ENAIRE prepares the summer of 2019 with measures that will expedite air traffic in Barcelona

ENAIRE's Air Control Centre in Barcelona is responsible for managing 266,000 square kilometres of airspace

The Government delegate in Catalonia, Teresa Cunillera, visited ENAIRE's Air Control Centre in Barcelona to learn first-hand about the work carried out by the air traffic controllers and the measures that ENAIRE is working on to expedite air traffic in Easter and during the summer of 2019.

Cunillera was accompanied by Laura Garcés, director of ENAIRE in the Eastern Region; and Sonia Corrochano, director of the Barcelona-El Prat Airport, as well as air force and Spanish Civil Guard officers.

ENAIRE is gradually adding operational and technical improvements in the airspace and in Barcelona-El Prat Airport through its Atenea office by introducing new, relevant operational and technological developments that allow adjusting the capacity of the airport as it grows until 2026, while managing traffic securely, efficiently and punctually.

Atenea is framed within the ambitious “BCN a Punt” initiative presented by the Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Transport and Housing and Chairman of ENAIRE, Pedro Saura, on 29 November. It includes all the actions aimed at improving the management of air traffic flow in the Barcelona-El Prat Airport, and these are being coordinated together with the Ministry of Public Works, Aena, the Directorate General for Civil Aviation and EUROCONTROL.

Among the measures designed by ENAIRE to expedite air traffic, the following particularly stand out:

- New functions in the air traffic management systems, such as the presentation of speed specified in the radar label (IAS), which helps manage consecutive landings without having to confirm this information with the pilot, and the adjustment and separation of wake turbulence (RECAT)

- Time Based Separation (TBS) in airport approximation, which is supplemented by the improvements made to the arrival and departure managers (AMAN and DMAN)

- The recent implementation of cardless operations in Barcelona-El Prat's control tower, as a preliminary step towards the adoption in 2019 of the controller-pilot digital data link (D-DCL, Datalink departure clearance) communications service. This will improve landing authorisations and complete the new functionalities in the airport's Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) system with Aena, EUROCONTROL, the airlines and ENAIRE

- Improved airspace sector capacity, making the most of the new data link functions already implemented in 2018, which reduce the pilot-controller communications and improve the coordination between en route sectors and the terminal manoeuvring area

- New tools for air traffic management that, thanks to the prediction techniques, will help improve air traffic flows

- Spain-France airspace interface improvements, in close collaboration with EUROCONTROL and DSNA, the French air navigation service provider

- Improvements in tools for predicting bad weather conditions and reinforcement of coordination procedures with air operators and the airport

About ENAIRE’s Eastern Region

851 professionals work in the Eastern Region, of which 554 are air traffic controllers.

From ENAIRE's Air Control Centre in Barcelona, which is the venue of the Eastern Region Directorate, 266,000 square kilometres of airspace comprising Catalonia, the Valencian Region, the Balearic Islands and the Region of Murcia are operated. 953,070 flights travelled through this area, called ENAIRE's Eastern Region, in 2018, 4.2% more than in 2017. On 28 July 2018, the all-time record of flights managed in a day was broken, reaching 3,821.

The following are the main air traffic flows managed from the Air Control Centre in Barcelona: Eastern Region-United Kingdom, Germany-the Balearic Islands, the Balearic Islands-United Kingdom, Central Region-Eastern Region and France-Morocco.

About ENAIRE

ENAIRE is the company belonging to the Public Works Department that handles air navigation in Spain. It renders aerodrome control services at 21 airports, including those with the most traffic.

All aircraft crossing the airspace assigned to our country receive communications, navigation and surveillance services using ENAIRE's modern network of facilities, consisting of:

5 control centres, 2 terminal area control centres, 308 radio aids providing en-route airport guidance and approach support, 54 en-route, approach and surface surveillance systems, 130 communications centres (combining transmitter/receiver centres and control towers), 100 REDAN voice and data communication nodes for air navigation applications, 126 control tower posts, and 153 control centre posts.

In 2018 ENAIRE operated 2.1 million flights to and from four continents (Europe, America, Asia and Africa), transporting 300 million passengers.