EUROCONTROL Study of Barcelona Airport Operations and Related Airspace

ANEXO 689/301

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DOCUMENT CHARACTERISTICS
TITLE

EUROCONTROL study of Barcelona Airport

Operations and Related Airspace, Summer 2018
Edition Number Edition Date Author
Edition 01.00 03/04/2019 DECMA/RTD/APT
Final Barcelona Airport Operations and Related Airspace Study, Summer 2018

EUROCONTROL Support to States: AG-4-18-DGCA-SS-1 (dated 26th November 2018).

STATUS, AUDIENCE AND ACCESSIBILITY

Status Intended for Accessible via
Working Draft  General Public  Intranet 
Draft  EUROCONTROL  Extranet 
Proposed Issue  Restricted  Internet 
Released Issue 

Copyright Notice: No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise.
@2019 The European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL) – All rights reserved

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CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE REPORT ...................................................................................................... i

1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Context of the Study ........................................................................................... 1
1.2 Scope .................................................................................................................. 1
1.3 Methodology ....................................................................................................... 1
1.4 Report Structure ................................................................................................. 2

2. BARCELONA OPERATIONAL CONTEXT ........................................................... 3

2.1 Airport ................................................................................................................. 3
2.2 Terminal Airspace ............................................................................................... 7
2.3 En-route and Neighbouring Airspace................................................................. 9

3. WHAT HAPPENED IN SUMMER 2018: HEADLINES ....................................... 11

4. “BENCHMARK” COMPARISON ......................................................................... 17

5. DETAILED ANALYSIS ......................................................................................... 21

5.1 AIRPORT AND AIRSPACE OPERATIONS ........................................................ 21
5.1.1 Airport ............................................................................................................... 21
5.1.2 Terminal Airspace ............................................................................................. 27
5.1.3 En-route and Neighbouring Airspace............................................................... 32
5.2 ANALYSIS PER ATM DELAY ISSUE ................................................................. 35
5.2.1 Weather ............................................................................................................. 35
5.2.2 Industrial Action................................................................................................ 39
5.2.3 ATC Staffing ...................................................................................................... 42
5.2.4 ATC Capacity .................................................................................................... 46
5.2.5 Environment...................................................................................................... 47
5.2.6 Use of Regulation ............................................................................................. 49
5.3 PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT...................................................................... 51
5.3.1 ENAIRE.............................................................................................................. 51
5.3.2 AENA ................................................................................................................. 53
5.3.3 Airline Performance and Reactionary Delay .................................................... 57

6. RECOMMENDATIONS CONSOLIDATED BY STAKEHOLDER ...................... 64

6.1 Prioritised Recommendations .......................................................................... 64
6.2 Consolidated by Stakeholder ........................................................................... 65
6.2.1 DGCA................................................................................................................. 65
6.2.2 ENAIRE.............................................................................................................. 65
6.2.3 AENA ................................................................................................................. 68
6.2.4 AIRLINES........................................................................................................... 68

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EXECUTIVE REPORT

INTRODUCTION

In summer 2018, there was a significant deterioration in the regularity and continuity of
air traffic operations at Barcelona-El Prat airport, which led to a significant delays and a
reduction in the quality of service.
From a European perspective, traffic in 2018 increased more than 3% compared to 2017,
following year-on-year growth of more than 2% over the previous 5 years. 2018
registered a historic traffic peak of 37000 flights (with 30,000 flights per day on average)
which represents 4,000 more flights per month than in 2012.
The performance deterioration was not exclusive to Barcelona -El Prat as the total
European Network delay increased 61.2% on 2017. The impact of this performance
deterioration was constant flight delays (double those of 2017) and cancellations.
The main issues leading to poor performance included adverse weather conditions, lack
of ATC capacity, ATC staffing, and ATC industrial action, mainly in France.
With the aim of preparing an independent and comprehensive diagnosis of the causes
that led to the poor performance at Barcelona-El Prat airport and identifying measures
to improve operations in the short term (summer 2019) and the medium-long term, the
General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) commissioned a study from
EUROCONTROL in the autumn of 2018.
Among other issues, this study looks at the operations at the airport and its surrounding
airspace, the procedures used by airlines, the capacity of air traffic control and airport
infrastructure, the weather and human resources (ATCO rostering scheme).
The main stakeholders at Barcelona-El Prat were consulted, including: ENAIRE, AENA,
the major airlines (Vueling and EasyJet), the airline association ALA as well as the
National Supervisory Agency, AESA.
EUROCONTROL’s study methodology began with an analysis of available
EUROCONTROL information, including the Central Office for Delay Analysis (CODA)
and the Performance Review Unit (PRU).
Following this analysis, interviews were prepared and conducted with the main
stakeholders. The working meetings took place in the months of November 2018 and
January 2019.

The study is presented in 6 sections:

Section 1: Introduction provides an overview of the analysis, the scope and the
methodology used in its preparation are detailed.
Section 2: Barcelona-El Prat Operational Context details the environmental factors
that determine operations at the airport.
Section 3: What Happened in the Summer of 2018? provides a diagnosis of the
causes that had an impact on airport operations during the summer of 2018.
Section 4: Benchmarking provides a comparison of the airport’s operational key
performance indicators to other European airports in the summer of 2018, such as
London Gatwick, Munich etc. that operate with comparable runway configurations.

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Section 5: Detailed Analysis examines in-depth the various causes that motivated
this situation and provides recommendations for each of the problems d etected.
Section 6: Recommendations are summarised by actor and prioritised, highlighting
those to be implemented in the short term, i.e. for the upcoming 2019 summer season,
and in the medium-long term.

BARCELONA-EL PRAT OPERATIONAL CONTEXT

Barcelona-El Prat airport does not operate in its optimal runway configuration for
environmental reasons
Barcelona-El Prat was originally designed to operate with a configuration of independent
parallel runways in mixed mode, which would permit a maximum of 90 movements per
hour, pursuant to the provisions of its Master Plan. The construction project has a formal
Positive Environmental Assessment.
After the inauguration of the third runway in 2004, the special geographic location of the
airport and proximity to urban centres led to environmental concerns raised by
neighbouring populations. This made it necessary to establish a new runway-operating
configuration, applicable as long as demand is satisfied by the capacity offered under
this new configuration.
The new configuration was significantly different from the one laid-out in the airport
Master Plan’s original design.
For noise reduction, this new configuration requires the use of the short runway for
departures and the long runway for arrivals only, which is the oppo site of normal practice.
Such a configuration complicates the management of aircraft movements on the airport’s
surface area (for example numerous crossing points, opposite direction flows, lack of
holding areas at runway ends) with a negative impact on airport capacity, currently
declared at 78 movements per hour in the daytime period.
Furthermore, due to their performance, wide body departing aircraft are unable to use
the departure runway, and have to use the longer runway (used for landings). This
interferes in the arrival runway’s operation and with an increasing trend in these types of
(long-haul) operations, they will continue to have an adverse effect on capacity.
As well as the daytime environmental restrictions, night-time restrictions are imposed
from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., longer than most other European airports (almost 1.5 hours
more). This is another negative factor. Importantly, the night-time runway configuration
reduces airport capacity from 78 to 48 movements per hour.
Barcelona Area Centre manages a complex airspace, which is highly influenced
by traffic operations in nearby airports and by close proximity to France
The airspace surrounding the airport is highly complex, with traffic flows at nearby
airports (Reus, Lleida, Sabadell, Girona), and the Balearic Islands, included together with
the Barcelona-El Prat operations. This complexity has an impact on the workload of air
traffic controllers and negatively influences the capacity of the system.
Furthermore, the proximity of the French airspace boundary increases complexity.
Controllers have to sequence a large amount of traffic to and from France (approximately
70% of the airport’s traffic) in the airspace near Barcelona-El Prat airport, which requires
a smooth coordination and sharing of information with the control centres in Marseille
and Bordeaux.
The sectors in the Barcelona Control Centre (airspace is divided into volumes, called
sectors, to which air traffic controllers are assigned) are not optimised for current day
traffic evolution.

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Sector openings are planned well before the day of operation so are often not adapted
to manage actual traffic flows at certain moments, resulting in a lack of flexibility to absorb
peak traffic demand.
In the en-route airspace managed by Barcelona Control Centre, there is a need to
improve coordination with adjacent French airspace. Currently, there is a single point of
exchange of traffic between France and Barcelona airspace, causing significant
bottlenecks.
A need to make progress in improving the use of flexible use of airspace, equitable and
collaborative sharing of airspace between civil and military users, was also identified.

SUMMER 2018 DIAGNOSIS

In summer 2018, the problems experienced in the European network had a significant
influence on the performance at Barcelona-El Prat airport. As well as capacity difficulties
in Central Europe and ATC industrial action in France (Marseille), an overall increase of
network regulations (capacity limitations) due to adverse weather, ATC capacity and
staffing shortages, all had a negative influence on the airport’s operations.
At Barcelona-El Prat airport and in its surrounding airspace, the main local causes of
delay were significant adverse weather, delays resulting from the additional time needed
to implement the BRAIN project, the lack of ATC capacity (unavailability of ATCOs, staff
rostering scheme, etc.) and certain environmental restrictions.
All of these issues, together with tight schedules operated by the main Barcelona -El Prat
based airlines, and the low level of resilience to disruptions of their daily schedules,
resulted in delay that accumulated throughout the day (reactionary delay) and that, on
occasion, reached up to 80 minutes on the last flights of the day.
In this situation, the remaining aircraft operations of the day arrived very late, which in
turn affected the next day’s early morning operations, mainly due to difficulties in
completing night time maintenance and the allocation of appropriate airport facilities.
With the first wave of the day and environmental restrictions overlapping, any operational
issues from late night arrival, maintenance and airport facilities contributed to a disrupted
‘first wave’ with a negative impact on operations throughout the rest of the day.

The following section summarises each of the delay causes:

Poor European Network performance due to lack of capacity and staff, industrial
action, and adverse weather
In 2018, the operation across the European air transport network, with traffic growth
above 3.5% and a traffic record in September 2018 that amounted to 37,100 flights, was
the worst in recent years. This particularly affected Barcelona-El Prat airport because of
its geographical location and connections with other northern Europe airports. Delays in
the network due to regulations1 increased by 64% compared to the same period in 2017.
With more than 50% of departures at Barcelona-El Prat airport bound for northern
Europe, the ATC industrial action that took place in the summer (mainly in Marseille) and
ATC capacity and staffing problems in Marseilles and Karlsruhe (Germany) had a
negative impact on the operations of the main airlines at the airport (Vueling and
EasyJet).
As can be seen in the figure I, below, the impact on delays caused by the European
network at Barcelona-El Prat airport was 57%.

1
An air traffic regulation is applied in order to avoid exceeding airport or air traffic control capacity in handling traffic .

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Between June and September 2018, the impact of adverse weather alone, increased by
70% in Europe compared to the same period of the previous year.
Adverse weather at Barcelona-El Prat had a major impact on delays during the
summer of 2018. Bad weather at the airport was the single biggest delay generator last
summer, accounting for 47% of delays due to daily regulations 2 at Barcelona-El Prat.
This resulted in numerous weather regulations set by ENAIRE, which contribu ted to the
delays at the airport. Such regulations are conservative in nature, designed to protect
airspace from overloading and the lack of precise meteorological forecasting and
predictive tools contributed to the cautious approach.
Delayed implementation of the BRAIN project. The BRAIN project, whose main aim
was to increase throughput and reduce the workload of controllers in the guidance of
aircraft on their final approach, had a longer period of adaptation than expected
(extended to end July 2018). Its initial timeframe was optimistic. This led to a reduction
in capacity, causing 14% of airport delays (again due to regulation).
The lack of ATC capacity and related regulation. The complexity of the airspace,
traffic flows in nearby airports (Reus, Lleida, Sabadell, Girona) and the Balearic Islands
managed by Barcelona Centre, the interaction with the adjacent French control centres,
and conservative regulation measures, to protect ATC against traffic overloads due to
lack of ATC capacity, resulted in additional delay to Barcelona-El Prat operations.
Environmental Restrictions constrain the effective capacity of the airport. Several
environmental restrictions are in place at Barcelona-El Prat that impede efficient runway
operations and have an effect on the capacity of the system. The original design of the
runways would provide greater capacity than that currently declared.
Although the declared capacity is sufficient for night-time operations at the airport in
normal conditions and without the summer disruption, it caused additional delay for those
aircraft that accumulated delays throughout the day, which arrive when capacity is
reduced to night-time levels.
This situation posed additional complications to accommodate such aircraft that arrived
after 11:00 pm (some with up to 80 minutes in additional delays).

Figure i. Distribution of minutes of delay due to regulations on Barcelona-El Prat operations

2
Adverse weather regulations consist of retaining aircraft at the airport of origin long enough to prevent them from having
to hold (wait) in the air before landing as a result of severe weather conditions when they approach the destination airport.

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The schedules of the main Barcelona-El Prat based airlines need greater
“resilience”, which, due to the nature of their “low cost model” (turnaround times are
35-40 minutes, although the main Barcelona carrier’s turnaround times for the entire
2018 season were 58 minutes) have serious difficulty to recover from external disruption.
Even considering the backup aircraft positioned in Barcelona (the main carrier alone had
seven aircraft on stand-by, a significant investment) the significant disruption
experienced in summer 2018 contributed to delays that accumulated throughout the day,
making it difficult, if not impossible, for the companies to recover.
The poor execution of the first wave of the day had an impact on the performance
of the airport throughout the rest of the day. Despite having implemented mitigation
measures, the main carrier, with 39% of the total movements at the airport and a majority
share of the first wave operation, suffered challenges throughout the summer. This
included handling problems resulting from a number of issues including late arrival of its
delayed aircraft on the previous day resulting from reactionary delays, aircraft
maintenance and airport facilities issues.
The main Barcelona carrier had difficulty tracking its aircraft maintenance
processes and being aware of allocated gates. Changes in the airline’s maintenance
schedule, and apparent problems with internal communication, resulted in difficulties in
complying with AENA’s assignment of resources (gates), which led to inefficient
operation of the first departure flights the following day. The airline worked with AENA to
improve this situation to mitigate the issue of delayed departures which was linked to
reactionary delay driving aircraft changes and subsequent gate changes.
There was a lack systematic communication between the different actors (AENA,
ENAIRE, airlines, handling agents), which negatively affected planning and the ability to
anticipate and act on potential disruptions during the day.
Better communication with airlines through regular daily briefings as in other European
airports (such as London) to inform and update on disruption to operations, how
regulation may be applied, their duration and severity, would have greatly helped
companies and their ground handling agents to adapt their operations more efficiently.

RECOMMENDATIONS

This study proposes recommendations for the improvement of operations at Barcelona-

El Prat airport across two-time frames: short-term measures aimed at enhancing the
operation at the airport during next summer and medium to long -term actions.
GOVERNANCE

The recommendations are assigned to the main parties involved in the operation of the
airport (AENA, ENAIRE and Airlines) and to the DGCA. The DGCA, through an
appropriate governance structure, will be the body in charge of establishing the plan to
implement and monitor compliance of the short-term measures.
There are two main areas of recommendations: structural measures aimed at reducing
delays in order to optimise the airport’s capacity, and improvements, aimed at enhancing
the different actors responses in the event of unforeseen events.

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RECOMMENDATIONS AIMED AT REDUCING STRUCTURAL DELAYS

The Main measures aimed at reducing delays include:

 airspace design and procedure modifications,
 improvements in runway occupancy times,
 reductions in separation of arrivals,
 improvements in analysis and prediction tools for the reduction of regulations (for
meteorological and ATC reasons)
 the reinforcement of human resources to improve ATC capacity, and technical
improvements, such as the introduction of a data link for aircraft departure
clearance authorisation.

RECOMMENDATIONS AIMED AT IMPROVING RESPONSE OF STAKEHOLDERS

The measures aimed at enhancing stakeholders responses to unforeseen events

include:
 the establishment of contingency scenarios and the reinforcement (by the
airlines) of human and technical resources to improve their resilience in the face
of disruptive events,
 improvement in the processes of airport facilities allocation and management,
 improvement of the airport collaboration decision-making process (A-CDM) and

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 improved communication between actors through daily meetings (conference

calls) to brief stakeholders on potential issues expected during the day and to
coordinate mitigation measures in the event of disruption to daily operations.
The proposed recommendations target delay reductions and improvements in response
to disruption. The implementation of more accurate weather prediction tools is expected
to help reduce the high percentage of delays due to adverse weather that occurred in
2018.
The delays incurred during the 2018 implementation of the BRAIN project were a “one-
off” event and BRAIN will provide airspace and runway throughput efficiency benefits in
2019. Delay is expected to decrease through improvement in airspace structure,
operational procedures, runway occupancy times and optimised allocation of human
resources.
The implementation of measures aimed at improving actors response will help airlines
by reinforcing their resilience to external disruptive factors.
However, as indicated in the report, 2019 Network delays in Europe are expected to be
similar to 2018 and, as a consequence, will continue to negatively impact operations at
Barcelona-El Prat. The implementation of the recommendations is expected to help
stakeholders mitigate known issues and manage disr uption, resulting in a better
operation during the summer season of 2019.
The following tables consolidate a more detailed explanation of the recommendations,
which include the Actor, the Recommendation, its Priority and the time Horizon of
application (ordered by Actor and Priority).

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SUMMARY OF STRUCTURAL RECOMMENDATIONS AIMED AT REDUCING DELAYS

Actors Recommendation Priority Horizon

Develop processes and tools (SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely) that improve the methodology
ENAIRE for the establishment of regulations due to adverse weather and implement short and medium-term weather prediction High Short
tools, making use of new technologies. Reduced and SMART Regulation is a goal of the Network Manager.
Develop processes (SMART) that improve the establishment and reduce the number of ATC capacity regulations. The
ENAIRE recommendation proposes an exhaustive analysis of ATC regulations established last summer, with the aim of avoiding the High Short
application of over-conservative regulations during the following season.
Implement enhanced BRAIN procedures, ensuring full coordination with and in-depth understanding of all actors. The
recommendation proposes measure to ensure greater efficiency, increased systemisation and improved adherence to BRAIN
ENAIRE High Short
procedures (includes waypoints, reduced flight levels bands, guidance on distance to touch down, standard phraseology
etc.) This recommendation is complementary to that on “runway occupancy time” management.
Reduce runway occupancy times (ROT) for aircraft landing at the airport. The measure requires a monitored and
performance driven process to be agreed with airlines to reduce runway occupancy. Normalised runway occupancy times
and preferential runway exit points should be published; currently they are variable and have a negative effect on arrival
capacity (implemented at airports such as Gatwick and Vienna).
ENAIRE High Short
Runway occupancy can be further reduced by defining separation minima for aircraft grouped by categories based on
runway occupancy, taking account of wake vortex minima. The separation applied would be larger of radar minima, wake
turbulence or runway occupancy time. This recommendation is complementary to that on BRAIN procedures and minimum
radar separation.
Reduce the minimum radar separation distance between arrivals in the approach sequence from the current value of 3 miles
to 2.5 miles, thus increasing the number of arriving aircraft per hour, which will diminish the disruption caused by wide-body
ENAIRE High Long
departing aircraft operating non-preferential departures from the arrival runway (implemented at airports such as Gatwick,
and Vienna). This recommendation is complementary to that on BRAIN procedures and runway occupancy.

Implement the planned modifications to the current airspace sectors (both en-route, and in the terminal airspace around
ENAIRE the airport) to improve the management of air traffic flows that cross the airspace, with greater flexibility than the current High Short/long
rigid historical structure.

Improve coordination processes with the adjacent Bordeaux En-route Control Centre by increasing the number of transfer
ENAIRE points between the control centres, which will improve air traffic flows between France and Spain, reducing airspace High Short
complexity and providing a positive impact on controller work load and airspace related delays.

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Actors Recommendation Priority Horizon

Implement the planned departure clearance data link, which will improve clearance delivery access for pil ots and reduce
radio frequency congestion. In the event the data clearance cannot be deployed in 2019, implement a second departure
ENAIRE clearance delivery position and frequency to reduce frequency congestion and ensure timely access to departure clearances. High Short
Airlines must make maximum use of this facility once implemented.
Systematically identify and reallocate adequate numbers of air traffic control staff to peak traffic periods by identifying when
ENAIRE a fewer controllers can be allocated to l ess busy periods of the day, rescheduling the staff accordingly. This is an important High Short
quick win step to ensure the optimum number of resources are allocated to manage peak demand in summer 2019.
Modify the staff rostering scheme in the Control Centre by implementing a flexible demand based rostering scheme in order
ENAIRE High Long
to obtain a greater availability of resources during peak demand hours (implemented at control centres such as Maastricht).

Modify the standard instrument departure routes (SID) to enable reduced separation between successive take-offs by
ENAIRE implementing Performance Based Navigation SIDs, improving capacity whilst respecting noise abatement requirements Normal Short
(implemented at airports such as Edinburgh and Brussels).
Improve the update of estimated arrival times of flights that cross the France-Spain border inbound to Barcelona-El Prat, to
ENAIRE ensure that the established arrival sequence to the airport (established by the Arrival Management system) is stable, correct Normal Short
and does not have to be manually by the controller due to incorrect times thus reducing unnecessary controller workload.

ENAIRE Enhance coordination between ENAIRE and the Ministry of Defence, to review agreements on the flexible use of airspace. Normal Long

Work closely with local authorities and interest groups to adjust the environmental restrictions currently in place, with the
AENA / particular aim of modifying the current daytime noise configuration restrictions to the enable design capacity of 90
High Medium
DGCA movements per hour through full independent parallel operations, as well as revising night-time hours to align with the
European average.
Modify the airport infrastructure by extending the length of runway 25L at the departure threshold (currently used for
AENA departing flight) to allow wide-body departures, mixed-mode operations and improving noise abatement by enabling an Normal Long
earlier turn over the sea on the standard instrument departures.

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SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS AIMED AT IMPROVING THE RESPONSE OF DIFFERENT STAKEHOLDERS

Actor Recommendation Priority Horizon

Establish an effective communication process with the other actors involved in the airport operation, through the
AENA implementation of daily meetings to anticipate possible problems, coordinating the necessary mitigation measures High Short
(implemented at airports such as London Heathrow and Amsterdam).
Establish a robust communication process to collaboratively manage airport key performance indicators, with regular
AENA reviews of post operation analysis with all the agents involved, establishing a coordinated approach to optimised Normal Long
airport performance.
Improve the allocation of airport resources and management processes, in particular, appropriate gate allocations
considering the needs of on time and late flights and passenger boarding (firstly with the main carrier), especially for
AENA / Airlines High Short
flights which land late during night-time hours, in order to improve the operation of the first departure wave next
day.
Following a deep analyse of 2018 issues, prepare appropriate airline human and technical resource in times for
summer 2019, with the aim of improving response times and schedule resilience to un foreseen circumstances,
Airlines High Short
operational disruption and reduced performance, due, for example, to poor weather, ATC industrial action, and lack
of ATC staff within the European network.
Collaborate with AENA and ENAIRE to properly implement the technical parameters and operational procedures
Airlines necessary to ensure the correct functioning of the Airport-Collaborative Decision Making process. EUROCONTROL Normal Short
proposes to support this work, bring its expertise of A-CDM and experience from other European CDM airports.
Promote, not only at Corporate level, but also amongst operational staff, a cultural change that is outcome oriented,
ENAIRE High Long
sharing with all staff members the performance objectives, observed results and continuous improvement measures.

