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Flow Control - ECFMP Integration


Kieran Hardern

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For over a year, the UK has been participating in a Europe-wide flow control coordination system called 'ECFMP'. In discord, you will see us occasionally posting in the "procedure_changes" channel with a Flow Control measure issued via this system. It allows us to request/issue traffic limitations to each other for the purpose of easing pressure on airports or sectors during events.

As of today, the ECFMP group have launched a new web interface where these measures are issued. With that comes integration with discord, so that flow measures issued to the UK will now be sent straight into the new "flow_measures" channel. I'd encourage controllers (especially area controllers) to subscribe to notifications from this channel.

Some of the measures you may see for departing traffic.

  • Minimum Departure Interval - where matching flights must wait a certain interval between each departure
  • Average Departure Interval - where matching flights must wait and interval between each departure, averaged over 3 departures
  • Rate Per Hour - where matching flights are limited to a number per hour (starting and ending at :00)

For traffic in the air:

  • Miles in Trail - presenting traffic to the next sector at least a certain number of NM behind each other
  • Speed restrictions/reductions - Mach restrictions apply at FL280 and above and IAS at 270 and below (unless otherwise specified in the meausre). If pilot reports the reduction/limit is below their clean speed, issue their minimum clean speed instead
    • Max IAS - maximum IAS on transfer to next sector
    • Max Mach - maximum Mach on transfer to next sector
    • IAS reduction - traffic to be reduced in speed as soon as possible by a certain amount (e.g. reduced by 30 knots IAS)
    • Mach reduction - traffic to be reduced in speed as soon as possible by a certain amount (e.g. reduced by 0.03 Mach)

For either airborne or ground traffic:

  • Mandatory Route - where traffic either must file via a certain route OR is being re-routed to another route
  • Prohibit - where a certain route is limited and should be changed (may be at certain flight levels, or via certain waypoints)

Long term, we will be looking to integrate some of the new ECFMP features via the UK Controller Plugin.

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