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SESAR 2020 Exploratory Research Project

APACHE is a European research project of the first wave of SESAR 2020 Exploratory Research actions that aim at contributing to the modernisation of air traffic management in Europe. These projects are funded by the SESAR Joint Undertaking within the framework of SESAR 2020 and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The project is carried out by an international consortium formed by UPC (Project Coordinator), ALG, UB-FTTE and ENAC. It started on May 9th 2016 and will run for 2 years. 

Air transportation is a complex system involving different stakeholders (such as airlines, airports, regulation agencies, air navigation service providers, network manager, etc.) and with different (sometimes conflicting) interests or priorities. Air traffic management (ATM) encompasses operational procedures and human and technological resources devoted to safely guide aircraft through the sky and on the airports, and to manage airspace in such a way it can accommodate as much as possible the changing needs of air traffic over time.

ATM is crucial for a safe and efficient air transportation system and must be continuously monitored and improved with new technological advances or enhanced operational procedures. ATM is evolving to a performance-driven service-oriented system and measuring the ATM performance as a whole is an ambitious and complex challenge. In this context, different key performance areas (KPAs) must be taken into account, such as safety, flight efficiency, environmental impact, airspace capacity, air navigation service cost-effectiveness, predictability of flights, etc. and novel metrics must be seek in order to properly capture performance in each area. 

APACHE aims at providing advanced simulation, optimisation and assessment tools with the objective to measure ATM performance and capture the complex interdependencies among different KPAs. Enhanced and new metrics will be developed to assess not only current ATM operations, but also aiming to future operational contexts in line with SESAR 2020+ activities.