Communicate post-operation analysis results from Corporate to Control staff levels, with the objective of
ENAIRE encouraging operational staff involvement in the effective application of corrective measures to improve the Normal Short
performance of air traffic services.

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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Context of the Study
In autumn 2018, the DGCA Spain requested EUROCONTROL to undertake a high level assessment
of Air Traffic Management (ATM), Air traffic Control (ATC), Airport and Airline performance at
Barcelona airport and the surrounding airspace.
This followed a challenging summer of delay and poor weather experienced in Barcelona,
exacerbated by staffing availability and industrial action in the European ATM Network.
The goals of the assessment set by the DGCA were to identify the key issues, understand the main
causes and effects, and define performance mitigations that can be implemented by summer 2019.
EUROCONTROL proposed a study that involved key airport stakeholders through questionnaires
and interviews, complemented by a network level performance analysis, to identify the key issues,
their cause and effect. A set of mitigation options were collected from stakeholders through the
questionnaires and during discussions. These were further elaborated by EUROCONTROL.
This report collates the findings of the high level assessment undertaken by EUROCONTROL and
sets out recommendations defined together with the key airport stakeholders to be considered for
implementation in early 2019.
The report is destined to be used by DGCA in consultation with stakeholders and government entities
to support a common stakeholder plan for operations in summer 2019. The stakeholder plan should
identify actions for each stakeholder, to be developed into individual action plans. The common plan
would be jointly monitored by stakeholders through a high level steering body chaired by DGCA.

1.2 Scope
As agreed with DGCA, the study scope includes operational performance, agreements, plans and
events, including weather, staffing and industrial action covering:
 Barcelona airport airside (stands, aprons, taxiways and runways), staffing, operational
procedures and working methods, of the key stakeholders namely ENAIRE, AENA and
selected Airlines.
 Related airspace in the Spanish FIR/UIR, neighbouring airspace and associated boundary
agreements, and
 The European Network.
Common Air Traffic Flow Management performance indicators were used as the basis for
assessment and in general these are expressed in minutes of delay. From a cost perspective, the
consensus reference rate for one minute of delay is 100 Euro.
For this study, the “summer period” is considered to be June 2018 through to end September 2018.
A number of activities and related measures that occurred in the period leading up to summer 2018
have been included to provide context.
Where possible, a comparison with 2017 performance is also provided.

1.3 Methodology
Considering the critical time path, EUROCONTROL undertook an initial assessment based on
readily available data and information from the EUROCONTROL Network Manager, Central Office
of Delay Analysis (CODA) and the Performance review Unit (PRU).

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This information was used to identify key themes for stakeholder questionnaires, to prepare
interviews and obtain analytics from stakeholders.
Barcelona stakeholders included ENAIRE (Air Navigation Service Provider - ANSP), AENA (airport
operator) and two main Airlines, Vueling and EasyJet, the Airlines Association who participated in
discussions over a two week period. The discussions were open and well prepared by stakeholders.
Two further discussions were held, one with ENAIRE Corporate and another with AESA, both in
Madrid.
Specific discussions on staffing and rostering were organised with ENAIRE management
representatives from Barcelona Tower, Area Control Centre and ENAIRE Corporate.
A second phase of the performance assessment is planned in 2019 and each task will report
independently. These complementary activities cover airspace changes, runway and airside
capacity, staffing and rostering, separation minima and an A-CDM health check. In general, they
will provide recommendations which are beyond implementation in summer 2019.

1.4 Report Structure

The following sections provide the operational context of Barcelona and the surrounding airspace, a
section summarising “what happened in Barcelona in summer 2018, the analysis of each of the
performance issues in terms of a network view, cause and effect, and recommendations.
A short summary of each chapter is described below:

1 Introduction This section provides the context of the study, its

scope and the methodology used.
2 Barcelona Operational The context section presents a high level view of
Context operations at Barcelona Airport, the Terminal
Airspace and the Area Control Centre.
3 What Happened in Summer This section pulls together the main headlines from
2018: Headlines summer 2018 to explain, in a summary view, what
happened.
4 Benchmark Comparison A short comparison with other airports is provided
using readily available information to contrast and
assess potential for future performance.
5 Detailed Analysis Detailed analysis is presented on airport, airspace
and specific ATM delay issues identified during
summer 2018 to further explain their contribution to
overall performance. Issues on use of regulation,
stakeholder performance management,
communication and reactionary delay are discussed.
6 Recommendations The recommendations (prioritised) are consolidated
Consolidated by Stakeholder by stakeholder covering both short term and long
terms findings of the study.
Annex 1: Abbreviations A list of the abbreviations used in the report are
provided.
Annex 2: ATENEA A high level view of the ENAIRE Strategic Capacity
Evolution Roadmap is provided.
GREEN colour coding is used to highlight priority recommendations considering their impact on:
delay reduction or management, the urgency to start preparation for implementation such as data
capture and analysis, and quick wins.

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2. BARCELONA OPERATIONAL CONTEXT

2.1 Airport
Constrained Design
Barcelona Airport has many challenges to its
day-to-day operation. The Barcelona airport
Master Plan and its construction project are
designed to operate independent parallel
runways in mixed mode (landing and
departing).
Today, the opposite and non-optimal
configuration is used due to local
environmental agreements; runway 25R for
arrivals and runway 25L for departures:
 Runway 25 Right (25R) departure
 Runway 25 Left (25L) arrival
 Runway 07 Left (07L) arrival Figure 1 Runway use, population areas and nature reserves
 Runway 07 Right (07R) departure
This non-optimal operation is due to the location of the population centres El Prat de Llobregat, Gavá
Mar and Castelldefels to the North and West of the airfield, in line with arrival and departure flight
paths.
This change in operation is significant since runway length is critical to aircraft operations. Runway
25L is the shorter of the two runways and is the preferential departure runway, an issue for certain
wide body aircraft types as the runway is too short (take off run available 2660m).
25R, the longer runway, is used for arriving traffic. Wide body departing aircraft (typically Boeing
B777, B787 and Airbus A330, A380) unable to use 25L also use 25R for departure, which interferes
with arrival sequences reducing runway throughput.
Aircraft departing runway 25R/07L are calculated to cost 3 arrival slots for every 2 departures.
The airport is also constrained by two nature
reserves to the east and west of the airport,
which constrain growth, in particular, the
short runway.
The current legally agreed maximum
throughput for Barcelona is 90 movements
per hour: 45 arrivals and 45 departures. This
theoretical throughput was based on the
original design use case with independent
parallel mixed mode runway operations; each
runway operating independently to its full
design capacity.
Figure 2: Nature Reserves
However, during summer 2018 and under the
current operational constraints, coordinated capacity was limited to a maximum of 76 movements
per hour. ENAIRE TMA capacity was 40 departures and 39 arrivals with no total limit. During peak
periods, traffic that had already been delayed may be planned to arrive together with the normal
scheduled traffic, resulting in the demand exceeding the declared capacity, necessitating arrival
holding and occasionally, regulation, to reduce pressure.

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The mix of aircraft types is important as it influences the separation minima used by Air Traffic Control
to separate arriving and departing flights. Larger aircraft require increased separation to ensure
safety for following aircraft types, typically to avoid wake turbulence generated by the larger leading
aircraft or to have sufficient time to clear the runway before the next aircraft lands.
The aircraft mix operating at Barcelona is primarily medium size ICAO category Percentage (%)
aircraft, typically Airbus A320 or Boeing B737 types. However, Heavy 7.73%
there is a trend to increasing numbers of wide body aircraft or B757 0.06%
heavy types.
Medium Jet 91.69%
This trend is expected to continue due to additional demand from Medium Turboprop 0.00%
Asia for access to Barcelona. Indeed, there is a third terminal
Light 0.53%
planned, dedicated to wide body aircraft.
This will naturally lead to an impact on runway throughput due to Figure 3: Barcelona Traffic Mix
increased separation requirements and greater taxiway complexity due to the larger wing span of
wide body aircraft.
Surface Movement Limitations
There are other limitations that impact Barcelona parking and surface movement operations from
complexity, controller workload and runway throughput perspectives. These include:
 Taxiway and stand limits, due either to wing tip clearance between taxiway and stands or
aircraft pushing back blocking the taxiway;
 Aircraft taxiing from terminal 2 to 25L/07R for departure, use a “by-pass” located at the
threshold of runway 07L, which interferes with departing aircraft on 25R;
 Aircraft taxiing from terminal 1 to 25R/07L for departure taxi against the natural flow of aircraft
that have landed on 25R/07L proceeding to terminal 1 requiring holding and longer taxing;
 Holding points for runway 25L/07R have insufficient space to be used for sequencing aircraft
on to the runway, in some cases aircraft cannot pass each other;
 Runway 25R/07L high speed exits (RETs) are not fully optimised to support the needed
runway occupancy time of less than 50 seconds, constraining runway throughput;
 Lack of suitable runway exits on runway 02, which means aircraft roll almost full length of the
runway before being able to exit, increasing runway occupancy and reducing throughput.
Noise Abatement
Night time noise procedures are driven by the local environmental agreements based on a capacity-
demand relationship which were feasible when agreed but today are particularly stringent.
Procedures have been prescribed for a night time preferential runway configuration which is enforced
from 2300 to 0700 local time.
Many European airports operate night time restrictions starting at 2300 but ending around 06:00.
The Barcelona restriction is particularly stringent, ending at 0700.
The change over from day to night and night to day capacity creates a complex operational challenge
for ATC as they need to implement a runway configuration change. Two configuration changes are:
 Day to night capacity (a reduction from 78 to 48 movements per hour) when arrivals use
runway 02, flying over the sea to avoid population areas. This involves a reduction of
available capacity at 2240 local time so ATC can manage the runway change transition,
creating environment delay, and
 Night to day capacity, increasing the number of movements but having to change the runway
configuration when the first morning departure wave is building.

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The night preferential runway configuration, presented in figure 1 above, is:

 Runway 07 Right (07R) departure
 Runway 02 arrival
Departures from runway 02/20 are prohibited at night due to the proximity of El Prat de Llobregat to
the North of the airfield; the use of the preferential configuration ensures that the arrival and
departure flight paths are over the sea, avoiding population areas.
The night preferential runway configuration has a reduced capacity of 48 movements per hour due
to runway occupancy issues on runway 02 and the interaction between arrival and departure flight
paths, at the threshold of runway 02.
Whilst the night-time configuration provides sufficient capacity for the agreed night time schedule,
plus a small buffer, during summer 2018, the compound effect of late returning flights suffering from
reactionary delay overlapped with the start of night preferential configuration and the associated
reduced capacity, resulting in longer recovery (clearly shown in Figure 27 and 28).
This reactionary delay impacted aircraft availability and maintenance schedules leading to difficulties
in scheduling aircraft to destination for the following day’s schedule.
Noise abatement and constrained runway operations carry on during day time operations. The
preferred Westerly runway configuration must be used continuously during day time operations until
the tailwind exceeds 10 knots.
For noise abatement and to avoid the town of Gavá Mar to the Southwest of the airfield, departures
from runway 25L must turn left towards the sea after passing 500 feet in the climb. Departures from
25R perform a conventional standard instrument departure (SID) following runway heading and
overflying Gavá-Mar and Castelldefels. Furthermore, the preferential runways are single mode
operation, i.e. runway 27R for arrival and runway 25L for departure.
This noise abatement procedure further limits the flexibility for ATC to fully use departure separation
minimum to optimise departure runway throughput.
Wide body departures unable to use runway 25L due to its short length have to depart from runway
25R. Any wide body departing aircraft unable to use 25L, require an exceptional approval , fully
justified by the airline, which is an encouragement to airlines to use newer high performance wide-
body aircraft capable to depart on the shorter 25L/07R runway.
Nevertheless, wide body departures are accepted on runway 25R, constraining the arrival sequence,
requiring a significant increase in separation with an associated reduction in runway throughput.
This is necessary since ATC are required to protect the departure and the next landing aircraft in the
event of a missed approach.
One concern to be discussed is the continued noise restriction on runway use during the day which
constrains runway throughput, potentially rendering the agreed target capacity infeasible. Most
airports operate noise abatement procedures at night, reducing or removing noise constraints during
daytime operations. Such an approach would bring benefits to Barcelona and provide a lever to a
reassessment of noise management at the airport.

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Distribution of Airlines Operating at Barcelona

The top ten airlines operating out of Barcelona
airport account for 71% of the overall traffic share,
and the Low Cost Carriers account for
approximately 60% of all operations.
The distribution by number of daily flights is Vueling
(39%), Ryanair (12%) and EasyJet (6%). Vueling
together with Iberia, Iberia express and BA, all IAG,
members, represents 45% of all traffic share.
Vueling, a low cost carrier, is the main Barcelona
carrier and user of Terminal 1 and its daily
operational performance can have a significant VLG RYR EZY DLH
influence on overall airport performance in the IBK IBE BAW AEA
event the airline suffers delay in the first departure EW G TAP OTHER
wave of the day.
A poor first wave departure performance by the Figure 4: Barcelona Traffic by Airline Summer 2018
main carrier at most European hubs frequently
results in bad performance later in the day due to a knock on effect (reactionary delay) that can
continue late into the night. This is discussed later.
AENA has worked together with the main airline, providing support focused on coordinating parking,
air bridge management and towing to remote stands to enhance terminal 1 performance, thus
facilitating improved operations for all airport users. Again, this is a common approach at major
airports where the airport operator will support the major carrier (s) to ensure overall airport
performance.
Future Plans
The original and regulatory approved design throughput of Barcelona is 90 aircraft per hour, evenly
distributed between arrival and departing movements. Given the current non -optimal operation
resulting from the change in use of the runways due to environmental concerns, achieving the design
throughput will be a significant challenge.
Both AENA and ENAIRE recognise that to move towards the original Barcelona design capacity,
new and innovative operational techniques and systems, and essential infrastructure changes will
be necessary.
The ENAIRE ATENEA (see annex 2) strategic 8 year vision lays down operational improvements to
support improved performance and additional capacity. One outstanding issue relates to the
different operational choices depending on how runway operational use will be in the future. Early
decisions on this are essential to the success of the solution proposed in ATENEA
The AENA Strategic Plan foresees a new terminal dedicated to long haul, wide body aircraft
equipped airlines. This reflects increasing demand for access to the airport from Asian carriers. This
new terminal is planned close to runway 25L with additional taxiways and increased holding area
also planned. Another by-pass taxiway route is planned, this time across the threshold of runway
25R which will likely result in a displaced threshold on that runway.
AENA expects to prioritise implementation of a parallel taxiway system to / from Terminal 1 and the
extended holding area at threshold runway 25L once plans are approved for the new terminal. This
is a critical priority which will remove bottleneck constraints close to the threshold o f runway 25L,
bringing relief to ATC operations and greater flexibility to swop aircraft in the departure sequence to
further optimise runway throughput.

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The increase in wide body aircraft types over the coming years should also be assessed on the
probable impact on runway throughput. The taxiway and holding bay infrastructure changes will
help ease the impact of additional wide body aircraft using Barcelona, potentially moderating their
impact on runway performance.

2.2 Terminal Airspace

Operational Summary
The Barcelona Terminal Airspace (TMA) is a complex
airspace due to the close proximity of the French
airspace boundary and the interaction with the regional
airports of Reus, Girona, Sabadell and Lleida.
TMA sectors:
 Manage traffic from America, Asia, Europe and
Spain (including the busy Balearic Islands);
 Are impacted by Visual Flight Rules (VFR) traffic,
pilot training at Reus and Lleida, parachute
jumping areas near Ampuriabrava and Manresa
areas and aerial photographic work. The
associated traffic is managed by existing sectors,
posing issues of ATC workload and frequency
congestion. A dedicated VFR Flight Information
Service (FIS) is not planned until 2025.
Figure 5: Barcelona Terminal Airspace (TMA)
 Comprise 4 sectors. T1
covering the Northeast
quadrant, T2 the Southeast,
T3 the Southwest and T4
the Northwest.
The sectors vary according
to the traffic flows which
depend on the airport
runway configuration i.e.
Westerly, easterly or night
time landing / departure
directions.
At peak hours during
summer 2018, demand was
regularly above ATM
capacity leading to
regulation to manage the
Figure 6: Example of Terminal Airspace Sectors West Runway
agreed demand, resulting in Configuration and Arrival and Departure Routes
delay.
 Girona, Reus, Lleida and Sabadell airport traffic can interfere with Barcelona Holding
Patterns SIDs and STARs, which adds further complexity to the TMA ATC operation.
 Some specific examples of complexity are:
o LEBLT3W (TMA sector T3 preferential westerly configuration) manages both arriving
and departing traffic; departures are usually vectored to provide separation which
adds workload. Arrival and departure traffic should be procedurally separated.

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o T1W (TMA sector T1 preferential westerly configuration) and T1N (preferential night
configuration) also provide approach services to Girona whilst T4W and T4N provide
approach services to Lleida airport;
o Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs) and Standard Arrival Routes (STARS) are
complex and some of these instrument routes interact with each other (cross).
70 % of traffic to Barcelona comes/goes from/through Marseille and Bordeaux Flight Information
Regions (FIRs) / Upper Information regions (UIRs). One issue is related to the French airspace
boundary which is only 80NM from Barcelona airfield. This short distance to Barcelona equalling
less than 15 minutes flying time means that the electronic flight update messages provided by France
to Spain arrive late and disrupt the already planned Barcelona AMAN (Arrival Manager) sequence.
An AMAN is dependent on accurate flight update information to calculate an initial arrival sequence
into an airport. A flight update message, sent by the Area Control Centre in the adjacent UIR/FIR
transferring the flight, is often used to update the AMAN. Since the UIR/FIR boundary is so close to
Barcelona, the AMAN has already defined the inbound sequence before the update message is sent
from France.
This disrupted AMAN requires a controller intervention to reset the arrival sequence, an unnecessary
and workload intensive problem. This should be easily resolved through an improvement to the
SACTA System (ENAIRE ATC Technical System)
Introduction of New Arrival Procedures (BRAIN Barcelona RNAV Approach Innovation)
During spring 2018, the BRAIN project deployed new arrival routes based on the use of predefined
area navigation procedures (RNAV) that require aircraft to follow defined routes levels and speeds
on arrival until the arrival controller clear the aircraft to turn onto final approach.
Before the introduction of BRAIN, feeder
sectors managed the sequence by vectoring
and providing speed control to traffic from
the Initial Approach Fix (IAF). The Final
sector controller received that traffic and
adjusted the sequence giving final vector
onto the ILS and speed control until 4 DME.
In radar vectoring, when a controller is
managing 8 to 10 aircraft in the sequence,
holding prior to IAF is needed for subsequent
aircraft to manage increasing controller
workload, resulting in loss of efficiency at
Feeder sectors. Radar vectoring is highly
dependent on ATCO skills and ensuring a
safe balance between quality of service and
overloading the air traffic controller.
With the BRAIN procedure (figure 7), each
transition to the ILS consists of an initial
section from the IAF, an outbound section
(downwind) and an approach section aligned
with the runway.
A transition chart is published, showing the Figure 7: New Arrival Procedures Example - 25R - BRAIN
procedure for each runway and used by the
pilot to manage the procedure.
In BRAIN, the feeder sector Controllers manage the sequence using transition waypoints and speed
control, however traditional vectoring is used in periods of low demand and in the presence of
thunderstorm activity.

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The Final sector controller receives traffic in transition on the procedure and combines aircraft
arriving from north and south procedures into one final approach sequence using a turn instruction
to vector aircraft onto the Localiser and then speed control to manage separation until 4 DME.
The number of aircraft flying the procedure, based on AMAN, is normally 10 with number 11 having
to enter the hold.
BRAIN was a one-off implementation. It is expected that with increased controller exper ience and
full awareness, training and briefing of flight crews in use of the new procedures, performance will
improve with no need to regulate arrival sectors due BRAIN in 2019.
However, there is opportunity to optimise BRAIN based on pilot feedback and a EUROCONTROL
top level assessment, with focus on speed control, level management and distance to touchdown
advice to pilots during the approach.

2.3 En-route and Neighbouring Airspace

As with the TMA, Barcelona en-route airspace is complex with different traffic flows interacting, either
with crossing routes for arrivals into the Balearic Islands and Barcelona or traffic crossing into French
airspace.
The central sector (CCC sector family to the north east, bordering France) prepares all traffic from
France inbound to Barcelona and the Balearic Islands. It distributes this traffic to two feeder sectors
to the south, that separately manage Barcelona traffic and the Balearic traffic.
If one of these feeder sectors is busy then regulation is applied. Traffic cannot be transferred to the
other sector today although Barcelona is currently assessing a new airspace configuration.
This new configuration involves the creation of a volume
of airspace that can be dynamically allocated to one of
the two feeder sectors depending on the predominant
traffic flow at a given time. This would free up controller
availability and provide additional airspace to the
constrained sector receiving the allocation, bringing a
reduction in workload and delay.
Currently all airspace volumes are recognised as “staffed
sectors” so this concept of dynamically allocated
airspace volumes rather than a sector will require full
justification to the Spanish Regulator, AESA. However,
there is precedence as the concept is used today in
Italian Area Control Centres.
An area of contention has been the Letter of Agreement
between France (Bordeaux) and Spain (Barcelona) en-
route Control Centres. This is an out dated agreement,
inefficient and proving difficult to update.
Outbound traffic transiting north through Bordeaux
airspace is predominantly limited to crossing the border
at a single point, GIROM, on weekdays and OKABI on
weekends. This results in excessive traffic merging at a
single point to transit into France creating a bottleneck Figure 8: Barcelona Area Control Centre Upper
(Figure 8 and 9). Information Region UIR) Sectorisation

For departures during peak hours there are several consecutive flights via the same waypoint that
increases sector complexity. Only 2 flight levels (FL300 and FL320) are available for use without
coordination between Bordeaux and Barcelona Controllers.

