In the future, air traffic controllers will no longer sit in the tower, but will operate from control centres that are sometimes hundreds of kilometres away. From here, they will monitor traffic from several airports - even simultaneously. The "OMNyFlug" project shows how they can focus on the right aircraft.

At regional and small airports, the volume of traffic is usually marginal apart from the daily peaks in the morning and afternoon. The idle times and the associated low income, e.g. at night, are offset by high costs for the air traffic controllers deployed. To counter the cost pressure, several initiatives are working on centralising air traffic control for small and regional airports. The aim is to establish a so-called multi-remote airport control tower (multi-RTO) and to implement the necessary technologies in a single control centre (multi-RTO centre). In addition to new technological approaches, the implementation of such remote control requires new tasks for air traffic controllers and supervisors.

The research project focussed on the prototypical development of two planning tool components - one for air traffic controllers and one for supervisors. The software solution developed in the project enables the effective distribution of air traffic controller resources in multi-remote tower operations. It uses a new type of planning and optimisation tool that reduces idle times and personnel costs. This could significantly strengthen the competitiveness of regional and small airports.

The "OMNyFlug" project was funded by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport Affairs (BMDV) with a total of around 495,000 euros as part of the mFUND innovation initiative.

In addition to the project coordinator HFC Human-Factors-Consult, the project partners were the company m-click.aero. The project will be successfully completed in December 2022 after running for around three years. The closing event will take place on Friday, 16 December 2022, from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m., via Zoom.

About the mFUND funding programme of the BMDV

With the mFUND innovation initiative, the BMDV has been funding data-based research and development projects for the digital and connected mobility of the future since 2016. Project funding is complemented by active professional networking between stakeholders from politics, business, administration and research. Open data is made available via the Mobilithek. Further information can be found at www.mFUND.de.