countries.
• Many aircraft also have on-board collision
avoidance systems, which provide additional
safety by warning pilots when other aircraft
get too close.
• Software enhancements for flight data
processing systems, like prediction of collision
situations and traffic congestion, enable
planning, expediting and orderliness of traffic
. An airline has to file a flight plan prior to departure.
Flight plan contains information on

- Origin / destination
- type of aircraft
- estimated time of departure
- flight level intended to be used for cruising
- estimated arrival time at the destination
- times of crossing specified / designated wayside reporting
points
- alternate airport for diversion if unable to land at the
destination due unforeseen reasons
- aircraft on-board features capability to navigate the
chartered route
ATC will process the flight plan for the
availability of the flight level requested during
proposed flight and will clear the flight to the
available flight level, subject to the availability
of destination and alternate airports. ATC will
monitor the flight progress continuously after
take off with periodic position updatement.
World airspace has been divided into various
zones. A given zone may cover the airspace of
one country or more. It is the collective
responsibility of the country / countries to
provide ATC service in the zone. For this
purpose, the countries concerned have
subdivided the zone subzones, each subzone
being the responsibility of a country. The actual
boundaries of such subzones depend upon the
resources, infrastructure and skill levels available
in a country.
Even inside a country’s subzone, there may be
further subdivisions for operational
convenience. This again depends upon the
geography and the nature of resources of the
country. For example, Indian airspace has
been divided into 5 divisions, each being
called an FIR (flight information region). Sri
Lankan airspace has one FIR.
 Positive control is the situation wherein the controller and
the pilot are in direct contact with each other over radio.
Controller is completely responsible for the safety of the
flights. For this purpose, VHF radio communication is
used. The coverage of such contact is limited by the line- of-
sight propagation characteristics of VHF radio. Typically,
the range would be about 200 NM. Sometimes, it is
possible to extend VHF radio coverage by remote control of
VHF equipment placed far away.
The system of creating zones / subzones of ATC units is to
provided positive control service as far as possible
.
Advisory service : In areas where the pilot and
controller are not in direct contact, the
responsibility of safety of flight is with the pilot.
Pilot is assisted by information given to him by
ATC regarding expected traffic, expected
weather, recent changes in the availability of
route aids and the facilities at the destination
aerodrome etc. These information are passed to
the pilot usually by means of short wave radio
through intermediary communicators.
A given ATC unit will have a finite jurisdiction.
The extent of jurisdiction depends upon the
traffic pattern and the geography of the
country in which the ATC operates. Since
flights go crossing the jurisdictions of several
air traffic control units, coordination between
the adjacent air traffic control units is a must.
Aerodrome Control (Tower Control):
• Aerodrome or Tower controllers work from Control
Tower, a tall structure with glass windows for good
visibility of the airport and its immediate surroundings,
located on the airport grounds.
• Usually, their responsibilities cover the ground
movements, take off and landing phases of aircraft
flight.
• They also separate aircraft and vehicles operating on
the taxiways and runways of the airport itself.
• Generally, they control air traffic 5 to 10 nautical miles
(9 to 18 km) depending on the airport procedures.
• 0-6000ft
Approach Control:
• This unit generally controls traffic between the
jurisdiction of control tower and about 50 NM
and flight levels upto 150 (15000 ft).
• Aircrafts are either in the climbing phase or in
descending phase.
• The climbing aircraft are put in their tracks
and the descending aircraft are guided to
align with the runway for landing.
• 6000-15,000ft
Area Control

• Aircrafts in the cruising phase are generally under the

jurisdiction of this ATC unit.
• Monitoring flight progress is the main activity of this
unit.
• Sometimes, some aircrafts request for different flight
levels from the ones they are cruising for reasons of
fuel saving or rough weather avoidance.
• Area control unit helps to facilitate such requests by
safely guiding these aircrafts through the flight paths of
other aircraft in the region.
• 15,000ft+
• A condition to provide positive control service
to the aircraft is that the controllers need to
know precisely the positions of all the aircraft
in their jurisdictional area.
• The function of getting this position
information is known as surveillance.
• Controllers get aircraft position information
• from radars
• from pilots’ own position reports and
• from updations by other controllers.
• Radar information, which is very accurate, is
presented on a monitor display to the controllers.
• Pilots’ own position reports and updation
information from other controllers are noted
down on what are called flight strips.
• Flight strips are carefully studied to get a mental
picture of the traffic situation
• In the present days, computers are used to
receive position information from all the sources
and present a collated picture of position
information of each aircraft on a monitor display.
• Such systems are known by various names like
“Flight Data Processing System”, “ATC
automation” etc.
• Software improvements give further information
like prediction of conflict on short term or long
term basis to alert the controllers, thereby
mitigating mental stress for them
• As the traffic levels increase, stress on the controllers
also increases due to increased voice interaction.
• As technology progressed, newer methods of
surveillance were devised to cope with controllers’
stress.
• Aircrafts are being fitted with a system by which the
position information is transmitted to the controllers in
data format automatically at an agreed periodicity, as
against the conventional system of controllers
interacting with pilots for position reports.
• Data transmission can be done through VHF or satellite
medium. This system of periodic automatic
transmission of position information by the aircraft in
data form to controllers is known as Automatic
Dependent Surveillance (ADS).
• Radar control:
 Since radar information is the most accurate, radar
control is used as for possible to provide ATC
service.
 Radar control service provides safety combined
with efficient handling of traffic.
 Separations can be reduced without jeopardizing
safety and hence more aircraft can be handled in
the same volume.

Procedural control:
 relies on the position information provided by the
pilots and other controllers.
 This reporting is not continuous and hence the
controllers have to work out the positions of the
aircrafts in between the reporting by mental
calculations.
CPDLC (Controller to pilot data link communication):
• Similarly, to avoid voice stress to the pilots and the
controllers, as well as to eliminate problems due to
variations in regional accents, a digital communication
system has been evolved.
• A majority of the ATC conversations have been
formatted for digital or data communication between
the two.
• Such data communication can be implemented through
VHF or satellite medium.
• On-board computers and ATC computers facilitate
formatting and decoding air-ground ATC data
communication.
• This system is known as CPDLC (Controller to pilot data
link communication).
• ADS and CPDLC have their utilities but they
are not used in all situations.
• In the landing and take off phases, invariably
voice communication and radar control are
used, as the responding time in these
situations is small.
• Also use of satellite medium puts a lot of cost
on the navigation service provider as well as
the airlines.
• Therefore, generally ADS and CPDLC are used
during cruising phase in which data exchange
frequency can be reduced.
• English is the language used universally for air
traffic control service.
• It is necessary that controllers and pilots
understand each others’ talks completely to avoid
safety hazards due to misunderstandings.
• ICAO has in the recent past made it mandatory
for pilots and controllers to acquire a specified
level of proficiency in aviation English, as a part of
their job requirement.
• CPDLC helps to eliminate the situations of
misunderstandings, which may happen during
voice communication.