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In Barcelona en-route centre, the three GO sectors managing traffic through GIROM and OKABI
share the same vertical volume, each sector defined by a flight level split.
These sectors climb departures from Balearic Islands (Ibiza, Palma and Mahon) to their Requested
Flight Planned Level (RFL) and sequence them towards France via reporting points GIROM or
OKABI.
ATC merges the departing flights into traffic flows from Alicante, Valencia, Castellon and Murcia
(Levante flow). This is a complex operational procedure with the majority of merging traffic managed
by Barcelona.
The capacity of the sectors involved is limited and
introducing additional transfer points would significantly
facilitate an increase in en-route capacity.
During recent discussions involving EUROCONTROL
Network Manager, Spain and France, an agreement to
add a third point, NATPI, positioned between GIROM
and OKABI, was made.
This new point is planned in summer 2019 and will
facilitate departures from Spain towards France
There will also be an improved traffic distribution
between the new interface points and other existing
points at the interface. Barcelona will also climb
departing traffic to FL320, further helping to reduce
complex interaction with descending arrival traffic.
NATPI will provide a parallel route structure which will
significantly reduce the traffic loading at GIROM and
OKABI as seen in figure 9, reducing ATC workload and
delay. In addition, Spain agreed additional flight level
allocations for traffic departing into France, further
reducing complexity.
The military also use this airspace for training. Whilst
this is manageable and route structures are designed to
avoid existing military areas affecting en-route airspace,
there are opportunities to apply Flexible Use of Airspace Figure 9 Boundary Bottleneck between French
and Barcelona Airspace
concepts to the benefit of civil and military ATC, and
airspace users.
One particular area, D21A, provides a
significant challenge to ATC, requiring
routes to deviate causing additional route
miles, affecting at least three additional
sectors.
It is understood that D21A is only used for 70
hours per year and is not available for civil
use outside this. Close coordination with
military organisations should be undertaken
to see what alternative operations can be
agreed to reduce the complexity of this
already challenging airspace.
Figure 10: D21A and Routing / Sector Issue

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3. WHAT HAPPENED IN SUMMER 2018:

HEADLINES
A Bad Summer For Network Performance

2018 was a very bad performance year for the

European ATM Network! Network Traffic and ATFM
Good news was growth of 3.82% in 2018, and a Delay Evolution
new busiest day record of 37,101 flights on 7th 30.000.000 11.200.000
September (figure 11). 11.000.000

Min of ATFM Delay

25.000.000
However, bad news was that during the period 10.800.000
20.000.000 10.600.000
January to the end of September 2018, Network

Traffic
delay increased 64% on 2017. This was attributed 15.000.000 10.400.000
to bad weather, ATC capacity, ATC staffing and a 10.000.000 10.200.000
doubling of delay caused by Industrial Action. 10.000.000
5.000.000 9.800.000
The number of regulations that accompanied these 0 9.600.000
delays increased compared to 2017 leading to 2016 2017 2018
Network instability and concern on the excessive
use of regulation. Airport Delay ER Delay Traffic

Network delays had a severe impact on Barcelona

Figure 11: Network traffic and ATFM Delay
departing and arriving traffic, and together with
Barcelona Airport and Airspace delays, there was
a cumulative effect leading to Barcelona based
airlines experiencing acute reactionary delays.
In terms of Network ranking, Barcelona airport was
second overall for European Airport ATFM delays
whilst Barcelona Area Control Centre was seventh
out of the top ten en-route ATFM delay locations.
As a result of Network performance issues, the
Network Manager has identified a number of
Figure 12: Network (ER and APT) overview: traffic and
actions to address Network performance issues delay
and capacity shortfall in 2019, including:
 Continued pressure on ANSPs to deliver their declared
capacity, a challenge in 2019 because of expected
ATC Staffing and Capacity delays;
 Expansion of the 4 Area Control Centres demand
reduction initiative in support of Karlsruhe. This will
affect approximately 340 flights per day through
rerouting and or level capping actions.
It is expected that this action will relieve congestion and
reduce delay in this airspace with some positive impact
on Barcelona flights flying North into Europe;
 Continued support on negotiations to resolve France-
Spain boundary interface issues which include the
BAMBI project and between Bordeaux and Barcelona
Area Control Centres, to improve the management of
Figure 13: Netw ork ATFM En-route and
traffic flows to and from Barcelona and the Balearic
Airport Delay
Islands;

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 Airspace management improvements with particular focus on congested areas by providing

preferential routes to reduce traffic flying through congested areas,
 Cross border weather coordination initiatives, and
 Enhancing Airspace Users flight planning capability to make it easier to update flight plans
for rerouting.
Whilst many of the above actions are not specific to Spain or Barcelona, the overall effect is expected
to be positive, providing limited Network improvement in 2019, supporting the recommendations laid
out in the report.
That said, the current Network Manager expectation is that, unfortunately, network performance in
2019 is likely to be heavily dependent on the weather situation, as well as staffing levels in Marseille
and Karlsruhe.
Inclement Weather
Network related delay has already been
discussed but it was the key factor in most of
the departure delay affecting Barcelona
airlines.
But weather was the single biggest delay
generator in summer 2018, accounting for
47% of overall delay regulations. 37 days
during the summer had one or more
Barcelona weather regulations!
Regular thunderstorms associated with
cumulonimbus clouds were the main reason
for weather delays. Such weather
phenomenon can lead to aircraft being held
on the ground, held in the air or having to re-
route to deviate around the weather. All of
these actions generate delay and ATC
workload, reducing capacity.
Linked to weather is how weather regulation
is defined. Barcelona, like most European
ATC use meteorological forecasts, in this Figure 14: ATFM Delay Distribution for Barcelona Airport and
case provided by AEMET, the Spanish Met Terminal Airspace Summer 2018
Services provider to ATC, to assess the
likelihood of weather affecting a safe and efficient flow of air traffic in the future.
Based on the forecast bad weather, ATC will decide to reduce movements at the airport or in the
airspace, at a future time, to ensure Controllers can manage the traffic in poor weather . The
proposed weather regulation will naturally be cautious (based on experience) to ensure safety, but
the main issue is the likelihood of the weather arriving as planned, which is uncertain.
ATC does not have probabilistic MET tools and decision support to improve the accuracy of the
weather regulation. In summer 2018, the approach to deciding a weather regulation contributed to
poor performance. Some regulations could have been less constraining, or indeed, not applied all.
A SMART process for regulations supported by adequate predictive “weather decision support tools”
is essential to improve the accuracy of the weather regulation and must be addressed for summer
2019; the bad weather trend is increasing!
The amount of weather impacting airlines at Barcelona and in the Network led to a knock on effect,
reactionary delay, as flights accumulated delay throughout the day. Reactionary delay was a key
theme of summer 2018, generated by most delay causes and particularly difficult for low cost airlines
who operate tight schedule with little resilience.

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An important issue was the lack of systematic communication with airlines on weather (and other
performance issues). Airlines were unable to plan their schedule in an optimum manner as they
were not fully aware of the extent and duration of the weather regulations applied. Bad weather
resulted in Airlines cancelling or re-planning flights with related passenger management issues.

BRAIN (Barcelona RNAV Approach Innovation)

Deployment of BRAIN RNAV arrival
procedures, are part of the ENAIRE
ATENEA Operational Improvement Plan.
These procedures provide a predictable
procedure that is followed for the most part
by the aircraft Flight Management System as
opposed to normal radar vectoring. BRAIN
will provide future benefits to Barcelona.
BRAIN caused 14.4% of the overall airport
and TMA delay for Barcelona during summer
2018, representing a total of 54,624 minutes
of delay.
The BRAIN deployment time frame was Figure 15: Example of BRAIN Procedures
optimistic, close to the summer, and a brave
decision which unfortunately resulted in an extended transition period to July, well into the busiest
period of traffic during the year. Regulation was used to reduce capacity as the new procedures
was brought to full operational capability which was the main cause of delay.
Despite the preparation and communication activities, the BRAIN transition suffered from Pilot error
due to lack of awareness and familiarity, as well as difficulty to build Controller experience during
transition, in applying the procedure and providing the necessary ATC guidance, such a “miles -to-
go”, to help the pilot manage the descent profile and aircraft energy during critical phases of flight.
These issues could have been anticipated and a less critical period chosen for implementation
although this would likely have been delayed into winter 2018.
The good news is that it is a one-off deployment and BRAIN will bring more benefit and is an enabler
for continuous descent arrivals that will reduce the environmental impact of noise and emissions.
Aerodrome and ATC Capacity Suffered
and There Was Network Industrial Action
The combined delay due to lack of
Aerodrome and ATC Capacity was 26% of
the overall delay. The main headline is ATC
Capacity which is due to airspace complexity
and the use of regulation to reduce sector
traffic loads.
With more than 50% of Barcelona
departures flying to northern Europe,
Barcelona flights were particularly penalised
by Industrial Action, ATC staffing and
Capacity difficulties at the Marseilles Area
Control Centre during the summer period.
This Industrial Action included 6 days of
strikes in June, which resulted in major
Figure 16: ATFM Delay (Industrial Actions, ATC Staffing and
delays, cancellations and re-routing of flights
Capacity, Attributable to Marseilles affecting Arrival and
to avoid the Marseilles airspace. Departures to/from Barcelona Airport

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From the network perspective, the combined ATC Capacity, Staffing and Industrial Action from
Marseille Airspace alone, accounted for 39% (150,013 min) ATFM Delay directly impacting
Barcelona arriving and departing flights (figure 16).
As with weather, ATC Capacity regulation is based on future traffic predictions and on occasion the
predicted issues evolve, for many reasons. Barcelona has recognised this issue in some sectors
and will try to reduce the use of regulation.
In many cases, the sector complexity is such that regulation is essential to be able to safely manage
traffic loads. This occurs both in en-route airspace, particularly where traffic arrives from French
airspace and requires sequencing into separate flows for Barcelona and Balearic Island arrivals.
Some of the Barcelona arrival sectors also need protection and regulation is applied to avoid
Controller overload during periods of peak demand.
Environment Delay – and Reactionary Delay?
Whilst the Environment delay trend is
reducing, Environment issues still resulted in
10% of the overall delay.
This is probably an understatement as
environmental issues, primarily noise, are
the main reason behind the non-optimal
operation of the airport.
As aircraft accumulated delay after each
rotation, many of the aircraft returning late to
Barcelona at the end of the day’s schedule
suffered from a colossal amount of
Reactionary Delay; some aircraft
accumulated more than 80 minutes of this
Figure 17: Night Time Runway Configuration
delay type on return to base!
As well as Reactionary Delay, ATC systematically reduces capacity each night when preparing the
change from day to night capacity, which involves a complex ATC procedure to change the runway
configuration (figure 17). Since there is no buffer between day and night capacity, which changes
at 23.00 local time, ATC regulates the flow to ensure arrivals rates are in place at 23.00.
Reactionary delay including aircraft returning late to base, the regulation to prepare for night
capacity, and the change in runway configuration together contribute to the Environment delay.
First Departure Wave In The Morning Is Critical To Daily Performance!
The most common refrain during summer 2018 discussions was “if the first wave does not work,
performance is impacted all day.” In many respects, this statement and the reasons behind it, sum
up many of the issues affecting performance in summer 2018.
The main carrier in Barcelona, with 39% of total movements, has a majority share of wave 1. The
airline operates primarily out of Terminal 1, close to the preferential departure runway. If the airline
has a poor first wave, wave 1 is compromised.
Despite implementing a number of mitigations to manage any disruption in summer 2018, The main
carrier suffered from reactionary delay which posed recovery issues for ground handling and
impacted night time maintenance windows which should normally be allocated 7 hours.
An additional issue at night was the airline’s apparent difficulty to trac k maintenance progress and
lack of awareness as to where aircraft were parked. This apparent “lack of awareness” impeded the
departure planning process of matching aircraft-to-destination and ensuring a good gate distribution
so that similar time departures did not pose issues of boarding and pushback.

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It was also noted that the main carrier had 50% of the
aircraft returns to parking during the summer period.
This can be for a number of reason but if it happens
during Wave 1 it can create issues with taxing aircraft
and parking, increasing complexity.
During summer 2018, AENA, responsible for gate
allocation and operation, worked with the main carrier’s
operations to to alleviate these issues and is focusing
additional effort on Wave 1 for 2019.
The outcome of these different challenges could lead to
late departures, critical to Wave 1 and the performance
of subsequent waves. Taking into consideration the
numerous Network and local disruptions that occurred
during summer 2018, it is easy to see how the difficulties
confronting airlines lead to Reactionary Delay (estimated
to be 44% of the total 2018 delay in Europe). Figure 18: Main carrier’s returning Aircraft & De-
code
70% of Barcelona Traffic is Low Cost Carrier: Tight
Schedules and Short Turnaround!
Whilst tight block times and short turnarounds are core to the LCC business model, they are also
susceptible to disruption. This was clearly the case in summer 2018 with the large number of
disruptions impacting flights, the lack of resilience in the LCC schedules with no “demand troughs”
for recovery contributed further to Reactionary Delay.
The summer schedules leave little room for recovery from disruption and each rotation of an airframe
can lead to further delay. Reactionary delay in Barcelona at 20.00 local time was approaching 30
minutes per flight with later flights recording in excess of 80 minutes delay (figure 43).
With expectations of challenging performance in summer 2019, airlines would be advised to consider
including firebreaks in their schedules to build resilience against disruption.
Communication Builds Trust!
ENAIRE, AENA and the local Airlines all hold important information concerning current and future
operational issues. Sharing such information to build common awareness could help all
stakeholders anticipate and plan mitigation to expected disruption, or even planned events.
Unfortunately, there was no systematic communication of this nature in Barcelona. Communication
appeared to be ad hoc, subject to time or staff availability and frequently “a concern” in case any
information would be used inappropriately.
An important example where communication has important business benefits is the impact of
weather regulation on airlines. A long weather regulation has significant consequences for airlines,
flights are delayed, rerouted and cancelled, with associated collateral damage to passengers’
journeys. Significant delay can quickly result in reparation costs to airlines under EU Regulation
261.
Systematic communication to airlines on the nature of regulations, their likelihood, duration and
severity would help airlines better plan changes to flights, rearrange their daily schedules, and
prepare for disrupted passenger journeys. It would also build trust, facilitating other difficult
conversations, for example, on demand reduction sharing to avoid major disruption.
Systematic communication of expected disruption in the network and at the airport, and the plans or
actions put in place to mitigate disruption was absent in Barcelona during summer 2018. It is urgently
required and is in place at other major European airports. Critical information is available and
processes should be put in place to systematically inform all stakeholders of issues that are likely to
disrupt their operations. This would have made a difference in 2018.

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Staffing, Rostering And Effect On Performance

Summer 2018 posed challenges in terms of staffing especially in the Barcelona Area Control Centre.
The rigid rostering framework combined with challenging staffing levels resulted in occasional but at
the same time, systematic lack of staff availability, especially in the late evening. This led to
suboptimal sector opening as some sectors had to be combined while the traffic demand clearly
called for keeping the sectors split. As this occurs during late evening the delays accrued further
add to the issue of reactionary delays as already discussed above.

Barcelona Airport Does Not Operate As Designed

Irrespective of Network or Local delays,
Barcelona is hindered by a non-optimal
operation of the Airport due to severe noise
restrictions that require the main runway
configuration to be used in the opposite
manner to which they were designed. The
short runway is used for take-off whilst the
long runway is used for landing, resulting in
aircraft performance issues, especially with
regard to increasing numbers of wide-body
aircraft, challenging ATC to deliver the
expected capacity.
The surrounding airspace is complex due
densely populated areas, other airports, Figure 19: Preferential Runway Configuration
different and incompatible use of airspace by aircraft flying under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) and the
proximity of the airspace boundary with France, leaving little time and room for traffic to be
sequenced for arrival to Barcelona or transfer to French ATC.
The operation of Barcelona Airport needs a strategic review; the capability exists to deliver growth
but it is overly constrained by local agreements to reduce noise. During summer 2018, the airport’s
non-nominal operation and the airspace challenges added to the overall poor performance.
Next Section: What’s Coming Next?
This section presented a top level view of the main performance issues in Barcelona last summer.
These issues are further developed in section 5 of the report. The analysis includes mitigations
either proposed by stakeholders during discussion or developed by EUROCONTROL.
The recommendations are then consolidated by stakeholder, in summary form, providing a short
check list view.

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4. “BENCHMARK” COMPARISON
A comparison with other “similar” European airports is challenging considering Barcelona does not
operate the airport runways as designed and in general, no “two” airports operate the same way.
Nevertheless, the EUROCONTROL Performance Review Unit (PRU) 2018 data provides interesting
comparison points, which are discussed below.
As Gatwick is cited by a number of stakeholders as being best in class, we have included it here
although it is a single mixed mode runway operation. We look across a spectrum of airports with
parallel runways, operated in different configurations, to provide a level of co mparison.
The airports are: London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Madrid Barajas, Munich, Palma de Mallorca
and Rome Fiumicino.
Runway Layout and Usage
As previously discussed, Barcelona
operates two parallel segregated runways,
with the short runway for departures and the
longer runway for arrivals. Occasional wide-
body aircraft depart from the longer runway.
This supports a declared runway capacity of
78 movements per hour.
In comparison, Heathrow and Munich, both
operating parallel runways in different
configurations, achieve runway throughput
of 88 and 90 movements per hour, similar to
the design capacity of Barcelona (without the Figure 20: Comparison with European Airports (2017 Data)
same restrictive noise constraints).
Interesting, high performance is achieved at Heathrow, despite the aircraft mix which has a
significant percentage of heavy wide body aircraft types compared to Barcelona which is primarily
medium size jets, yet Heathrow declares 10 movements an hour more.
London Gatwick, best in class for single runway mixed-mode operation, had a declared throughput
of 55 movements per hour. This is achieved through a strict performance based runway
management in collaboration between the ANSP and airlines.
In comparison, Barcelona throughput is 40 per hour departures and 38 per hour arrivals on dedicated
runways, suggesting room for performance growth.
Taxiway Complexity
Barcelona has a complex taxiway system,
which is due to the complex surface issues
such as runway crossing, wing tip clearance
on certain taxiway / gate areas and the lack
of appropriate holding bays close to the
preferential departure runway, 25L.
Non-constrained average taxi time is 15
minutes.
The additional taxi-out time KPI is a proxy for
the average departure runway queuing time
on the outbound traffic flow, during
congestion periods at airports. Figure 21: Additional Taxi-Out Time 2018 Comparison

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Barcelona performance in terms of additional taxi-out times is the 5th highest in Europe, but average
compared with our chosen airports, as can be seen in figure 21, although it underlines airport surface
complexity and lack of runway holding.
Off-Block and Reactionary Delay
Pre-departure delay is the delay in “Off
Block” with respect to the Schedule Time for
Departure. The reasons for off block delay
are provided by the airlines / handling agents
to the airport.
Average delay in the off block time (AOBT-
STD) in Barcelona is almost 23 minutes per
departure, which is the 6th highest in
Europe. The main reason for the off block
delay is attributed to reactionary delays by Figure 22: Average Pre-Departure Delay 2018 Comparison
airlines (standard IATA codes 91 to 96).
Average pre-departure delay in Barcelona reflects the challenges of the low cost carriers to manage
tight turnaround times when there is additional disruption in the system or insufficient resilience in
airlines daily schedule to make up lost time. Reactionary delay is discussed in section 5.3.3.
Arrival Delay and Airspace Holding
The PRU Airport Arrival ATFM Delay KPI
provides an indication of ATFM delays on
the ground due to destination constraints.
This indicator shows in the period January-
September 2018, Barcelona had the second
highest arrival ATFM delay per arrival in
ECAC Top 49 airports (after Lisbon).
Much of this delay can be attributed to
weather, ATC Capacity in Terminal Airspace
and BRAIN deployment. Apart from Palma Figure 23: Arrival ATFM Delay 2018 Comparison
de Mallorca, other airports have a different
mix of delay reasons making a meaningful comparison difficult.
The indicator used as a proxy for arrival holding or TMA LEBL EGKK EGLL LEPA LFPO
delay is Additional time (Arrival Sequencing and 12,0 14,7 15,1 11,4 11,5
Metering Area). This is the difference between the
Table 1: ASMA Time
actual ASMA transit time (actual time on arrival in
terminal airspace) and the unimpeded ASMA time calculated for non -congested conditions.
ASMA shows that Barcelona performance is not Punctuality
LEBL EGKK EGLL LEPA LFPO LIRF
indicators
dramatically worse than other airports in Europe. At Arrival
Punctuality 59.9% 61.7% 77.8% 67.1% 77.6% 75.6%
capacity challenged airports, holding is often used (% flights)
as a means to ensure there is always demand Average
Arrival 27.0 23.6 11.8 20.3 12.8 13.8
pressure on a runway, to maximise throughput. Delay (Min)
London Heathrow is a typical example. Departure
Punctuality 60.2% 65.1% 75.7% 62.6% 73.1% 68.3%
(% flights)
In 2019, BRAIN airspace procedures should improve Average
terminal airspace resilience, containing ASMA delay. Departure
Delay (Min)
23.9 20.4 12.7 21.7 14.8 16.6

Arrival
Punctuality Comparison Traffic
Ahead of
5.6% 8.2% 17.1% 7.2% 8.8% 8.7%
EUROCONTROL compiles airport and air carrier Schedule
>15 min (%
data on arrival and punctuality delay. Table 2 shows flights)

that in all classes, Barcelona has lower performance. June to October 2018 Air Carrier-Airport Data

Table 2: Punctuality Indicators

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For arrival punctuality, Barcelona is similar to London Gatwick although average arrival delay,
minutes per flight, are higher than Gatwick at 27 minutes.
For departure punctuality, Barcelona
and Palma are similar, but average
departure delay, minutes per flight,
are worse than others at 23.9
minutes.
During summer 2018, Barcelona
arrival and departure punctuality was
worse than the selected comparison
airports.
Top Level View on ATFM Delay
EUROCONTROL analysis shows that
Barcelona airport is second out of the
top ten European airports in total
ATFM delay (figure 26).
Amsterdam is first although the
number of movements in Amsterdam
in 2018 was 511,272 compared to
Barcelona with 335,594.
The Barcelona Area Control Centre Figure 24: Barcelona Area Control
Figure 25: Barcelona Airport ATFM
was ranked seventh out of the top ten Delay Compared Centre ATFM Delay Compared
European Area Control Centres in
Total En-route ATFM delay (Figure 24).
In comparison with other Centres, Barcelona issues were weather, ATC Capacity and Staffing whilst
the headline Centres were hit by Staffing, ATC Capacity and industrial action (Marseilles).
The Environment: Noise
A number of large European airports have night curfews in place, e.g. London Heathrow, Frankfurt
and Munich, severely impacting flights. Where there are curfews in place, the curfew start time varies
from 22:00 (local) to 23:30 (local) and generally ends at 06:00 (local).
Some other European airports, whilst not having a complete curfew in place, operate with restrictions
for night operations. These can be:
 Specifying certain runways only for use, as is the case in Barcelona and Milan Malpensa for
example, and
 A combination of measures as is the case in Brussels (Weekend / Weekday time differences
and night time hourly quotas).
As an example, in Brussels, between 22:00 and 04:59 (local):
 Monday – Thursday inclusive, 2 runways are specified for departure, depend ing on the
SID/route flown after departure
 Friday – Sun inclusive, only 1 runway is available for departure but a different one for each
night; 25R on Friday night, 25L on Saturday night and 19 on Sunday night
 Friday – Sunday inclusive between 00:00 and 05:00 aircraft operators cannot schedule
departures as no departure airport slots will be issued. Landings are still permitted and some
delayed departures may still be allowed
Changeover times from night-time to day-time operations may have a level of flexibility in order to
ensure transition in safe conditions. ATC will operate the changeover as close as possible from the
indicated time, taking into account the actual traffic conditions.

