A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/434417
TIME BASED FLOW MANAGEMENT TBFM NATCA TBFM Rep Eric Owens 22 NextGen Now | Winter 2014 Time Based Flow Management (TBFM) is a scheduling tool that is designed to meter aircraft through all phases of flight in order to deliver the correct number of aircraft to airspace sectors and down to the runway at the exact pace at which the aircraft can be accommodated. This scheduling provides air traffic controllers better predictability on airspace use, helping to optimize the traffic stream of aircraft into capacity-constrained areas. Improvements in TBFM's core Time Based Metering capability and its trajectory modeler, an expansion of TBFM and its departure capabilities to additional locations, and enhancements to TBFM's departure capabilities, will enhance efficiency and optimize demand and capacity. Lockheed Martin produced the system, which is installed in all FAA en route centers. Improvements will also be made to enable controllers to more accurately deliver aircraft to the TRACON facility while providing the opportunity for aircraft to fly optimized descents. More efficient flight paths also provide a benefit of having the potential to reduce fuel burn and emissions. A TBFM success story can be found in Fort Lauderdale, where a runway closure due to construction forced controllers to a single runway operation. They effectively used TBFM to schedule arrivals and made the operation run smoothly while the second runway was under construction. "When they turned it on it was very effective in spreading out the delays instead of using miles in trail," said NATCA TBFM Representative Eric Owens. As of October 1, 2014 18 airports have been adapted for Adjacent Center Metering (ACM), 38 airports have been adapted for TBFM use and one TRACON has Ground Based Interval Management-Spacing (GIM-S). TBFM Hardware has been deployed to 20 centers, 25 TRACONs, and 30 towers. Owens was recently in Los Angeles working on a key site for integrated departure arrival capability. "It is a scheduling tool for the tower to schedule departures without having to do any verbal coordination with center or TRACON," he said.