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It should be emphasised however, that whenever there is a night-time restriction or curfew, they are
generally lifted no later than 06:00 and the day-time configuration is then used.
Summary
The comparison of both parallel and single runway configurations show that Barcelona has scope
for future runway performance improvements. This will require development of different techniques
and support tools and investment appropriate runway exit availability runway holding areas.
There is an opportunity to undertake quick improvements by borrowing techniques such as the
collaborative runway performance management procedures used in London Gatwick and Heathrow
to reduce runway occupancy time. These offer a short term option to achieve quick benefits whilst
preparing future change such as reduced radar separation on final approach , that should be
addressed (as discussed later in section 5.1.1).
Punctuality in Barcelona is generally poor compared to other European Airports, however the Airport
and ATC En-route Centre are in the top ten locations for overall ATFM dela y.
Noise is a significant challenge in Barcelona and it is prevalent in all areas of operation . However,
there is no common model in Europe to reference, although the application of the night -time
operations start and end times are similar in most European airports reviewed.
The “benchmark has identified that Barcelona, in comparison to other parallel runway airports, with
its potential for mixed-mode runway operations, has significant growth potential to transition towards
the original design throughput of 90 movements per hour. This is feasible with the necessary
operational and technical investment.
The analysis undertaken in this report is focused on the summer issues in 2018 . A strategic and
systemic assessment of all the operational, technical, infrastructure and environmental issues,
involving all stakeholders would provide a better understanding and help stakeholders develop and
align long term strategic plans.

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5. DETAILED ANALYSIS
5.1 AIRPORT AND AIRSPACE OPERATIONS
5.1.1 Airport
In 2018, Barcelona enjoyed an average of
3.74% traffic growth (comparable with the Traffic Barcelona Airport Evolution
network growth of 3.82%) with traffic 35000
increase in the summer period of 2%
30000
compared to 2017, which is within
25000

Movements
EUROCONTROL forecasts.
20000
Unfortunately in 2018, average arrival delay
15000
per flight (year to date including September)
increased from 2 minutes per flight in 2017 to 10000
3.1 minutes in 2018. 5000
0
Barcelona Airport capacity delays were

September
March
February

April
May

August
July
January

November
December
June

October
experienced mostly on weekends. The busy
Barcelona traffic days are Monday, Friday
and Sunday. One peak day to note was the
15th of June, when 1123 flights were 2016 2017 2018
recorded.
Figure 26: Barcelona Average Daily Evolution of Departure
Traffic per Month
Traffic Waves: Summer Demand, Actual
Traffic and Issues of Resilience
Theoretically, Barcelona scheduled capacity and demand balance shows periods of respite between
departure and arrival waves. This would facilitate schedule recovery time, critical for the low cost
carriers, who normally operate short block times with highly efficient turnaround processes typically
lasting around 35 to 45 minutes in Barcelona (the main carrier’s average turnaround time for the
entire season in Barcelona was 58 minutes).

90 90
80 80
70 70
60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22

Figure 27: Scheduled Traffic Summer 2018 Figure 28: Actual Traffic Summer 2018

The Barcelona turnaround times (35 to 45 minutes) and are agreed by the slot coordinator. However,
delay in the first wave of departures, can have severe performance repercussions throughout the
day. There is further discussion on this in section 5.3.3

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Compared to 2017, summer 2018 saw an increase in throughput throughout the day, with a second
departure wave overlapping with the second arrival wave, significantly reducing the recovery troughs
in the schedule, as seen in figure 28 above.
The reasons for this are complex and would include: ATC procedures and challenges to deliver
runway capacity, airline schedules and significant demand at peak periods, for example the first
departure wave.
With current ATC operational techniques, additional demand can only be accommodated during the
less busy hours of the day as increases in capacity during peaks will likely be marginal, further
reducing recovery buffers and resilience when there is a performance down fall.
In the ATENEA strategic plan, a process of Custom Slot Coordination by hours is proposed to start
in 2019. Capacity benefits are expected in 2020 with 40 arrival and 42 departure movements
predicted.
Part of the hourly Custom Slot Coordination strategy is to ensure that capacity offered is tailored to
peak demand. It also means that there will be periods of recovery built-in when ”valley” periods are
created between peak demand to ensure that resilience and recovery time is available in the event
of actual over-demand occurring during operations.
Wide Body Conundrum – Operational Complexity and Delay Allocation
Barcelona airport is served primarily by medium type aircraft such as Boeing 737 and Airbus 320.
As such, wide body aircraft types will impact separation minima and as a consequence, runway
throughput performance.
Wide-body aircraft movements represent around 10 to 15 flights per day and the airport foresees an
increase in wide-body movements, particularly on routes to and from Asia. A dedicated wide body
terminal is planned in the AENA 8 year strategy to cater for increased wide body access.
Wide-body movements pose particular challenges due to the Barcelona preferred noise related
runway use. If they are an older generation aircraft type they require to undertake a non -preferential
runway operation, departing from runway 25R.
This increases surface flow complexity as these aircraft must taxy against the predominant traffic
flow to reach runway 25R holding point from their gate.
A second issue is the need to create a departure gap in the arrival sequence to accommodate the
wide-body departure from runway 25R, resulting in a temporary capacity reduction.
Previously, the associated delay was attributed to aerodrome capacity, however, a new delay
allocation formula agreed between AENA and ENAIRE, came into effect on 01 August with the wide-
body non-preferential delay is now allocated to Aerodrome ATC Capacity delay. 2018 summer data
show a change in balance between aerodrome and ATC capacity delay, reducing aerodrome
capacity delay.
As demand from Asia increases, additional wide-body movements will further impact operational
complexity and runway throughput so options should be explored to see how this increase can be
accommodated to avoid reductions in capacity.
Apart from operating the airport during the day as originally planned, one serio us option to be
considered would be to extend runway 25L/07R by approximately 500 metres to the east. This
brings operational and noise reduction benefits. An increase in take-off length of runway 25L
removes the need for wide body aircraft to depart from runway 25R, providing an improvement in
noise. Furthermore, it removes the need to increase separations for wide -body departures on 25R,
reducing the associated loss of throughput.
Such an extension is a challenge due to the existence of the nature rese rve to the east of the runway,
close to the beach. However, the overall benefit to the airport, municipalities and neighbouring
communities’ is positive and merits further study and discussion.

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Runway Occupancy Time and Minimum Radar Separation: Performance Opportunity

ENAIRE is studying a change in minimum radar
separation to reduce the required spacing. This initiative
is linked to runway occupancy times (ROT) of less than 50
seconds to support a reduction in minimum radar
separation minima. The table shows an initial study of Table 3: Runway Occupancy Times
ROT at Barcelona, 25R is the preferential landing runway.
The approach should recognise that a minimum runway occupancy of 50 seconds cannot always be
achieved, nevertheless, a safety case can recognise this and still be an ac ceptable means of
compliance for reduced minimum radar separation approval by the regulator.
Performance based ROT requires specific action from ENAIRE and Airlines to collaboratively
manage ROT, to record, analyse and monitor deviations together . Today, runway performance
management is in place in Heathrow and Gatwick and should be deployed in Barcelona. Gatwick is
a best in class example and achieves 55 movement per hour in mixed mode operations
The benefits will reduce ROT and support a reduction of minimum radar separation to 2.5 NM. This
radar separation reduction will permit an increased runway throughput whilst mitigating the impact
of non-preferential wide-body departures from 25R.
Performance based runway occupancy will also facilitate the implementation of the
EUROCONTROL reduced runway occupancy (ROCAT) procedure which suits Barcelona due to the
majority of medium sized aircraft types. ROCAT uses both reduced ROT and the ability to split the
wake separation minima for medium aircraft types into two categories, reducing separation and
increasing runway throughput. ROCAT is being deployed in Vienna (similar traffic mix to Barcelona)
and Paris CDG.
Runway Standard Instrument Departures: Performance Opportunity
Noise abatement, as discussed previously,
requires aircraft departing from runway 25L
to turn left after climbing through 500ft to
avoid populated areas. This is a severe
restriction which can have a negative impact
on succeeding departure separations.
An example of an enhanced procedure used
for departures out of Brussels airport is
presented in figure 29.
Today, NATS have successfully designed
SIDs based on RNAV that have diverging
splits of 21° permitting the controller to
optimise departure separations. This was Figure 29: Brussels SID Diverging Splits
tested at Gatwick, and deployed based on PBN in Edinburgh, which has a similar issue to Barcelona;
all aircraft need to turn and follow the same route for a bit before being able to diverge.
The safety case is dependent on fleet mix and specific details of the runway and departure
procedures. In Edinburgh, NATS was able to demonstrate, then deploy, that ATC could operate 1
minute separation using the procedure described e.g. the Edinburgh TALLA followed by GOSAM
departures.

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Summary
Barcelona airport is operating with a significant disadvantage due to the local noise procedures which
constrain the original design use of the parallel runways, as explained above.
Despite the maximum design for throughput of 90 aircraft per hour (possible through independent
runway operations) Barcelona was operating at 76 movements per hour in 2018.
Without significant change in runway use, together with investments in ATC procedures, systems
and airport infrastructure, achieving a throughput of 90 aircraft per hour is a major challenge.
A EUROCONTROL assessment suggests runway throughput capacity increase is possible through
tight runway occupancy management and reduced radar separation minima, reduced runway
occupancy time and new wake vortex separation (RECAT EU).
Runway throughput can be further enhanced through the implementation of performance based
standard instrument departures, providing a greater number of diverging tracks for aircraft to
establish shortly after departure.
Airport performance is relatively dependent on the performance of it s main airline and particularly
it’s performance on the first departure wave in the morning. The demand during the first wave is
greater than capacity and therefore there is little resilience in the event of disruption either from
external factors such as weather, industrial action, ATC Staffing and Capacity regulation or the main
carrier’s specific issues related to aircraft readiness and off-block performance.
A continued increase in the number of wide-body aircraft in the Barcelona traffic mix will impact the
predominantly medium traffic mix and therefore related capacity (bigger aircraft generate wake
turbulence leading to larger separation minima reducing runway capacity . This can be mitigated by
implementing RECAT EU Wake Turbulence separations when appropriate and Time Based
separation later.
Related to arrival airspace procedures and runway throughput, is the radar separation applied. The
normal radar separation on final approach is 3NM, however, when there is a wide -body departure
from runway 25R, Tower Controllers require a spacing of 8NM. This results in the loss of 3 arrivals
for every 2 wide-body departures.
The impact of noise procedures was discussed in section 2.1, however, the opportunity to move
towards the target 90 hourly movements runway throughput could also be facilitated if the current
runways operating as designed during day time hours when, normally, as in most European airports,
noise restrictions negotiated with local populations, are less onerous.
Comparison of both parallel and single runway configurations operated at different airports shows
that transition towards 90 movements per hour, should be feasible even within current constraints.
ENAIRE should continue to benchmark with other airports to identify the specific operation al and
technical improvements necessary to achieve the target, updating its ATENEA plan accordingly.
AENA should also benchmark infrastructure deployed that enables high throughput rates at other
airports, to ensure that future infrastructure investments on priority items such as runway exit points,
displaced thresholds, parallel taxiways and runway extended holding bays are adequate and
included in its 8 year strategic plan.

Recommendations

Short Term
[M01] Performance Based Runway Occupancy Time (ROT) Management
The full potential of Barcelona runways can be better served if airlines exit the runways after landing
in a consistent, expeditious and predictable manner. Today ROT is variable and there are no
processes in place to develop a performance culture in Pilots and Controllers to optimise ROT.

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It is recommended that ENAIRE develop a performance based runway occupancy time management
process together with airline stakeholders, to safely minimise ROT, agreeing, monitoring and
reporting on ROT and use of preferential runway exit points, per aircraft type.
This recommendation will result in additional runway throughput and will be an enabler for further
performance enhancements such as reduced minimum radar separation and the application of
ROCAT, Runway Occupancy Categorisation, developed by EUROCONTROL and being deployed
in Vienna (similar traffic mix to Barcelona) and Paris Charles de Gaulle.
The process will require close cooperation between airlines and ENAIRE, strict monitoring and
reporting process, with regular (weekly) feedback on individual aircraft and airline performance.
Runway occupancy times and exit point by aircraft type should be published in the AIP.
Barcelona should consider benchmarking against both Heathrow (independent parallel runway
operations) and Gatwick (intense single runway operations) where ROT procedures are deployed,
bringing reduced occupancy time supporting reduced radar separation and an increase in
throughput.
Long Term
[M02] Implement Day-Time (Mixed Mode) Independent Parallel Runway Operations
Due to environmental issues, Barcelona runways are not used as designed, leading to operational
complexity and capacity issues during day and night time operations.
It is recommended that DGCA and AENA revisit current local noise constraints together with local
population and municipal stakeholder groups to implement independent parallel and mixed mode
runway operations between 0700 and 2300 local time.
An equitable and balanced position should be sought using EUROCONTROL Collaborative
Environment Management (CEM) and expertise to develop and implement noise efficient standard
instrument departure and standard arrival routes, and continuous climb / continuous descent
procedures, exploiting aircraft performance and Performance Based Navigation ( PBN).
This recommendation is expected to reduce operational complexity and safely increase runway
capacity, with a view to achieving the full airport performance design capacity of 90 movements per
hour, bringing associated economic benefits to airlines and local communities alike whilst mitigating
noise. Comparison with other European parallel runway airports with noise constraints, shows this
to be feasible, Heathrow operates 88 movements per hour and Gatwick 55 on a single runway..
[M03] Hourly Based Custom Slot Capacity
Barcelona suffers from lack of resilience during summer peak traffic, when there is little respite
between departure and arrival waves and subsequent aircraft rotations. The nature of low cost
carriers business operations such as short block times and quick turnaround leaves little margin to
recover from reactionary delay.
With flights already departing Barcelona late, the knock on effect results in aircraft returning during
busy arrival traffic, further exacerbating and compressing the daily schedule, resulting in no respite.
Airlines need to review what actions to take to avoid the virtuous reactionary delay cycle. Airline
options are discussed in section 5.3.3.
It is recommended that ENAIRE deploy their proposed hourly “custom slot capacity scheme” in time
for 2020, that maximises the availability of ATC Capacity and Staffing resources during periods of
peak demand and creates troughs of reduced capacity, that responds to airlines needs whilst
recognising that a respite period is required to recover from reactionary delay.
This hourly based custom slot capacity system must be agreed with the slot coordinator and
coordinated with AENA and the airlines operating in Barcelona.

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Hourly based custom slot capacity system is expected to bring increased runway throughput and
airspace capacity during periods of peak traffic demand, additional resilience during the day to
address lack of respite for delayed aircraft (due to reactionary delay) by focusing ATC capacity and
staffing to address the airlines main operational peaks.
[M04] Performance Based Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs)
Barcelona departures on the preferential runway configuration (departures from runway 25L) are
required to turn left after 500ft in the climb and track out over the sea , due to noise abatement.
This procedures constrains ATC ability to fully optimise departure separation minima resulting in
poor runway performance.
It is recommended that ENAIRE implement SIDs based on RNAV with diverging splits of 21° that
aircraft establish on when turning left after climbing through 500ft, and which will permit ATC to fully
optimise runway 25L departure separations.
This recommendation is expected to increase the number of diverging tracks that can be used for
departure separations, by “mirroring” the “left, right, straight ahead procedures traditionally used to
expedite departures through RNAV routes.
[M05] Runway 25L Extension
The Take Off Run Available (TORA) for runway 25L departures is too short for many of the larger
wide-body aircraft, and as a consequence these aircraft are required to undertake a non-preferential
departure from runway 25R which reduces throughput on that runway.
It is recommended that AENA extend runway 25L by at least 500m to the east of the current
threshold, thus providing additional TORA, suitable for wide-body departures.
This recommendation will obviously require support from Department/DGCA in negotiating the
proposed extension with the local population, nature lobby, Autonomous Government of Cataluña
and municipal authorities.
This runway extension is expected to be a “win-win” opportunity as it will safely increase runway
throughput on 25L, providing sufficient TORA for wide –body departures, removing such movements
from runway 25R and reducing noise on the 25R departure path close to population areas.
Furthermore, it will remove the wide-body constraint to operations on 25R, and will facilitate eventual
possibility of mixed-mode high performance operations on 25L, including medium aircraft turning
earlier than today.
In the event that this proposal is agreed, AENA should take the opportunity to prioritise the
construction of parallel taxiways and extended holding bays as well as additional entry points to
access runway 25L and facilitate aircraft passing further enhancing ATC ability to optimise each
departure separation. An infrastructure benchmark at similar high performing airports and in-depth
discussions with Enaire will refine and inform such investment.
[M06] Implement ROCAT, Runway Occupancy Categorisation
With peak demand requiring an increase in capacity there is an opportunity to use the different ROT
of the aircraft operating in Barcelona. Specifically, there is a natural split of ROT between Boeing
B737 and Airbus A320 aircraft types and smaller aircraft, result ing in two categories. These
categories also match the RECAT-EU wake turbulence split in the medium aircraft category.
EUROCONTROL has defined a new separation procedure to exploit these two categories and to
increase runway throughput. This is ROCAT – Runway Occupancy Categorisation.
It is recommended that ENAIRE implement ROCAT at Barcelona following the deployment of
performance based runway occupancy time (ROT) management and the agreement to reduce
minimum radar separation to 2.5 nm, both of which are pre-cursors to ROCAT.

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This recommendation is expected to bring additional runway throughput due to the reduced
separation minima which can be used either to enhance capacity during peak demand or to improve
resilience. It is currently being deployed in Vienna and Paris Charles de Gaulle.
EUROCONTROL is ready to support ENAIRE by transferring knowledge on ROCAT and providing
technical and safety expertise to support the development and implementation preparation of the
procedure.
In the longer term, when wide-body aircraft movements increase above 15%, EUROCONTROL
recommends and is ready to support ENAIRE to develop and implement RECAT EU six category
wake separation minima (already implemented in Paris Charles de Gaulle and London Heathrow),
which will mitigate the impact of additional wide-boded operations on runway throughput.
This knowledge transfer and implementation support will also be available from EUROCONTROL in
the future, if ENAIRE decides to deploy Time Based Separation, TBS, to bring further runway
capacity enhancements. NATS is also in a position to provide support on RECAT -EU and TBS
implementation.

5.1.2 Terminal Airspace

Operational Constraints
As presented in section 2.2, the Barcelona Terminal Airspace is complex. A key issue that impacts
ATC operations is the closeness of the French FIR (80NM) that has a negative impact on the arrival
management sequencing tool, AMAN, and leaves little airspace for Barcelona to organise arrival
traffic sequences.
The proximity of the French airspace boundary means that the electronic flight update messages
provided by France are too late to be accurately used by the Barcelona Arrival Manager (AMAN)
that defines the initial arrival sequence into the airport. This requires Controller intervention to reset
the arrival sequence, an unnecessary and workload intensive problem.
There is an expectation in Barcelona that Controllers in Bordeaux and Marseilles undertake
preparatory sequence development, which involves around 65% of Barcelona traffic. Considering
the Industrial Action and ATC Staffing issues impacting Marseilles, such pre -sequencing would have
been limited during summer 2018.
The proximity of Girona, Reus, Sabadell and Lleida airports that share airspace holding patterns with
Barcelona and interfere with Barcelona arrival and departure routes, plus pilot training and parachute
activity add to frequency congestion and controller workload. This will affect the point at which
regulations will be required to safely manage traffic.
With Controllers having to resort to vectoring aircraft to ensure separation, it is clear that SID and
STAR procedures are not optimal. A review of the Terminal Airspace is essential with a view to
redesigning SIDs, STARs, sector boundaries and associated procedures.
It is planned to change the SIDs when operating the airfield in the Easterly configuration. This would
foresee all departures turning south initially after departure. This is seen as an important
improvement for summer 2019. Introduction of these revised SIDs would, it is believed, largely
eradicate delays in the T1E sector and whilst introducing a little more delay in the T2E sector, the
overall delay would be less than in today’s operation.
There is also a need to provide a dedicated Flight Information Service for VF R flights, training flights
and parachute activity to off-load this traffic from Controllers providing arrival and departure control
services to Barcelona.
A further issue concerns Girona. Barcelona sectors also share the management of arrivals and
departures at Girona. As traffic grows at Girona this will become incompatible with managing
Barcelona flights and a dedicated service will be required.

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ATC has identified periods when regulation was applied to reduce sector overload , for example in
the DDI sector. In hindsight, ATC perceived that in many cases the regulation was not needed as
the predicted traffic load did not arrive as expected. This provides an opportunity to avoid regulation
although some system or procedure support will be necessary to he lp Controllers safely judge on
which occasions a regulation can be avoided.
The non-optimal use of Barcelona runways, discussed in section 2.1. With arrival aircraft landing on
the longest runway, 25R, throughput is affected each day by non-preferential departures of wide
body aircraft that need the long runway for take-off.
The proposal to reduce minimum radar separation on final approach will resolve issues related to
protecting a missed approach and the associated loss of throughput due to increase sepa ration
resulting in a loss in throughput is 2 movements for every three wide body departures. ATC
specialists believe that reducing the minimum radar separation to 2.5nm will reduce this gap to 6nm.
The challenge is that landing traffic need to consistently exit the runway in under 50 seconds to
ensure the reduced separation is safe.
Current runway occupancy time (ROT) varies around 50 or more seconds . This should be
addressed as discussed in the section 5.1.1, through implementation of a performance based
runway management.

Impact of BRAIN

Deployment of BRAIN was planned

in spring 2018, based on analysis of
ATC and Airline simulations,
training, coordination with airlines
and coordination with flight
management system (FMS) data
providers. However, the transition
to full implementation was
prolonged to the end of July,
extending the associated regulation
and delay.
This prolongation was due to lack of
full ATC operational readiness and Figure 30: BRAIN Transition ATFM Delay Summer 2018
continued operational errors by flight crew not fully aware of the p rocedure. Regulation was still
required to protect the sectors from traffic overload.
The implementation of BRAIN resulted in 14.4% of the overall airport and TMA delay for Barcelona
during summer 2018. This represented a total of 54,624 minutes of delay.
However, this phase of BRAIN is a “one off” implementation.
The BRAIN procedure reduces radar vectoring, one of the Controllers’ main techniques for
separating, sequencing and positioning aircraft onto final approach. With BRAIN, only the final radar
vector to turn the aircraft onto final approach, is retained. This is a n RNAV technique which requires
controller training and significant operational practice to develop controller efficiency, especially
concerning the vector onto final approach.
Deploying BRAIN close to summer was a brave and optimistic decision by Barcelona ATC,
nevertheless, the potential benefits were drivers for implementation. During implementation a
number of pilot “non-conformance” events occurred such as routing direct to the Final Approach Fix,
short cutting the procedure with potential safety implications.
Airlines commented on a lack of “distance to touchdown” information to help pilots manage aircraft
descent and energy (speed and descent rate) to ensure a stable final approach.

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In general, this mode of operation is easier for Controllers, as trajectories are more predictable and
the operation is standardised (it does not depend so much on the expertise of the controller).
Nevertheless, it requires training and on-the-job practical experience and this takes time.
During the implementation it was necessary to apply a reduction in capacity and therefore regulation,
resulting in delays. These are recorded as special event delay. Throughout the transition, capacity
gradually increased from 32 arrivals per hour at the start of the implementation up to the current 38
per hour.
The implementation of BRAIN was planned to take 24 days but in reality it took three months, lasting
until the end of July.
The reasons for this are:
 Controllers becoming accustomed to the procedure
 Some strip failures in SATCA (the ENAIRE ATC System)
 Pilot non-compliance with the procedure
The main consequence was extended regulation, longer than anticipated, with the accompanying
increase in delay.
By the end of the extended transition, the full runway throughput capability was achieved and no
further regulation was required.
On a positive note, BRAIN has reduced the need for airborne holding by 70% and brought a capacity
increment of one movement per hour. With more operational practice and experience for Controllers
and Pilots during winter 2018/2019, it can be expected that BRAIN will bring further performance
benefit to Barcelona.
With regard to procedures, additional systemisation could be achieved through strict use of BRAIN
to ensure pilot familiarity, providing distance to touchdown information to pilots, publishing and
systematically applying speed control reductions along the approach, and possibly reducing the size
of the pre-defined level bands.
This, combined with the reduced radar separation referred to earlier in this report, will have a
significant positive impact in delay reduction.
However, some caution is necessary since bad weather in the vicinity of the BRAIN arrival procedure
may require Controllers to revert to vectoring to avoid bad weather. This is not unique to Barcelona
and is normal practice.
Summary
The complexity of Barcelona Terminal Airspace sectors and the additional factors of VFR traffic, pilot
training, parachute operations and control of arrivals and departures to Girona, Reus and Lleida
airports adds significant workload for Controllers to manage as well as frequency congestion. These
issues are likely to increase with demand.
The Barcelona Arrival Management Sequencing tool, AMAN, is disturbed by late delivery of flight
update estimates from France due to the closeness of the boundary between Bordeaux, Marseilles
and Barcelona. This results in unnecessary Controller workload to reset the optimal sequence and
a suitable system fix should be identified and implemented.
Future TMA infrastructure should ensure segregation of IFR and VFR traffic through a dedicated
Flight Information Service (FIS) working position with a dedicated frequency. The design should
also consider segregating arrival and departure traffic through specialised sectors and redesigned
SIDs and STARs.
The recognition that using regulation to “protect” some arrival sectors from traffic overload has not
been necessary as the predicted traffic complexity did not happen should be taken as an opportunity
to trial periods of predicted Traffic complexity when regulation is not applied. This wil l require
significant analytical evidence and guidelines to support ATC regulation decision making .

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The ENAIRE deployment strategy, ATENEA, has already identified key actions to reduce complexity
and increase capacity through Terminal Airspace re-design.
The BRAIN project was one of the first of the ATENEA initiatives and BRAIN will further enhance
operations in 2019.
Whilst BRAIN implementation resulted in delay during summer 2018, it has brought efficiency to ATC
arrival operations by helping Controllers systematically build structured arrival sequences and better
manage the sequence gaps that are required to enable non-preferential wide body departures from
runway 25R.
However, a number of operational shortcomings were identified by airlines and ENAIRE during the
initial operation of BRAIN and these should be resolved in time for summer 2019.

Recommendations

Short Term
[M07] Enhanced BRAIN procedures
During the implementation of BRAIN, pilots complained of lack of distance to touchdown information
which is used to understand the descent profile and manage aircraft speed. This is critical to ensuring
an optimum continuous descent approach and to preparing the aircraft’s final approach to land
configuration.
There was confusion for some pilots not local to Barcelona operations resulting in some operational
errors.
It is recommended that ENAIRE further systemise BRAIN approach procedures by refining, testing
and if acceptable, publishing, the amended approach procedures, incorporating:
1. Predefined and systematically applied speed profiles, typically 210KTS downwind, 180KTS
base leg and 160KTS on final to 4NM;
2. Reduced level bands from 4000ft to 2000ft where level banding is applied;
3. Consistent use of “distance to touchdown” guidance from Controllers to support pilots in
managing the flight profile and aircraft energy, thereby avoiding unstable approaches
4. Continuous use of the procedure with no “ad-hoc” direct clearances in low traffic, to reinforce
and ensure pilot and controller proficiency in the procedures;
5. A rigid approach to use of standard phraseology to avoid non-local Pilot confusion, and
6. Incorporate BRAIN into the published STAR procedures, so there is only one reference for
approach.
The recommended changes should be communicated to and refined with airlines and Pilots, to
ensure the operability and full awareness of any procedure changes. The decision to implement the
change should be well informed by consultation with airlines in the event that the changes might be
too late to be fully integrated before summer 2019.
This recommendation is expected to systemise the application of BRAIN procedures making it easier
for Controllers and Pilots alike to manage the approach to land with improved aircraft profiles and
better adherence to the procedures. This systemised approach is ingrained in Heathrow and
Gatwick approach control resulting in consistent and predictable Controller and Pi lot performance
whilst the “trombone” technique (BRAIN)is used in Frankfurt and Munich.
There is need for additional study and validation of steps 1, 2 and 6 to confirm the applicability and
benefit before considering implementation of these parts of the recommendations by 2021.

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[M08] Trial of “Non-Application of Terminal Airspace Regulation (sector DDI)

During periods of predicted excessive demand, Barcelona has applied regulation to reduce traffic
rates in order to protect arrival sectors, in particular DDI sector. Post analysis has shown that these
regulations were not always required and the sector had the capacity to manage the anticipated
traffic.
It is recommended that ENAIRE explore what happens if regulation is not systematically applied, in
particular to sector DDI, when traffic predictions suggest excessive demand, as part of an approach
to SMART regulation.
Frequently, the reason for requiring a regulation is no longer valid. When ATC recognise this, the
regulation is removed. However, as it is implemented ahead of time, it is often too late and the result
of the regulation e.g. delayed departure, has already happened.
This recommendation is expected to test the need to systematically apply regulation and would lead
to further analysis of “non-regulation” to reduce the number of regulations applied and the associated
delay. It requires a studied approach and If successful, it will lead to reduced arrival delay.
This is a SMART approach to regulation and is part of the Network Managers approach to reduce
the systematic use of regulation.
Long Term
[M09] Improved Boundary Update Message for AMAN
As identified in section 2.2, the proximity of the French airspace boundary results in advanced
boundary update messages which incorrectly change the Barcelona AMAN sequence. This requires
Controller manual input to correct the sequence.
It is recommended that ENAIRE identify another data source to update the Barcelona arrival
manager with arrival estimates other than those sent following the Bordeaux advanced bou ndary
information. A more accurate estimate could be taken from one of the A-CDM milestone times such
as the Flight Update Message sent by the Network Manager, or an appropriate estimate from the
SACTA ATC system.
This recommendation is a system update and expected to resolve the incorrect resequencing due
to late estimate information sent from France, removing the unnecessary workload and Controller
frustration when having to manually update or reset the Barcelona sequence.
ENAIRE has indicated that data needs to be collected during summer 2019 for in-depth analysis
before a technical solution can be developed, tested and implemented. A solution will not be feasible
for summer 2019.
[M10] Reduced Minimum Radar Separation
The current 3 NM minimum radar separation used by Barcelona ATC could be reduced to 2.5 NM,
which, together with performance based runway occupancy management, would reduce the need to
increase final approach spacing to 8nm to provide a safe gap for wide -body departures from runway
25R. It would also be an enabler for ROCAT, providing additional runway throughput.
It is recommended that ENAIRE implement a minimum radar separation of 2.5 NM to increase
runway throughput and reduce the impact of non-preferential wide-body departures from runway
25R. This will require a detailed local safety case to justify the improvement to the National safety
regulator.
This recommendation is expected to mitigate the impact of non -preferential wide-body departures
from runway 25R. It is also an enabler to increased throughput or resilience by itself, as well as a
precursor to the deployment of ROCAT. The reduction is applied in UK, France, Germany and
Austria.
This task depends on M01 (Performance Based Runway Occupancy Time Management) and on
AESA approval, based on safety analysis, appropriate validation and training.

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[M11] Terminal Airspace Redesign

Barcelona TMA has complex airspace and operational procedures. As identified above, the
numerous adjacent airports and VFR operations as well as sectors that manage b oth arrival and
departure flows results in complexity, high Controller workload and a need for regulation to manage
traffic load which results in delay.
It is recommended that ENAIRE continue its efforts as identified in the ATENEA Strategy to improve
the sector design and segregate arrival and departure traffic. An early deployment of a FIS Controller
with a dedicated frequency during peak traffic should also be considered to segregate VFR and IFR
traffic, reducing workload and frequency over loading.
Other Opportunities.
It is understood that in the long term, an option to deploy Point Merge is under consideration.
EUROCONTROL welcomes the opportunity to support ENAIRE through knowledge transfer and
expert assistance on Point Merge and to support any implementation decision.
It is important to identify early in the development process if the proposed Point Merge procedure
will bring significant additional benefits beyond those attributed to BRAIN.

5.1.3 En-route and Neighbouring Airspace

Barcelona En-Route Traffic grew on average 4.6% during summer 2018, compared to 2017.
From January to September, this airspace suffered 333,952 minutes of ATFM delay, all causes, with
weather and ATC Capacity representing 90% of the total.
The en-route central sector (CCC) was particularly affected by ATFM delay, suffering 42,448 minutes
of weather delay (out of 120.320 of en-route weather delay), 7,921 minutes of ATC Capacity delay
and 4870 minutes of delay due to ATC Staffing.
As discussed in section 2.3, the CCC sectors play a significant role, managing traffic flows into
Barcelona and the Balearic Islands from France, geographically positioned to the north east of the
Barcelona Area Control Centre airspace, bordering Marseille . On occasion, the CCU (upper) and
CCL (lower) sectors, part of the CCC sector family, were operationally “collapsed” due to severe
flight plan deviation by aircraft avoiding bad weather.
Depending on the traffic flows, two CCC sectors can become overloaded and ENAIRE is evaluating
the creation of a dynamic airspace volume that can be allocated to the busiest CCC sector to create
a larger airspace volume to facilitate the management of peak traffic demand. As previously
discussed, this will require justification to AESA. The change is expected to reduce delay but not
fully mitigate it.
Another sector family, BAS, also suffered
significant capacity issues. ENAIRE has
planned to split this sector into two separate
sectors in 2020, adding additional capacity.
One major task of the Barcelona En-route
Centre is to manage traffic to and from
Bordeaux Centre, Barcelona and the Balearic
islands. The current agreement uses a single
transfer point for aircraft transiting between
the two Centres. With increasing demand,
this has become inefficient and overloaded.
In fact, there are two transfer points on the
boundary between France and Spain:
GIROM, used on weekdays and OKABI on Figure 31: Traffic Imbalance at GIROM and OKABI
weekends.

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These single transfer points result in excessive traffic merging at a single point for traffic transiting
between France and Spain, creating a bottleneck (Figure 9).
In Barcelona the GO sectors manage traffic
on the GIROM / OKABI axis. These sectors
have continued to absorb increasing traffic
demand during summer 2018 as can be
seen in figure 31.
The decision to add an additional point,
NATPI, agreed in January 2019 (described
in section 2.3) should be formalised and
procedures designed and implemented for
summer 2019. This will relieve GO sector
workload and should result in capacity
increase.
A technical issue identified is the inability to
retrieve flight plans from Madrid Centre for
aircraft that have deviated from Madrid
airspace into Barcelona airspace due to
weather avoidance, leading to flight plan
deviation. This capability does not exist in
the SACTA ATC System.
Taking into account the considerable
weather issues it 2018, it is highly advisable
that this capability is implemented in SACTA Figure 32: Additional Transfer point (NATPI) and Airspace
to avoid Controllers having to manually volume allocation
prepare flight plans when flights divert from one Centre to another. This is likely to be a National
issue so a common solution will have wider benefit.
The issue of D21A, only used for 70 hours per year, was identified in 2.3 (figure 10) and should be
addressed to avoid additional routing to deviate around the area. The traffic on the impact ed route
is around 200 flights per day which are unnecessarily rerouted through three additional sectors. A
dialogue with the appropriate military organisations should be initiated to achieve an equitable
solution to reduce complexity of this already challenging airspace.

Recommendations

Short Term Mitigation

[M12] Implement Bordeaux Barcelona Boundary Transfer Point NATPI Agreement
Traffic transiting between the Bordeaux and Barcelona airspace are required to cross via a single
transfer point which creates a bottleneck no longer adapted to the increased traffic and complex
traffic management undertaken by Controllers. An agreement is in preparation to improve the
situation by adding a second point to create parallel traffic flows, reducing complexity and the i mpact
of the “bottleneck.”
This is common ATC practice to reduce operational complexity and increase capacity by creating
parallel routes across airspace boundaries.
It is recommended that Barcelona and Bordeaux complete the procedure design and implement the
agreed additional transfer point, NATPI, in time for summer 2019. The additional actions to i mprove
traffic distribution on the new transfer points and the existing points should be formalised in a new
Letter of Agreement between Barcelona and Bordeaux Area Control Centres.

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This recommendation is expected to significantly reduce the complexity at the airspace boundary,
facilitating the traffic management and control tasks necessary to prepare the traffic sequences
either towards France or arrivals towards Barcelona and the Balearic islands.
Long Term
[M13] Implement SACTA Flight Plan Retrieval for Weather Deviating Flights
During severe weather, aircraft deviate significantly from their flight plan and may cross from Madrid
Centre airspace into Barcelona Centre airspace, or vice versa. When this occurs, the Controller has
to coordinate to obtain flight details from the transferring Centre and manually create a flight plan.
Given the severity and amount of severe weather in summer 2018 and the increasing trend of severe
weather, it is advisable that ENAIRE updates the SACTA system to support easy flight plan retrieval
by the sector controller receiving the diverting flight. This is likely to bring National benefit.
It is recommended that ENAIRE develop a flight plan retrieval application in SACTA for summer
2019 that allows a Controller receiving an aircraft diverting from one Centre’s airspace to another’s,
to quickly retrieve and create a flight plan for that flight, thus enabling the flight monitoring, sector
profiles and transfer functions in SACTA.
This recommendation is expected to resolve the lack of system support for flight plan retrieval,
facilitating the Controllers work during periods of high workload during poor weather conditions that
result in flights deviating across Centre boundaries.
ENAIRE has commented that this recommendation requires significant system modifications and
would not be available until 2021.
[M14] Dynamic Sector Volume Allocation
During peak summer traffic, the sector CCC family can be overloaded by traffic inbound flows to
Bordeaux or to the Balearic Islands from Marseilles. When this happens one of the sectors in the
CCC sector family may become overloaded. It is proposed to define a “dynamic airspace volume”
that can be allocated to the sector that is overload, to provide additional airspace in an attempt to
facilitate the Controller’s work in vectoring to create the initial arrival sequence.
A “dynamic airspace volume” is a new concept in Spain and although it is used elsewhere, i n Italy
for example, it will require a full justification and safety assessment to obtain approval from the
Spanish Regulators, AESA.
It is recommended that the ENAIRE develop the “dynamic airspace volume” concept, validate the
procedures and complete a detailed safety proposal to justify its use to the regulator, in time for
implementation by summer 2019.
This recommendation is expected to bring additional capacity to the sectors involved although it is
not expected to fully resolve the delay generated by these sectors.
[M15] Negotiate a Flexible Use of Airspace Solution to Reduce Impact of D21A
The military area D21A is lightly used and impacts a busy airway in Barcelona Airspace. The impact
of D21A is an increase in track miles flown to deviate around the area and an increase in the number
of sectors through which the deviation route crosses.
It is recommended that ENAIRE and the Spanish Military Authorities work together to identify a
Flexible Use of Airspace solution that equitably resolves the issue of re -routing and additional sector
crossing to the satisfaction of both organisations.
This recommendation is expected to provide a solution that reduces the additional track miles flown
and the associated cost to airspace users.

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5.2 ANALYSIS PER ATM DELAY ISSUE

5.2.1 Weather
Top View

From June to end September

2018, Network en-route weather
average daily delays increased
from 2,129,118 minutes to 3,598,
289 minutes, compared to 2017.
This represents an increase of
almost 70% for the reference
period!
The impact of Network summer
weather delay on Barcelona was
further exacerbated by severe
Figure 33: Summer ATFM Delay Attributed to Weather in LEBLARR
local weather, both on the airport
and in adjacent airspace, significantly impacting arrivals and departures.
Barcelona weather delay was almost half (46%) of the overall regulation type impacting Barcelona
Airport and Terminal Airspace operations.

Causes and Impact of Weather Delay

Table 4 Summary of summer 2018 Weather Regulations in Barcelona Table 5: Weather regulation Compared
Airport 2018-2017
In the period June to September, there was a 52% increase in Barcelona airport
weather delay with respect to 2017 and 300% increase on 2016. The airport
weather was accompanied by 37 days of one or more weather regulation s (in
total there were 44 weather regulations). In 2017 for the same period there were
42 weather regulations (table 4).
Two factors that may further explain “why” there is significantly more delay in
2018 compared to 2017, despite the minimal increase in regulations are
increased total duration and more flights impacted (Table 5).
Analysis of the two years also shows a difference in the time period when the
regulations were applied: in 2017 delays were mostly in the morning, whilst in
2018 they were mostly in the afternoon / evening. Of course, weather delay in
the network was also significantly worse in 2018 exacerbating the overall
weather delay impacting Barcelona traffic.
Weather regulations amounted to 5,529 flights being regulated, accumulating Figure 34: Weather
123,466 minutes of Barcelona arrival delay, excluding any additional Terminal Types (AENA)
Airspace (TMA) delay, which was 51,322 minutes.
The peak Barcelona weather delays range from 8,000 to 11,00 0 minutes of delay, for example,
impacting between 220 and 356 arrival flights in peak delay. Fortunately only one of the peak delays
corresponded to a busy weekend.

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With flights impacted by both Network and Barcelona weather regulations, flight rotations suffered
further from reactionary delay. Additional performance deterioration would have been experienced
from ATC using control techniques to manage air traffic acute complexity created by aircraft deviating
to avoid severe weather, to reduce traffic loading on controllers so they can manage non-standard
and safety critical situations.
As can be seen in figure 34, the main types of weather causing delay were Cumulus Nimbus (CB)
and Thunder Storms (TS) both of which require aircraft to deviate around or h old before departure.
These techniques include:
 “Miles-in-trail” which is a form of en-route holding achieved by increasing separation between
aircraft, to provide additional space to manoeuvre aircraft around storms as well as reducing
the simultaneous number of aircraft in a sector to increase safety and reduce workload.
 “Traffic stop” simply stopping departures for example, to create “respite” and a reduction in
the number of aircraft in a given volume of airspace.
 Additional “track miles” (vectoring aircraft around storm areas), and
 “Ad hoc airspace holding” (holding patterns created by ATC when there are too many aircraft
in a given airspace) used by ATC to manage severe traffic disruption and controller workload
due to weather avoidance.
Whilst the weather impact on arrival flights is primarily Barcelona regulation, departure flights were
primarily impacted by ATFM Network delay.
From an airline perspective, weather regulation resulted in flight delays, diversion and cancellation,
reactionary delay, disrupting their daily schedule.

Figure 35: Example of Regulation / METAR / TAF / Wind Analysis

An initial analysis of the 44 weather regulations at Barcelona that were applicable from June to
September 2018 compared the actual duration of each regulation and its activation time with the
TAFs and METARs registered at the same date (figure 35 example). The average daily wind based
on METAR information was also considered.
Whilst this analysis provides an initial overview, a deeper investigation is needed to clarify the impact
of other factors impacting the application of weather regulations (i.e. upper winds, pilot reports, etc.),
based on the available evidence.
The analysis permits the following high level observations:
 There is inconsistency in the application of the 44 weather related regulations applied
during the summer with the forecast and actual meteorological reports, observed by
comparing TAF / METAR data and the 44 weather regulations (Figure 35 is an example
of the 3rd June).

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 The comparison identified regulations with a predictable approach based on the

information available and other regulations with limited consistency to the TAFs. ATC
interpret forecast information following laid down procedures, to safeguard future
operations. It is safety driven and cautious. The information is provided by AEMET as
for most Met and ATC organisations. ATC can consult with AEMET forecasters to have
additional information before taking regulation action. ENAIRE is responsible for issuing
the regulation. This is normal ATC practice today.
Short term regulation may also have been based on METAR, routine meteorological
reports, based on observation, for severe and quickly emerging weather conditions
impacting runway throughput. Super heating of the sea area around Barcelona and the
nearby Pyrenees mountains can result in quick development of cumulonimbus cloud
structures (CB) and strong thunderstorms, dangerous to flight.
 For cases where the weather regulation extends beyond a certain time in the evening,
the reason for the regulation may evolve. This could potentially lead to a decrease of the
delay generated by weather and an increase of the delay generated by environmental
reasons. It is believed that this is not always expressed in the additional remarks field and
therefore it is difficult to quantify.
The EUROCONTROL analysis shows gaps and issues which are not uncommon at other airports,
for example, regulation set by ATC based on forecast bad weather, which does not materialise in
the end. This happened on quite a number of occasions in Barcelona, and whilst not unusual in
ATC, the trend towards increasing severe summer weather justifies detailed investigation and
investment to move towards SMART regulation and best in class when setting regulations.
Overall, two issues arise regarding local weather regulation at the airport. The first concerns airline
lack of visibility on impact and duration of a weather regulation when re-planning a flight to avoid
weather. A second issue is the challenge for ATC to assess, set and review an appropriate
regulation based on the information available.
In both cases, the opportunity to use probabilistic weather assessment and prediction tools would
greatly enhance the assessment and support ATC in defining an accurate regulation. ENAIRE has
recognised this opportunity and plans to deploy a predictive MET tool provided by EARTH Networks,
already used by FAA, NATS and DFS. To note that the FAA is now using Big Data and Machine
Learning to identify weather re-routing options.
Detailed data analysis with modern machine learning techniques applied to the historical weather
regulation data to improve understanding of impact and probability, could be an occasion for
improved decision making, generating an opportunity to refine and apply smart weather regulation.
There is also a need to ensure a visible and traceable process by which regulations are applied
based on the forecast information and additional decision support. A visible procedure defining the
basis for assessment and thresholds for local weather regulation decision making, together with a
recording mechanism, would support communication with the airport operations duty staff and airline
duty officers, providing visibility to airlines and supporting overall improved planning.
Such a mechanism also provides an opportunity to further structure weather regulation data for post
operations analysis improving the impact assessment of airport and Network weather regulation on
the airport operation thus enhancing common situational awareness in SMART regulation.
Summary
Weather delay represented half of all delay impacting Barcelona airport and Terminal Airspace
during summer 2018. Weather impacting both arrivals and departures came from the Network,
Barcelona airspace and airport weather events.
44 weather regulations were issued during the reference period and weather resulted in crisis
situations for airlines with cancellations, re-routing, and delay with significant repercussions on
operations, passenger welfare and costs.

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ATC was similarly affected with operations disrupted and regulations needed to reduce ATC
complexity and ensure safety.
It is likely that poor weather will continue to be an issue in future years, considering current evolution
of weather patterns. ATC, as in other countries, uses forecast information to decide on future t raffic
flows and understandably is conservative when applying regulation.
Understanding a weather forecast, being able to better predict evolution of weather and an accurate
outcome, and to have direct and immediate access to meteorological forecasting expertise to support
analysis is now critical for Barcelona Flow Managers (FMP) and Tower Supervisor staff.
A SMART approach (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely) to accurately address
regulation is essential to avoid unnecessary and overly cautious regulations. This requires new
techniques and expertise.
ENAIRE has embraced this need and is planning to deploy advanced capabilities in 2019 to move
towards SMART regulation and reduce unnecessary regulation which is extremely costly to Airlines.
The measures include:
 Contract with EARTH Networks to provide predictive tools to identify direction, duration
and evolution over time of storms in the vicinity of Barcelona. This will directly support a
SMART approach to weather regulation although there will be a learning period in
summer 2019, and
 AEMET Forecaster staff being located in the Area Control Centre to directly support and
advise ATC
These are important and welcome changes.
Another issue was the lack of communication between Airlines, ENAIRE and AENA on bad weather,
the likely impact and the measures to be proposed. Lack of communication made it extremely
difficult for airlines to plan their actions often resulting in crisis situations. This is dealt with in section
5.3.2 where communication is discussed in more detail
Short Term
[M16] Weather Prediction Tools, Direct Meteorology Forecaster Support and SMART
Regulation
As described above, ATC is naturally cautious when implementing weather regulations due to the
lack of supporting information and decision support tools on likelihood of occurrence, weather
severity, evolution and duration. This can lead to overcautious regulations and occasional
unnecessary regulation with an associated high cost to airlines.
It is recommended that ENAIRE deploy the weather prediction tools and AEMET meteorology
forecaster support as planned. ENAIRE should ensure that their weather regulation process is
updated, ensure staff are fully trained in the new tools, have clear procedures for AEMET and
ENAIRE staff to work together and have clear SMART regulation decision making criteria covering
how weather regulation will be deployed, justified and reviewed.
For this to be successful, AEMET should fully support ENAIRE.
This recommendation is expected to improve the understanding of forecast weather phenomenon
and help to support SMART regulation, optimising the use of weather regulation and leading to
reduced weather delay.
ENAIRE should consult and explain the changes, with AENA and the main Barcelona airlines to
ensure full visibility, understanding and build confidence of stakeholders.
Airlines have indicated that they are willing to take a limited amount of risk on diversion and delay to
avoid regulation. ENAIRE should fully understand their position and consider how this might be
incorporated into their SMART weather regulation proceses, whilst making it clear to stakeholders,
that in all cases, safe operations remain the top priority for ATC.

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Communication
Communicating weather disruption to airlines, AENA ground handling and other stakeholders is
fundamental!
This should be a normal and continuous communication, including the need for regulation, its
likelihood, applicability, duration etc. and must be a systematic process in Barcelona.
Whilst communication is strongly linked to the above recommendation, it has a wider application
than weather regulation so is discussed in section 5.3.2.

Long Term

Understanding SMART regulation will require an in-depth analysis of weather and regulation data.
The use of big data and machine learning techniques could be applied to support weather regulation
decision making based on historical data and real time data.
EUROCONTROL would welcome the opportunity to work with ENAIRE using Barcelona weather
Regulation as a study Use Case with a view to developing Weather Regulation decision support
capability for FMP and ATC Tower Supervisors, based on historic weather, regulations and results.
This study would cover a wider analysis of the applied procedures, the regulations applied and why,
and the impact of the actions taken leading to lessons learned and possible guidance. It should
include an in-depth analytics “big data” study to assess the benefits of applying machine learning
techniques to provide decision support to weather regulation.
This study would provide guidance for a similar approach to SMART regulation in general.

5.2.2 Industrial Action

Top View

From June to end September 2018

total Network ATFM delay 500000
attributable to Industrial Action
increased from 128,180 minutes to 400000
309,958 minutes, compared to
2017.
300000
This represents a significant
increase of 141% for the reference 200000
period!
During the same period, there was 100000
no Industrial Action in Barcelona
ACC or Barcelona Airport. 0
ALL LOCATIONS, ALL ALL LOCATIONS, ATC MARSEILLE, ATC
REASONS CAPACITY, INDUSTRIAL CAPACITY, INDUSTRIAL
Cause and Effect ACTION, ATC STAFFING ACTION ATC STAFFING
ATC CAPACITY INDUSTRIAL ACTION ATC STAFFING TOTAL
Industrial Action was particularly
significant in the Marseilles Area
Control Centre, leading into summer Figure 36: ATFM Delays for Barcelona Arrivals Summer 2018
2018.

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In June 2018, three weekends

involving six days of industrial
action in France were recorded with
ATFM Delay attributable to
Marseille.
This delay is particularly important
to Barcelona traffic due to the direct
proximity of neighbouring Marseille
airspace and the considerable
amount of Barcelona traffic that flies
through this airspace, particularly
significant on weekend peak traffic
demand. Figure 37: Traffic Flow LEBL-Italy: Main Delay Contributors

To illustrate the scale of impact on

Barcelona operations, during the month of June 2018, 70% of the arriving traffic to Barcelona
transited through Marseille airspace.
The delay impacting Barcelona arrivals and departures attributable to industrial action (all locations)
was around 29,960 minutes with potentially 3,700 additional minutes of related ATFM delay allocated
to “other.”
Fortunately, industrial action is pre- warned, which, from an airline operational perspective, provides
opportunity to plan advance mitigation to reduce impact.
Nevertheless, Industrial Action in Marseilles resulted in airlines having to re-plan, cancel and re-
route flights to avoid the affected airspace. In some cases the result would be aircraft out of position
for subsequent rotations and flight crews out of hours.
If we combine ATC Capacity, ATC Staffing and Industrial Action, the overall impact of Marseille
Airspace issues on traffic arriving and departing Barcelona Airport is significant
This was 39% (150,013 min) of Marseilles ATFM Delay directly impacting Barcelona.
During the summer 2018, arriving traffic to Barcelona had 72,387 minutes of ATFM Delay attributable
to Marseille (ATC Capacity Industrial Action and ATC Staffing). This was an increase of 140% from
2017 (30,281 minutes in 2017).
The delay for the arrival traffic attributable to Marseilles due to these three reasons accounted for
14% of the ATFM Delay, same reasons, for the arriving traffic attributable to all locations in the
Network.
This means that for each minute of delay to Barcelona, 8.5 seconds of delay per flight were
attributable to Marseille, and for the reasons mentioned.
The impact on traffic flows to/from Italy, one of the busiest routes during summer 2018, can be seen
in Figure 37, clearly showing the impact of Marseilles on Barcelona arrival and departures..
The impact of delay as a cost to airlines is considerable. An important cost impact includes
reparations made to passengers under EU regulation 261 together with the cost of any other actions
taken by airlines related to passenger care. This is a significant concern of airlines and all possible
actions to reduce delay to airlines need to be identified and addressed.

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Summary

It is clear that Barcelona was significantly impacted by industrial action in the network and particularly
in Marseilles Area Control Centre (6 days in June 2016). Impact of Marseilles Industrial Action (14%
of overall delays in Barcelona), ATC Staffing and Capacity delays in June alone, affected 70% of
arrivals to Barcelona.

In effect, Barcelona is “captive” to Marseilles issues. Of the total of Industrial Action, ATC Staffing
and Capacity ATFM delays generated during the reference summer period, 40% of the related
Marseilles delay directly impacted Barcelona.

The “losers” in this unfortunate situation are European citizens and the airlines that serve them.
Airlines were required to re-route around the affected airspace when possible, re-plan and cancel
flights to a significant cost, including costs attributable to EU Regulation 261 on Passenger Rights.

As an example, Vueling alone quoted its approximate additional costs in Q2 and Q3 2018 to cover
the performance issues in Barcelona (including operational costs) were in excess of 50 million euro.

Unfortunately, there are few remedies that can be applied by ENAIRE and AENA and Barcelona is
a hostage to circumstances. However, airlines need to be aware of the potential and have scenario
based plans ready to activate in the event industrial action impacting their operations are announced
in summer 2019.

European organisations, including EUROCONTROL Network Manager and the States involved
should consider the possibility of defining preferential routings that airlines can flight plan to avoid
areas generating major delay due to Industrial Action, with clearly ide ntified levels of service, to
reduce the impact on International traffic.

This could be a pre-emptive and coordinated action in preparation for possible Industrial Action in
summer 2019

Recommendations

Short Term
The industrial action was outside of Spanish jurisdiction, nevertheless, it is important that the cost of
delay due to such action is clearly identified and communicated to at the political level to ensure full
awareness to all European actors and organisations.
[M17] Airline Pre-Defined Scenarios to Mitigate Industrial Action
Industrial action in Marseilles severely impacts airlines operating out of Barcelona (and Spain in
general) leading to costly re-routing, when feasible, and cancelations. During such actions, the only
options available to airlines are flight planning around the affected area or cancelling flights and re-
scheduling passengers where possible.
Airlines need to be aware of the potential and have scenario based plans ready to activate in the
event industrial action impacting their operations are announced in summer 2019.
It is recommended Barcelona based airlines develop operational scenarios to avoid the impact of
industrial action in 2019, including the possibility of reducing flights through and defining preferred
re-routing options around, the affected airspace. These scenarios should be discussed with ENAIRE
and the Network Manager so they can be coordinated with the Air Navigation Services likely to be
involved, and preferential routings agreed in anticipation.
This recommendation is expected to ensure that airlines, authorities, the Network Manager and
ANSPs are fully aware of the actions to take and services to put in place in the event of further
Industrial Action in Summer 2019. It will support an optimisation of fleet use and facilitate greater
predictability of daily schedules.

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Awareness should be part of the communications processes in Barcelona airport so that any
declared industrial action identified by the Network Manager is quickly and clearly communicated to
all stakeholders. Where necessary, common planning can be defined and actions to mitigate the
impact raised by ENAIRE to the Network Manager to facilitate their successful implementation.

5.2.3 ATC Staffing

Top View
From June to end September 2018, Total Network ATFM delay due to ATC Staffing increased from
1,084,131 minutes to 3,234,785 minutes, compared to 2017. This represents an increase of almost
198% for the reference period.
As already seen, Barcelona Area Control Centre has been particularly affected by the ATC staffing
issues in Marseilles Area Control Centre. As identified above (figure 37), analysis of traffic departing
Barcelona to Italy shows this traffic to be impacted by 10.339 minutes of ATC staffing delay in
Marseilles. The same traffic flow was impacted in June by around 3890 minutes of delay due to
Industrial action.
However, Marseilles was not alone and Network figures show other destination airports generated
ATC staffing delay and affecting Barcelona departures.
Barcelona ATC Staffing
Locally, Barcelona is concerned by insufficient staffing levels for its ATC operation.
This is in part a consequence of the reduction of working hours and the subsequent loss of staff
availability due to social / legal restrictions as well as a lack of Controller recruitment in preceding
years. This loss of staff availability equates to a yearly average equivalent of around 35 full time
employees in Barcelona Area Control centre.
Assessment of staffing needs is based on existing ENAIRE processes and methodologies used
throughout Spain and applied to capacity and roster planning. ENAIRE operational staff work a
basic 5/3 work rotation (i.e. 5 days of work followed by 3 days off). This is a classic shift rostering
scheme.
A side effect of the staffing challenge in Barcelona Area Control Centre is an inability to assure
adequate participation of ATC staff in operational improvement projects. Such experts are not
released during peak traffic periods, causing a potential knock-on effect of delayed improvement
project implementation.
Another issue of the lack of Controller recruitment is delay in retirements leading to an unbalanced
pyramid of ages, which has a negative effect on the Controller workforce.
However, recruitment of new staff has re-started with Barcelona being a priority which will result in
a net increase in controller numbers and a younger staff, in future years (see figure 39).
Analysis of Staff Planning methodology
Overall capacity and resource planning in Spain is performed by ENAIRE Corporate, with the En-
Route Operations Division performing capacity planning, and the ENAIRE Corporate ATS Human
Resources (HR) Planning Department performing the subsequent resource planning.
The basis for capacity planning is a review of historic data with the aim of establishing future demand.
This process is applied with a relatively low level of granularity, meaning that the most demanding
day for a certain period is used for planning those weekdays for the entire period.
This inherently leads to buffers and some inefficiencies, but the exact level of buffer / inefficiency is
currently not assessed. Although this methodology is considered to be demand-based, it can be
argued to what extent this is really the case.

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The actual roster planning for Barcelona Area Control Centre and Tower is performed by the local
Head of Human Resources Planning Department in Barcelona.
As a result of the above methodology for capacity planning, the roster planning for operational staff
suffers the same buffers and related inefficiencies. Furthermore, the labour agreement currently in
place is considered obsolete, inflexible and therefore does not meet the need of Barcelona Area
Control Centre (which will be the same for other operational Centres in Spain) . This obviously further
aggravates the effects of the inefficiencies mentioned above.
The resulting rigidity of the allocation of shifts within the strict 5/3 roster framework is another main
contributing factor. The operational shifts themselves are fixed and cannot easily be changed despite
the fact that they are not adapted to the current traffic patterns in Barcelona.
Some tactical rostering is done manually to mitigate the effects but without the benefit of effective
resource support tools.
As a consequence, staff are regularly required to work overtime shifts, whereby the planned 5/3
rotation is changed into a 6/2 rotation. The effects of this with regard to the upcoming Fatigue Risk
Management regulations have not been assessed in detail.
The rigidity of the current 5/3 roster limits the ability to accurately match staffing to demand, and
constrains the greater flexibility in rostering which is required and desired. To achieve such changes
will, however, require national coordination and negotiation with the social partners.
Lack of staff availability and rostering flexibility in Barcelona has resulted in:
 The need to collapse sectors, despite increasing demand;
 Staffing gaps between evening and night shifts;
 An impact on the ability to train new staff, and
 Lack of operational expertise to support operational improvement projects.
ENAIRE is committed to add 420 new
Controllers to its staff up to 2025 (taking into
account retirements, leave and active
reserve). This will entail a net increase of
employees by 21.3% when compared to
2017, that is, from 1,974 Controllers to
2,394.
For Barcelona this represents a net increase
of 96 additional Controllers planned up to
2023, an increase on 2017 of 32.2%.
This takes account of retirements and
provides an opportunity to review staff
training and ATC qualification policy, looking Figure 38: Planned Annual Staff Increase
towards optimisation through specialisation of Controllers according to business needs, as
discussed below.

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Summary

There is a perceived staff shortage especially in the Barcelona Area Control Centre.
EUROCONTROL considers that there are obvious opportunities for optimising the resource
management processes both short and long term, and that, critically, there might be an issue of lack
of staff availability rather than just a problem of the actual number of staff.

This has been exacerbated by a lack of recruitment, staffing allocation rules as well as an unbalanced
age pyramid of operational staff. There is a challenge to have sufficient staff allocated during peak
traffic period, when office staff with current validations are required to provide back-up and
operational experts are not released to support performance improvement projects.

However, this shortage of staff availability could, for a large part, be mitigated through application of
up-to-date, efficient demand based processes deployed through a new and flexible rostering
scheme.

These demand based processes would be rooted in an in-depth post operational analysis of all data
relevant to the staff planning, thereby ensuring that staffing is accurately targeted towa rds the
predicted demand, rather than being a result of an outdated and inefficient roster framework such
as the current 5/3 system.

An additional prospect is the effect of the current ENAIRE training and rating strategy where staff
are trained to obtain all 3 licenses (tower, approach and en-route). This is a time consuming and
costly process which should be assessed in detail with regard to cost, benefit and opportunity for
staff to specialise. Many European ANSPs have evolved their training and rating strategy to
specialised qualification to fit with business needs.
The effort required for these mitigations to be realised should, however, not be underestimated.
EUROCONTROL’s experience is that the required dialogue with social partners needs careful
preparation as the changes have significant social impact.

Recommendations

Short Term
In the short term, even minor changes to the current shifts may offer opportunities for significant
improvements in sector opening (e.g. between evening and night shifts).
Nevertheless, it is recognised that such minor changes to the shifts may be seen as a change to the
existing labour agreement, and that it may not be possible to negotiate such changes locally in
Barcelona, as labour agreements are nationwide with the social partners.
An assessment should be made as to whether the current system of training staff for all 3 licenses
(tower, approach and en-route) is the best and most cost-efficient solution, or whether a higher
degree of specialisation would offer increased staff availability.
[M18] Post-Operational Staffing Analysis
The challenge of recruitment, staffing levels and the 5/3 rostering scheme are a national process
and linked to historical agreements. With increased demand, an aging works force and the need for
greater and more agile business practices, current proceses are considered to be inefficient and
outdated by staff, social partners and ENAIRE management.
A future agreement should be well informed with the impact of current practices and should be
monitored with enhanced post operations analysis. Such analysis is used today in Maastricht Upper
Area Centre.

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In alignment with [M21] Enhance, Focus and Deepen ATC Post Operational Analysis, it is
recommended that ENAIRE widens the current post-operational analysis to include an in-depth
review, specifically aimed at analysing the data and factors important for the staff planning processes
(e.g. optimum sector opening, hourly sector allocation, actual working time on position versus
available working time, and actual sector loads versus declared loads).
This recommendation is expected to define the most accurate Sector Opening Table (SOT) for the
future. This SOT should be accurately staffed according to the current set of rules until new
agreements are reached through negotiation for an enhanced and demand based staffing and
rostering system.
Long Term
[M19] Implementation of a Flexible Rostering Scheme
The current 5/3 rostering scheme is costly, inefficient, lacks flexibility and is no longer able to adapt
to increasing traffic demand.
It is recommended that ENAIRE implement a flexible demand based rostering scheme that at the
same time satisfies the upcoming regulation for Fatigue Risk Management Scheme (FRMS).
This will entail the definition, negotiation and implementation of a new basic shift roster whereby the
planning would not be constrained by a fixed 5/3 basic rotation, but rather subject to more flexible
allocation of shifts, targeting an adequate opening of sectors to meet the predicted traffic demand.
This recommendation is expected to offer increased staff efficiency, freeing up resources in order to
address the current staffing shortfall during peak traffic periods and in the late evening.
The increased staff availability would also offer opportunities in terms of freeing up operational
resources for participation in project related activities.
It is EUROCONTROLs experience that changes to working conditions in general, but especially
changes to shift rosters, has a significant impact on staff and as a result attracts widespread attention
from the social partners. It is therefore recommended that ENAIRE revisits its social dialogue
platform to ensure it is prepared to host such discussions/negotiations between ENAIRE corporate,
the regional/local units and the staff represented by the social partners.
EUROCONTROL welcomes the opportunity to support ENAIRE, with its experience of implementing
a similar scheme in the Maastricht Upper Area Centre (MUAC).
This would include support in the advance preparatory work of ensuring the existence of a suitable
social dialogue platform, as well as the actual establishment, negotiation and subsequent
implementation of the best fit flexible demand based rostering scheme .

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5.2.4 ATC Capacity

Top View

From June to end September 2018,

Total Network ATFM delay due to
ATC Capacity increased from
3,456,272 minutes to 5,716,276
minutes, compared to 2017. This
represents an increase of 65% for
the reference period
For the same reference period,
Barcelona Airport and TMA
generated 18,653 and 65,001 min
of ATFM delay respectively due to
ATC Capacity.
During this period, Barcelona
airport arrivals suffered 103,928
minutes of ATFM ATC Capacity Figure 39: NOP Declared Sectors and Actual opening (Saturday)
delay and departures 95500
minutes, regardless of the Network location of the regulation.

Cause and Effect

Whilst the average number of sectors opened was equal to 2017, the Network Operations Plan
(NOP) declared sector openings for Barcelona Area Control Centre were not always delivered.
It was identified that during peak traffic, en-route and Terminal Airspace sectors were regulated to
manage excessive demand.
The result of the Barcelona Terminal Manoeuvring Area being regulated impacts both Barcelona
arrival and departing flights.
Barcelona En-route and Terminal Airspace are complex airspace structures, especially considering
the proximity of Bordeaux and Marseilles FIR and Balearic Island airports.
Controllers face challenges to integrate Barcelona arrival traffic flows, ensuring initial sequence
development and descent profiles in preparation for arrival procedures.
Departures from Barcelona to France airspace are integrated into traffic flows by Barcelona
Controllers before transfer at single exit points for Bordeaux and Marseilles before transfer of control.
The proximity of the French FIR boundary results in updated boundary estimates for Barcelona
arrivals being sent too late resulting in a negative impact on the Arrival Manager, requiring manual
interaction. A possible solution could be to use the Flight Update Message (FUM) from A-CDM is a
potential “stop-gap” solution.
Another possible solution could be to carry out an evaluation to ascertain if EUROCONTROL’s B2B
web service flight data output are sufficiently accurate to be used in the AMAN.
In Terminal Airspace complexity is further increased due to the interaction of Barcelona and Girona
arrival and departure traffic, with Girona traffic managed by the same sectors controlling Barcelona
traffic. Furthermore, a number of sectors operate at capacity when the airport is operating in
“easterly” configuration.

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During the implementation of the “BRAIN” airspace change, airspace complexity increased, and
capacity was reduced to facilitate the transition. This is further discussed below. On a positive note,
BRAIN related delays will not be present in 2019 and the resulting implementation will reduce the
complexity of Terminal Airspace operations, smoothing traffic sequencing and increasing
predictability.
Summary
Barcelona Terminal Airspace and Airport were impacted by both Network and local delay regulations
during periods of excessive demand. This delayed both arrival and departure flights when regulation
was used to manage the excessive demand.
Challenges in airspace design and staffing also mean that the NOP proposed sectors were not
always delivered as planned, with an adverse impact of ATC Capacity.
As discussed earlier, the proximity of the French airspace boundary and a single transfer point
creates problems for Barcelona to integrate Barcelona and Balearic island departures into Spanish
traffic flows towards France and to create separate sequences for Barcelona arrivals and Balearic
island destination traffic.
Solutions to these issues have been developed and are detailed in recommendations [12] Implement
Bordeaux Barcelona Boundary Transfer Point NATPI Agreement, [14] Dynamic Sector Volume
Allocation
The proximity of the French boundary also has a negative impact on the arrival management system,
as discussed in sections 2.2 and 5.1.2 with a potential solution proposed in recommendation [M09]
Improved Boundary Update Message for AMAN.
The implementation of BRAIN airspace changes led to extended regulation a s the new procedures
“bedded in” resulting in contributing to 14% of the overall delay in Barcelona during summer 2018.
However, this was a “one off” issue and benefits from BRAIN are expected in 2019.

Recommendations

There are no additional recommendation in addition to those already proposed.

Related recommendations that address issues concerning ATC Capacity include:
[M08] Trial of “Non-Application of Terminal Airspace Regulation (sector DDI)
[M09] Improved Boundary Update Message for AMAN
[M12] Implement Bordeaux Barcelona Boundary Transfer Point NATPI Agreement
[M14] Dynamic Sector Volume Allocation
[M18] Post-Operational Staffing Analysis
[M19] Implementation of a Flexible Rostering Scheme

5.2.5 Environment
Top View

From June to end September 2018, Total Network ATFM delay due to Environment decreased from
91,459 minutes to 74,187 minutes, compared to 2017. This represents a decrease of almost 20%
for the reference period
There was a similar trend in Barcelona Airport and TMA with 36,452 minutes of delay in 2018, down
from 46,680 minutes in 2017. A 22% improvement.

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Cause and Effect

Barcelona environmental issues are specifically related to noise, constraining runway operations.
The restrictions are based on agreements between the airport and local communities.
Noise restrictions apply 24 hours a day with more stringent procedures and reduced movement rates
(regulated to between 26 and 18 arrivals per hour, depending on the hour) applied through a night
time configuration which is operational between the hours of 23:00 and 07:00 (local time)
As presented in the chapter describing Barcelona Airport Context, parallel independent runway
operations are not used and the preferential runway configuration is westerly. All wide body
movements that are unable to use the departure runway (25L / 07R) operate a non -preferential
departure from runway 25R. Under certain conditions, these movements a re recorded as
environmental delay.
During the change from and to the runway night time configuration (arrival traffic on runway 02 and
departures on runway 07R) there are occasions when the change induces environmental delay. This
can be exacerbated when there is an accumulation of reactionary delay late in the evening that
overlaps with the reduced night time capacity. This is recorded as environmental delay.
Whilst there is sufficient capacity to cater for normal night schedule traffic with some buffer, this is
quickly absorbed by reactionary delay impact. There is a capacity buffer between slot allocation (24
arrivals per hour at night) and ATC capacity (up to 30 arrivals per hour on runway 02).
However, during summer 2018 there was a significant amount of reactionary delay (up to 80 minutes
per flight) that resulted in late arrival traffic being impacted by night time capacity reduction. This
can be seen in figure 44.
The impact of Environment on runway operations is discussed extensively in section 2.1 and 5.1.1.
Summary
Noise and ecological environmental issues constrain Barcelona airport, significantly reducing
flexibility and opportunity for growth.
Whilst the most constraining impact of noise is the required use of preferential runway configurati ons,
there is also a reduction in night time capacity, effective between 23:00 and 07:00.
The Environmental delay recorded is due to regulation to reduce traffic during the transition from day
capacity to night capacity and the associate change to the nigh t time runway configuration. This
change is an operational challenge with no buffer to accommodate the difficulty to achieve the
change by 23:00.

Recommendations

There are no additional recommendation in addition to those already proposed in section 5.1.1.
Nevertheless, EUROCONTROL suggests that AENA, supported by DGCA, revisit the current local
noise constraints together with local population stakeholder groups to adjust the night time
configuration to between 2300 and 0600 local time. This would enable t he day configuration, with
associated increased capacity, to be used for the first wave departures, without changing
configuration during the interaction of first departure and arrival waves.

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5.2.6 Use of Regulation

Top View
Air Traffic Flow Management measures or regulations are used when traffic demand is anticipated
to exceed capacity in airspace or at Airports. As discussed earlier, there are different delay
classifications. In this report we have been primarily occupied with Weather, Industrial Action, ATC
Staffing and ATC Capacity.
Use of regulation increased during 2018 with 478 regulations recorded in Barcelona Airport and TMA
in 2018, an increase of 3% compared to 2017. This is a network trend leading to concern about
instability created by the number of regulations in the network.
In 2018, the impact of regulations is seen through average arrival delay per flight (year to date
including September) which increased from 2 minutes per flight in 2017 to 3.1 minutes in 2018; which
represents an increase of 55%.
Departure flight regulation at Barcelona contributes significantly to the delay recorded resulting from
a difficult first wave and increasingly, during the summer, a congested second wave with overlap
with arrival traffic.
Cause and Effect
Barcelona stakeholders identified a number of regulations that should be further assessed. Weather
regulation in particular, was considered to be worthy of additional investigation to understand the
actual need for regulation and any “over cautious” approach, opening opportunities for SMART
regulation management.
The weather regulation issue has been discussed in detail in section 5.2.1, and recommendation
[M16] Weather Prediction Tools, Direct Meteorology Forecaster Support and SMART Regulation.
The challenge today to apply SMART regulations is related to the tools available to support the
decision maker, usually a Flow Manager or an ATC Supervisor, as well as individual expertise and
experience.
This is further complicated by deciding to implement a regulation based on forecast or predictions of
events likely to occur in the future. These predictions are frequently different to the actual future
situation for many reasons, not least the complex interactions of different parts of the ATM system
and actions taken elsewhere in the network.

Table above summarises and compares the number of regulations per type for the summer period
June to September in 2017 and 2018. Whilst the increase in the number of regulation s for the period
year on year is not dramatic, the delay increase is.

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Also, the Network operates on the basis of the “worst” regulation applicable to a flight plan route
being the applicable regulation. With all ANSP operating to this rule, there is a significant level of
unexpected cause and effect or “Network effect.”
Perhaps more importantly, ATC will naturally be cautious when applying a regulation, in most cases
defining the regulation on the basis of worst case scenario to ensure safe and efficient ATC.
As previously discussed, ATC Capacity regulation was identified by ENAIRE as an opportunity to
reassess the need for systematic application of regulation and to ask the question, “what if no
regulation was applied”.
An in-depth study of the application and impact of regulations should be undertaken by ENAIRE to
understand regulation interactions and the actual processes used to identify opportunities to further
reduce or apply SMART regulation, for example, opportunities not to apply regulation, or to avoid
interacting regulations, or to identify inconsistent process.
A number of studies have been undertaken in the past by EUROCONTROL and there is work
ongoing in SESAR supported by ENAIRE which could bring longer term benefits.
Summary
There is an opportunity for ENAIRE to assess the use of regulation, in particular weather related
regulation, to define a SMART regulation approach that will reduce the impact of regulations.
Whilst the use of regulation is being addressed at Network level, it will still be an issue in 2019.
A-CDM should be assessed to identify improvements to reduce the number of updates.
One approach to improving the lack of respite may be through addressing scheduling at a lower level
of granularity. This is being tackled by ENAIRE with a proposal to move to hourly capacity
scheduling.

Recommendations

Long Term
[M20] SMART Regulation Study
The use of regulation is being question due to a significant increase in the use of regulation in the
network. The historic data available on application and result of regulation provides an important
opportunity to understand better the cause, effects and unknown Network influences of regulation.
It is recommended that ENAIRE undertake an assessment of the application and impact of
regulations to understand regulation interactions and the actual processes used to identify
opportunities to reduce or apply SMART regulation.
This recommendation is expected to provide insight, guidance and improved procedures used by
the FMP and Tower Supervisor when applying a regulation. The potential of big data and machine
learning assessments to inform guidelines on probability of occurrence, duration and severity of a
regulation based on historical data should be considered.
A number of previous studies and new work by Maastricht and EUROCONTROL Network Manager
can be made available to ENAIRE. Furthermore, work ongoing in SESAR is supported by ENAIRE
which could bring quick wins.
EUROCONTROL would welcome the opportunity to work with ENAIRE on this subject. The
proposed study on SMART Weather Regulation discussed in section 5.2.1 would be one concrete
opportunity.

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5.3 PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

5.3.1 ENAIRE
Introduction
With the implementation by the European Commission of the Europe-wide Performance Scheme
and the related Reporting Periods, the requirement for all service providers t o reach certain
performance targets was established.
As a result many service providers established or reviewed their performance management systems
in order to ensure adequate management of the various elements of the performance scheme.
A mature performance management system relies upon a set of clear processes providing sufficient
information for the accountable managers to ascertain the level of performance against the targets
set.

Figure 40: A “Typical” Top Level Performance Dashboard

One of the key processes is the ‘Plan-Do-Check-Act’ (PDCA) performance cycle. When applied
correctly the PDCA cycle enables an organisation to continuously monitor and improve the service
delivered through accurate performance reporting and assessment against the agreed targets.
Once the ‘Plan’ is established it is put into action through the ‘Do’-part of the cycle. In the ‘Check’-
part the post-operational analysis processes assess in detail to what extent the ‘Do’-part has
delivered the performance foreseen in the ‘Plan’-part.
In case of discrepancies between the planned and delivered result, the performance management
processes will identify the underlying causes for the inadequate performance and subsequently
establish corrective actions to be implemented as part of the updated ‘Plan’ for the following period.
A healthy performance management system produces periodic performance reports as well as
dashboard type of views that in a glance allow the user to ascertain the level of performance
achieved against the targets set (figure 40).
These reports are ideally used at multiple levels of the organisation in various forms, mainly to allow
the decision makers to take informed decisions, but also to promote the overall performance based
culture in general.

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ENAIRE Performance Management

The ENAIRE performance management system is
mature and complete (figure 41). It adopts high
level performance targets derived by the South
West Functional Airspace Block (FAB) and the
overarching Europe-wide performance scheme.
The system takes input from the European ATM
Master Plan, the SESAR Pilot Common Project
(PCP) as well as the relevant set of EU regulations.
Three main deliverables are produced: the
strategic ‘Plan de Vuelo’, ‘ENAIRE 5-year
Business Plan’ and ‘ENAIRE Annual Plan’.
Apart from fulfilling the regulatory and legal
requirements, these plans are the foundation for
the ENAIRE business and performance
management processes.
Figure 41: ENAIRE Performance Management System
To provide the decision makers within ENAIRE with
adequate information, a number of performance reports are produced. These reports are discussed
at regular intervals at various committees regionally as well as nationally.
A dashboard is made available on a daily basis and “immediate” performance issues are shared with
managers via a social media account. A dedicated 24 hour office, RED, is continuously updating
performance analysis and business intelligence, made available either through the dashboard or the
social media channel.
Information from the performance management system reaches the level of regional Director and
Area Centre Managers, however, it appears not to cascade down to watch supervisors and staff.
Obviously, the granularity of performance targets should be such that it is meaningful as the
information descends to operational staff.
Whilst safety is an undeniable priority in Air traffic Control, business performance is becoming an
important factor so ensuring that all actors in the system are aware of their roles in the delivery of
performance is not incompatible with safety goals. This performance approach r equires negotiation,
agreement and reinforcement of the performance culture. An example of this is the Maastricht Area
Control Centre.
Although considered mature and complete, the ENAIRE performance management processes
appear to focus mainly on the ‘Plan’ and ‘Do’ parts of the cycle. Parts of the ‘Check’ are however
also clearly visible in the sense that there is ample data and reports available, but the actual check
leading to the ‘Act’ part, where mitigation actions and improvement proposals are formulated, could
probably be enhanced.
To formulate clear performance based improvement proposals and corrective actions with clear
allocation of owners, it is necessary for the ‘Check’ part of the performance cycle to identify the local,
regional and network wide origin of the various performance issues. This will enable the ‘Act’ part to
adopt an even more proactive approach through earlier detection of unwanted performance trends,
ensuring that subsequent implementation of self-corrective actions are carried out by the right actors
at the correct level of application.

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Recommendations

Short Term Mitigation

[M21] Enhance, Focus and Deepen ATC Post Operational Analysis
In alignment with [M18] Post-Operational Staffing Analysis, it is recommended that ENAIRE further
enhance, focus and deepen the post-operational analysis capability, both ENAIRE corporate and
locally in Barcelona, to fully understand the performance levels of the current capacity and resource
management processes.
This recommendation is expected to enhance analysis of actual working time delivered against
rostered time to be able to understand opportunities for a future flexible demand based rostering
process.
It is the view of EUROCONTROL that subsequent increased focus on the basic ‘Plan -Do-Check-Act’
performance management cycle could deliver benefits for the organisation in general and more
specifically in the area of resource management.
Long Term
[M22] Enhance and strengthen the ENAIRE-Wide Performance Management Culture
The ENAIRE Performance Management system is well-defined and clearly addresses top level
objectives, cascading KPI down to the level of Centre manager, with the necessary post analysis
and reporting systems in place. However, the system does not address front line staff and the reality
of actual work done compared to staff on roster and actual demand.
This can be addressed by developing the performance culture through greater awareness and
educating staff to the business needs of the organisation and its relevance to their day to day tasks.
It is recommended that ENAIRE enhance the communication and cascading down of agreed
performance targets as well as understanding of actual performance, to all levels in the organisation.
This can be done through the creation of a multi layered Performance Dashboard where each level
targets a specific group of staff (e.g. one for operational managers, one for supervisory staff and one
for operational staff).
This recommendation is expected to promote an organisation wide performance culture in which
staff at all levels of the organisation are aware of the current performance as well as what is required
from them in order to meet the agreed targets.
This will strengthen the ability to proactively identify and mitigate to unwanted performance trends at
an early stage through consistent application of the ‘Plan-Do-Check-Act’ cycle.

5.3.2 AENA
AENA undertakes a significant level of performance post analysis covering multiple aspects of the
airport operation. It was not clear to what degree AENA shares this analysis and uses it to influence
airport performance, including that of ENAIRE and the Airline stakeholders.
AENA recognise that the 1st departure wave is not efficient in terms of stand allocation. AENA is
responsible for gate allocation and has worked with the main carrier to better allocate contact stands
to alleviate the challenge of aircraft position. As aircraft-to-destination allocation was frequently last
minute, ensuring gate positions were known in advance is important to efficient boarding and
achieving Target Off Block Times (TOBT) used in A-CDM.
AENA recognises the need to improve the service provided to aircraft operators and a new contract
is under development to address gate staff (e.g. air bridge operators) availability during peak periods

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There is a unique opportunity for AENA to establish a performance “governance” position to discuss,
federate and align airport Key Performance Indicators that can be understood and shared by all
stakeholders in driving a common Barcelona airport performance
Given that Barcelona is both a complex airport and ATC operational environment, it is essential to
manage strategic and tactical issues in a manner that ensures all stakeholders are informed and
motivated to play their role.
Considering the dramatic increase in delay experienced by the airpor t in summer 2018 when the
airport was frequently operating close to the limits of its current capabilities, systematic, clear and
immediate communication becomes an essential tool.
Best in class airports now operate regular daily briefings to ensure that a ll airport stakeholders are
aware of the strategic and tactical issues affecting the airport and the plans and opportunities to
mitigate and maintain efficient operations. It is a challenge yet an essential business need.
Communication Issue
A shared concern identified during discussions with stakeholders was the challenge to ensure that
meaningful communication was established, especially during periods of reduced performance.
Ad-hoc conversations do occur, when time permits, to clarify issues such as ATFM regulations or to
inform on “crisis” related matters. However, communication is not systematic and often subject to
staffing and time availability, and constrained by a lack of confidence in available information.
There is also a perception amongst stakeholders, that information disclosed may be used in a
negative manner. This is a trust issue, which can be addressed through communication.
There is a wealth of information available on Network and local issues, either of a strategic nature
(future work on the airfield such as tunnelling under a runway that will impact schedules) or weather
regulations (information on the severity, duration of the regulation, that can be used by airlines to
improve their planning and reduce the impact).
Top performing airports (Heathrow, Gatwick, Amsterdam ..) and other operational entities (Network
Manager) use open communication (such as daily early morning conference calls) as a performance
tool, bringing visibility on issues, agreeing actions to jointly manage airport performance whilst
building trust.
Barcelona is now at a point where trust and communication across operational pillars is critical to a
common approach to achieve performance improvement and growth, making best use of available
resources and infrastructure, to cater for growth.
In the most severe of situations, advance knowledge of a significant event can also be communicated
to stakeholders to agree a reduction in demand to reflect predicted available capacity, thus promoting
a level of stability in operations when disruption starts. This is currently done at Heathrow and
Amsterdam where percentage reductions are agreed in a collaborative and voluntary manner
between airlines.
Communication Opportunity
Barcelona should develop a communication process to ensure regular and timely briefings with its
stakeholders (ENAIRE, Airlines, Handling Agents, Maintenance, Slot Coordination and other
stakeholders impacting day to day operations).
Two areas should be considered:
1. Daily performance briefings -
To share a common view on the daily schedule and issues such as weather, network
regulations, strike action, work in progress etc. that is likely to require close cooperation and
a coordinated approach to mitigations to ensure acceptable performance is achieved.

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2. Joint and coordinated “crisis” communications –

To agree common messages to ensure that passengers and the media fully understand
issues that are likely to impact them on their journey and how they will be helped with
coordinated support from the different airport stakeholders.
A longer term view will see the airport developing a shared performance management approach
through common Key Performance Indicators and performance targets. This is Total Airport
Management, TAM.
EUROCONTROL believes that there is a unique opportunity for AENA to establish a performance
“governance” position in Barcelona, to discuss, federate, align and drive airport Key Performance
Indicators that can be understood and shared by all stakeholders in achieving superior Barcelona
airport performance.
The two areas can be achieved through the initiation of daily performance briefings, which would be
of a conference call or WebEx nature. As a major partner, ENAIRE should take a key role to inform
and update stakeholders on all aspects of ATC operations and network related issues such as
regulations.
The expected outcome of the communication approach is increased trust between stakeholders in
communicating a clear understanding of the issues impacting daily operation , facilitating improved
planning of their daily business.
Summary
There is a lack of systematic communication between Barcelona airport stakeholders during periods
of reduced performance. Communication does occur but is ad hoc.
Best in class airports communicate to ensure that all airport stakeholders are aware of the issues
affecting the airport, know the planned mitigation and accept to undertake actions to ensure
performance is maintained.
Barcelona needs to develop a systematic approach to communication s, to ensure all stakeholders
are aware of impending and current performance issues, what is proposed to mitigate these issues
together with sufficient detail to plan and enact specific actions to manage the issues.
EUROCONTROL believes that AENA is best placed to implement the communication processes,
supported by ENAIRE as appropriate.

Recommendations

Short Term
[M23] Airport Performance Communication Process
Today, there are strategic performance briefings undertaken in Barcelona on future issues and
developments, often on a bi-lateral basis but not always achieving full understanding or buy-in. This
should be a continuous conversation designed to ensure full awareness of all issues impacting the
future airport performance, extending to common KPI that can be jointly monitored.
However, there is no systemised tactical communications on daily airport performance, expected
downfall and planned mitigations. This leads to different stakeholders taking diverse actions when
a crisis occurs or are unable to plan sufficiently to manage the p erformance down fall.
There is a perception of lack of trust. Stakeholders are not confident in disseminating information,
concerned that divulging information may lead to it being used in a negative manner.
It is highly recommended that AENA implement a daily briefing through conference calls to inform
and discuss with all stakeholders, on critical performance events such as system outage,
infrastructure availability, work in progress, expected capacity challenges, Network issues, bad
weather and associated weather regulations.

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The daily briefing should include any future calls to review, refine and update or take decisions based
on latest information, as different scenarios evolve. Typically, weather issues in the summer would
be discussed as well as any lack of resources impacting performance.
For some briefings, AENA should delegate responsibility to the appropriate organisation.
The ENAIRE SMART regulation process for weather events should be used in the daily briefing and
updates. This will provide all airport stakeholders with full understanding and visibility on regulation
such as weather, including probability, severity and duration thus helping airlines to efficiently plan
their daily schedule.
In periods of severe capacity reduction, this communication process could be extended to airlines
voluntarily agreeing to implement schedule reductions to ensure a minimum of predictable service.
This recommendation is expected to ensure greater awareness of how each day is expected to
unfold, helping all stakeholders’ better plan resources and take early action to manage expected
performance shortfalls, and to work together to maintain or revert to normal operations.
This process is deployed in Heathrow, Amsterdam and Brussels airports.
Long Term
[M24] Implement an Airport wide Performance Management Processes
It would appear from discussions with stakeholders during the study assessment interviews that a
“silo” mentality exists with stakeholders primarily focused on their own issues and actions with limited
consultation and buy in to a bigger goal.
Barcelona airport has operational, technical and infrastructure challenges impacting day to day
operations and certainly constraining future growth. This can be addressed by stakeholders working
more closely together to optimise existing scarce resources and agreeing on common goals and
actions to drive future performance.
It is recommended that AENA develop a common overarching airport performance management
process to proactively drive Barcelona Airport performance together with all key stakeholders.
The airport wide performance management system should be integrated through an airport
performance dashboard, using agreed KPIs and processes, to ensure systematic and regular
monitoring of performance and proactive strategic and tactical responses to performance shortfall.
The governance of this rests naturally with AENA, providing an opportunity to drive common Airport
performance KPI through a management lifecycle of ‘Plan, Do, Check, Act.’
This recommendation is expected to provide a vehicle for continuous improvement, where
stakeholders can openly discuss issues, assess past performance and agree common performance
based improvement actions to drive the overall performance of the airport.
This approach to Total Airport Management is currently being addressed in SESAR through a
common performance dashboard. Early examples are deployed in Heathrow, Zurich and Munich .

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5.3.3 Airline Performance and Reactionary Delay

One of the main challenges facing Barcelona airport was to achieve a successful first departure
wave each morning. The current demand for the first wave of the day was important so minor issues
can quickly lead to poor performance. Poor performance of the first departure wave sets the tone
for the rest of the day’s operations.
AENA reported that in their experience, if more than 50% of first wave departures were regulated, it
resulted in handling agent resource issues with second wave departures.
The main carrier’s first wave is a critical part of its operation with subsequent impact on overall airport
performance. Ensuring this carrier has a good first wave departure performance is critical to all
stakeholders.
In summer 2018 with significant Network Weather, Industrial Action, ATC Staffing and Capacity
issues, first wave departures were frequently subject to regulation delay. Any additional local issues
such as thunderstorms led to a worsening of delay, ultimately leading to significant reactionary delay
towards late evening.
Reactionary Delay
Reactionary delays are generated as a result of an aircraft’s late arrival from a previous flight which
in turn affects the punctuality of its next flight with the same aircraft, as well as potentially delaying
connecting passengers. Subsequently there are two types of reactionary delays:
1. Firstly, as a result of the same aircraft being delayed on its next flight (rotational delay) and
2. Secondly, when another aircraft is delayed as a result of another aircraft typically through
passengers, crew and load connection (non-rotational delays).

Reactionary delay is recorded through Standard IATA Delay Codes;

91 (RL) LOAD CONNECTION, awaiting load from another flight
92 (RT) THROUGH CHECK-IN ERROR, passenger and baggage
93 (RA) AIRCRAFT ROTATION, late arrival of aircraft from another flight or previous sector
94 (RS) CABIN CREW ROTATION, awaiting cabin crew from another flight
95 (RC) CREW ROTATION, awaiting crew from another flight (flight deck or entire crew)
96 (RO) OPERATIONS CONTROL, re-routing, diversion, consolidation, aircraft change for
reasons other
This accumulation of delay accounted for an estimated 44% of the total delay in Europe. The
rotational delay component contributes approximately 80% to overall reactionary delay.
Reactionary delay for Barcelona based traffic was further complicated by the number of updates to
regulations, bringing increased instability to airline operations.
The majority of Barcelona Airline are “low cost” business models. Airlines operate tight schedules
(block times) with short turnaround on point to point routes. As such, any delay is difficult to recover
from, despite very good turnaround processes.

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During summer 2018, the actual demand in

Departing Traffic to UK (all AOs)
Barcelona saw a merging of typical demand
peaks and troughs, resulting in limited 15000

resilience for recovery between peaks (figure

ATFM Delay (min)

27 and 28). 10000

Reactionary delay was compounded by 5000

significant and penalising airspace
regulations for departures to Northern 0

EGB*

OTHERS
EGPHARR
EGSSARR
LE

LFR
LFB

EGKKARR

EG*
EGKBARR

EGGWARR
EGTT

EGD*
EGPTLA
Europe. Figure 42 shows an example of

EGSHE

EGP*

EGK*
EGL*
arrival airport delay, being the greater delay,
contributing to reactionary.
A - Accident/Incident C - ATC Capacity
G - Aerodrome Capacity I - ATC Ind Action
Delay was exacerbated by an overlap of M - Airspace Management O - Other
inbound and outbound waves, with delayed P - Special Event
T - ATC Equipment
S - ATC Staffing
W - Weather
departures from wave 1 returning late,
increasing traffic demand in the second
Figure 42: Example of Regulations (leading to reactionary)
inbound wave.
This knock-on scenario continued through the day and ultimately led to delayed flights arriving late
in the evening when implementation of the night configuration results in a reduction in capacity,
leading to a worsening delay situation.
Figure 43 shows reactionary delay during the reference 90,0
period. By 11:00 local time 15 minutes of reactionary
delay affected each flight of the three main LCC 80,0
operators in Barcelona. By 20:00 this delay reaches 28
70,0
minutes per aircraft then reaches more than 80 minutes
per flight after 23:00 when capacity is reduced, for the 60,0
remaining delayed returning flights.
50,0
Wave 1 Criticality
40,0
With 39% of total movements, Vueling has a majority
share of wave 1 so a good performance at the beginning 30,0
of each day is critical.
20,0
Some issues that challenge a good Wave 1 performance
have been identified and these are discussed here. 10,0

Aircraft Maintenance: One issue relates to the night time 0,0

maintenance window for the main carrier’s aircraft which 0 5 10 15 20 25
can be affected by the accumulation of reactionary delay
on aircraft planned for night maintenance. 18 Average Reactionary Delay per Flight
in Minutes
This carrier is committed to a 7hr maintenance window,
17 Average Reactionary Delay per Flight
which is achieved in approximately 90% of cases. in Minutes
However late arrivals eat into this window with significant
impact on first wave departures due to the number of Figure 43: Average Reactionary Delay per Flight -
deferred maintenance items. for 3 Low Cost Carriers

Aircraft Parking: The first wave of the main carrier’s departures from terminal 1 was hindered by
aircraft availability after night maintenance compounded by previous day reactionary delay and also
by an apparent lack of understanding where aircraft were parked.
The main carrier provide their next day programme around 20:00 local time the evening prior to the
day of operation. AENA provides the carrier with the final stand allocation list at 23:00 local time.
However, maintenance issues resulted in many changes during the night with the perception that
the main carrier’s Operations Centre (AOC) were either unaware of the aircraft gate or they did not
take the gate allocation into account in their subsequent planning update.

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Furthermore, reporting on progress and estimating aircraft availa bility following maintenance,
together with gate allocation, has negatively impacted timely planning of aircraft -to-destination.
Issues with knowing where aircraft are parked or when aircraft maintenance will be completed, timely
matching aircraft-to-destination and ensuring a good gate distribution so that similar time departures
do not pose boarding and pushback issues were important to ensuring a successful Wave 1
AENA also identified that the main carrier
suffered from return-to-stand occurrences
during the summer period, with some aircraft
returns occurring after take-off.
These returns in the summer period was 48
aircraft compared to 51 returns from all other
companies.
AENA proposed to support the carrier to
improve first wave departures by towing
aircraft likely to stay longer than planned to
remote stands to reduce complexity.
Further AENA improvement proposals are
focused on terminal facility management Figure 44:The main carrier’s aircraft Returns to Parking ©AENA
including passenger queuing and “air bridge”
management for the first morning arrivals, to reduce delay accumulation
AENA has also invited the carrier’s staff to observe and understand its gate allocation process to
help improve aircraft readiness and aircraft-to-destination matching processes. Extending this to
have these staff collocated in the AENA Airport Operations Centre during critical planning periods in
the summer could provide greater awareness to both AENA and the carrier and should be explored.
Furthermore, an in-depth discussion between AENA and the main carrier to fully understand the
issues and challenges of Wave 1 preparation could identify other actions that AENA could undertake
to support improvements in it’s morning Wave 1 operations. This would benefit all airlines.
Other issues impacting early morning performance included:
 Repositioning aircraft from maintenance to the gate is difficult due to conflict with the first
departure wave;
 Gate allocation for delayed aircraft is further impacted as the main carrier is reticent to accept
towing of aircraft at night to remote stands, proposed by AENA to facilitate better stand
planning/allocation, to ensure an optimal gate allocation for first wave departures;
 There were also late crew changes happening after boarding has commenced resulting in
reduced punctuality;
 The increasing number of Passengers with Reduced Mobility (PRM), whilst a positive factor,
also slows boarding processes. This merits further analysis to improve processes for PRM.
The main carrier is aware of the summer operational challenges and in 2018 had taken action to
increase the number of back-up aircraft in Barcelona to seven, the number of crews on stand-by,
especially on critical days, to ensure that flight cancellations due to crew rest times are limited and
increased Ground Handling resources, to cope better with operational turnaround issues.

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Reactionary Delay and Flight Scheduling

EUROCONTROL assessed a number of flights to further understand the issues of reactionary delay
in relation to the number of rotations on a tight schedule and impacted by issues in the network.
In the example (figure 45) ATFM delay contributed to a build-up of reactionary delay on the next
flight. We observe an overlap in the planning phase, indicated by the red lines .

Figure 45: Example of Reactionary Delay build-up for one aircraft

In this example the flight programme of the aircraft involved builds up reactionary delay throughout
the morning rotations, made worse by an additional delay on the flight segment EBBR – LEBL
(Brussels to Barcelona) which was delayed an additional 30 minutes.
This delay moved A/C 1 into the Barcelona night time reduced capacity period (after 23.00 hours)
and resulted in the aircraft returning to base with an accumulated delay of 100 minutes!
Summer 2018 was very busy for the main carrier with aircraft being fully utilised. If aircraft are late
out of maintenance (discussed above) or suffer a technical issue at the beginning of the day, the
knock-on effect may be that the aircraft will suffer from delayed rotations throughout the day.
Some maintenance or technical issues can mean that an aircraft is not available for that day’s
operation. Consequently, the airline may choose to use “stand-by aircraft if available or aircraft that
were already fully utilised to operate the routes of the aircraft suffering from the above issues with
the consequence that initial delay to, or cancellation of, some flights is inevitable.
Considering typical tight block times operated by low cost carriers, the airlines should analyse their
summer schedules, taking account of the cost of reactionary delay and lack of resilience, to
understand the need for changes by, for example, building recovery periods into its daily schedule.
In response to expected issues in summer 2019, and as an example, Vueling proposes to increase
its Barcelona block times by 1.6%.
Turnaround times used by the airline were also assessed. In general, during the summer, the target
duration of turnaround were not an issue during significant delay so further reduction in these times
would be unlikely to be achieved or bring any benefit to the airline.
As an example, for summer 2019, Vueling plans:
 No increase in overall number of aircraft based at Barcelona;
 Increase in the number of back-up aircraft in Barcelona to 9 (possibly 11 if new aircraft
delivery is on time) and 12 Network-Wide;
 Increase the number of crews on stand-by, especially on critical days, to ensure that flight
cancellations due to crew rest times are limited. This increase will be 10% in Barcelona, with
crews protected from redeployment by an overall increase of 30% in Vueling’s network. ;
 Further increase in Ground Handling resources, to cope better with operational issues
(Vueling will triple the extra-manpower buffer agreement with its handling agent).
 Increase Operational Control Centre (OCC) staff by 21%, to improve the management of
days suffering from high levels of disruptions and enhance service to meet crew and
passenger needs.
Airport Collaborative Decision Making
The Barcelona A-CDM process, whilst accepted as essential by airlines, was seen as less than
optimum and inflexible, especially during periods of significant network delay. Increases in Network
regulation resulted in many changes to TSATs (so called “dancing regulations”).

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A-CDM performance was also perceived by airspace users to be adding to delay.

For A-CDM to function efficiently it is imperative that aircraft operators or their nominated ground
handler ensure that the TOBT is accurate and kept up to date. This will ensure that the Network
Manager has the most up-to-date information to take into account if it requires to issue a fligh t with
an ATFM restriction (CTOT). Training of ground handling personnel in this respect is extremely
important, especially if they are recruited on a seasonal basis.
Keeping the TOBT up to date will unsure that an appropriate TSAT is assigned, reducing the
occurrence of missed TSAT.
EUROCONTROL proposes to undertake an A-CDM health check before summer 2019 and to work
with AENA, ENAIRE and the Airlines, bringing in knowledge of other airport s’ A-CDM operations.
Departure Clearance Frequency
One of the operational challenges for aircraft operators is the need for crews to call only when ready
at Target Start up Time (TSAT) +/- 5 minutes before being issued with their departure clearance.
This generated high levels of frustration with pilots and airline opera tors due to the availability of only
one departure clearance frequency, which was frequently overloaded during peak traffic. This
frequency congestion led to aircraft being unable to call within the TSAT window, resulting in a
missed TSAT and in some cases, extra delay.
This departure frequency issue is known and was to be resolved by the deployment of data -link
based departure clearance capability (DCL). The data link DLC is now planned to be implemented
for summer 2019 as the critical deployment dependency, electronic strips, are expected to be ready
in Barcelona tower in early 2019.
In the event this is implementation is delayed, a second clearance delivery frequency should be
considered for the summer period.
Barcelona should also consider to adapt to procedures followed by most European A-CDM airports
and allow crews to call for clearance up to 15/20 minutes prior to TSAT.
Summary
The first departure wave of the day is critical to daily performance at Barcelona. The performance
of the main airline during this departure wave is a critical factor.
The increase in regulations and a significant increase in Network delay has amplified the impact of
reactionary delay affecting airlines operating out of Barcelona. This has a knock-on effect, as
significant reactionary delay occurred during summer 2018, and together with the reduced night
capacity, particularly impacted the main carrier’s aircraft maintenance periods.
Issues with knowing where aircraft are parked, when aircraft maintenance will be complete and the
related late allocation of departure aircraft-to-destination will have aggravated the challenge to
ensure a successful wave 1.
Whilst the use of regulation is being addressed at Network level, it will still be an issue in 2019. To
address reactionary delay there is scope for operational improvements to ensure that the first
morning departure wave is efficient through greater coordination between AENA, Airlines, Ground
handling and aircraft maintenance departments.
The issues of late aircraft arrival, tracking aircraft maintenance and ensuring destination scheduling
and actual gate allocation are effective impacted performance of Wave 1. AENA and the main carrier
need to understand these issues and develop an action plan for summer 2019.
Demand during Wave 1 is tightly concentrated bringing a challenge to manage the available capacity
and the actual demand in summer 2018 showed no breathing space following subsequent demand
peaks to recover from delay (figure 46).

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Airline schedules should be analysed to identify if periods for recovery should be added. Without
resilience in their schedules and the expectation that network delay is unlikely to dramatically
improve in summer 2019, there is a high probability of significant levels of reactionary delay.
It is perceived by airlines that A-CDM was inefficient in summer 2018. A-CDM should be assessed
to identify improvements that can be made in time for summer 2019.
The procedure for obtaining and on occasion, led to aircraft missing their TSAT. The proposed data-
link departure clearance needs to be available in 2019 to resolve this issue otherwise a back -up
frequency should be made available.

Recommendations

Short Term Mitigations

[M25] The main Barcelona carrier and AENA Gate, Night Maintenance and Daily Schedule
Coordination
There is an problem related to gate allocation, night time aircraft maintenance, allocation of aircraft-
to-destination and non-optimal aircraft positioning for unconstrained push-back (i.e. aircraft want to
push at the same time are often parked together) in terminal 1, primarily for the main carrier.
It is recommended that the main carrier work more closely with AENA on Terminal 1 gate
management allocation, with Ground Handling and Aircraft Maintenance to be fully aware of night
aircraft maintenance tracking and progress reporting, and use non-contact stands when
maintenance is known to be late, to solve gate position and aircraft-to-destination allocation issues
to improve the probability of a successful first morning departure wave.
This process improvement will require agreed reporting and coordination procedures between the
main carrier, ground handling agents, aircraft maintenance and AENA.
AENA currently invites the main carrier’s staff for familiarisation on gate management processes at
its airport operations centre. This could evolve to have it’s scheduling staff deployed in the airport
operations centre during night planning periods to work directly with AENA staff, enhancing
cooperation and optimised aircraft scheduling process.
This recommendation is expected to resolve a planning and tracking process that is not working,
leading to improved departure punctuality in the first departure wave, ultimately reducing reactionary
delay
[M26] LCC Operators Summer Delay Preparations
The multiple events that disrupt the airlines daily schedule during the summer can be mitigated to a
certain extent by anticipating back-up plans for extra staff, aircraft, flight crew and plans for managing
delayed passengers.
It is recommended that LCC Operators implement their plans in time for summer 2019. Other airlines
operating in Barcelona should be equally prepared using the example of Vueling’s actions, measured
to their operation:
1. Increase in the number of back-up aircraft in Barcelona;
2. Increase the number of crews on stand-by, especially on critical days, to ensure that flight
cancellations due to crew rest times are limited;
3. Increase in Ground Handling resources, to cope better with operational issues;
4. Increase Operational Control Centre (OCC) staff, to improve the management of days
impacted by high levels of disruption to meet crew and passenger needs.
This recommendation is expected to bring an increased level of resilience to operations when there
is a deterioration of performance leading to delay.

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[M27] Airline Summer Schedule Resilience Analysis

The Network performance in 2018 led to significant reactionary delay. This had a greater impact on
LCC flights due to the nature of the tight block and turnaround times, leaving no margin for recovery
during the daily scheduled operations.
It is recommended that Barcelona airlines review their schedules to assess the potential impact and
cost of reactionary delay during summer 2019 operations, based on the results of summer 2018, the
expectation that Network delays are expected to be similar in 2019, and the need for explicit recovery
periods (fire breaks) in their daily schedule.
This recommendation is expected to identify opportunities when airlines can build in recovery periods
to mitigate reactionary delay resulting from similar Network performance to that experienced in
summer 2018. the main carrier will increase its buffers in total by 25%, specifically where there is a
crew change, to make effective use of the new crew to start its duty with reduced or no delay.
[M28] A-CDM Health Check and TOBT Updating by Airline / Ground Handler
During summer 2018, airlines expressed concern that A-CDM was not working properly and was, in
fact, contributing to delay.
As a reminder, for A-CDM to function efficiently, it is imperative that aircraft operators or their
nominated ground handler, ensure that the TOBT is accurate and kept up to date. When a delay is
known, the Airline or its representative should update the TOBT or send a delay message to ensure
that any ATFM restriction (CTOT) issued is closely aligned to the TOBT as possible.
Feedback from interviews conducted in Barcelona indicate that staff are not always aware of the A-
CDM options available to them to fully optimise their organisation’s needs. Training of staff / ground
handling personnel in this respect is extremely important, especially if they are recruited on a
seasonal basis.
It is recommended that A-CDM refresher training is offered on a regular basis, especially to ground
handling staff.
[M28a] It is recommended that airlines ensure that their staff or representatives are fully trained
in A-CDM, regular refresher training is offered and post operational analysis is undertaken
to identify any A-CDM performance issues.
[M28b] It is recommended that AENA with ENAIRE undertake an A-CDM “health check”
supported by EUROCONTROL, to identify the airline issues, explain why these occur if it
is due to a non-optimal airline / ground handler process, or take action to resolve the
issues, if feasible in the A-CDM system, benefiting from EUROCONTROL knowledge of
other airport A-CDM operations.
This recommendation is expected clarify A-CDM, any system constraints, and resolve any technical
or non-nominal operational behaviour.
[M29] Departure Clearance DCL
Over the last few years, the use of a single frequency by ENAIRE for airlines to obtain their departure
clearance has led to the frequency being overloaded during peak periods, resulting in pilot frustration
and, on occasion, lost TSAT.
It is recommended that ENAIRE deploy the data-link based Departure Clearance solution, DCL, in
time for summer 2019 and if not possible, ensure a second frequency and associated ATC Departure
Clearance delivery procedure is deployed.
When deploying DCL, a clear description of the airline / pilot process should be developed and an
awareness programme developed to inform users.
Airlines must make maximum use of this facility once implemented.
This recommendation is a quick win and is expected to resolve the departure clearance issue.

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6. RECOMMENDATIONS CONSOLIDATED BY
STAKEHOLDER
6.1 Prioritised Recommendations
GREEN colour coding is used to highlight priority recommendations considering their impact on
delay reduction or management, the urgency to start preparation for implementation such as data
capture and analysis, and quick wins.
Short Term
[M01] Performance Based Runway Occupancy Time (ROT) Management
[M07] Enhanced BRAIN procedures
[M08] Trial of “Non-Application of Terminal Airspace Regulation (sector DDI)
[M12] Implement Bordeaux Barcelona Boundary Transfer Point NATPI Agreement
[M16] Weather Prediction Tools, Direct Meteorology Forecaster Support and SMART
Regulation
[M17] Airline Pre-Defined Scenarios to Mitigate Industrial Action
[M18] Post-Operational Staffing Analysis
[M21] Enhance, Focus and Deepen ATC Post Operational Analysis
[M23] Airport Performance Communication Process
[M25] The main Barcelona carrier and AENA Gate, Night Maintenance and Daily Schedule
Coordination
[M26] LCC Operators Summer Delay Preparations
[M27] Airline Summer Schedule Resilience Analysis
[M29] Departure Clearance DCL

Long Term
[M02] Implement Day-Time (Mixed Mode) Independent Parallel Runway Operations
[M03] Hourly Based Custom Slot Capacity
[M06] Implement ROCAT, Runway Occupancy Categorisation
[M19] Implementation of a Flexible Rostering Scheme

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6.2 Consolidated by Stakeholder

6.2.1 DGCA
Implement a Process to Manage the Proposed Mitigations
It is recommended that DGCA develop and implement an action plan covering the short term
recommendations of this report, as mitigations to the issues that have been identified.
The DGCA should consider the creating of a high level governance body to oversee the
implementation, monitor its progress and to undertake post analysis actions, to. learn from the
actions taken and to inform the governance body with regard to longer term actions

6.2.2 ENAIRE
Short Term
[M01] Performance Based Runway Occupancy Time (ROT) Management
It is recommended that ENAIRE develop a performance based runway occupancy time management
process together with airline stakeholders, to safely minimise ROT, agreeing, monitoring and
reporting on ROT and use of preferential runway exit points, per aircraft type.
[M07] Enhanced BRAIN procedures
It is recommended that ENAIRE further systemise BRAIN approach procedures by refini ng, testing
and if acceptable, publishing, the amended approach procedures, incorporating:
1. Predefined and systematically applied speed profiles, typically 210KTS downwind, 180KTS
base leg and 160KTS on final to 4NM;
2. Reduced level bands from 4000ft to 2000ft where level banding is applied;
3. Consistent use of “distance to touchdown” guidance from Controllers to support pilots in
managing the flight profile and aircraft energy thereby avoiding unstable approaches
4. Continuous use of the procedure with no “ad-hoc” direct clearances in low traffic, to reinforce
and ensure pilot and controller proficiency in the procedures;
5. A rigid approach to use of standard phraseology to avoid non-local Pilot confusion, and
6. Incorporate BRAIN into the published STAR procedures, so there is only one reference for
approach.
[M08] Trial of “Non-Application of Terminal Airspace Regulation” (sector DDI)
It is recommended that ENAIRE explore what happens if regulation is not systematically applied, in
particular to sector DDI, when traffic predictions suggest excessive demand, as part of an approach
to SMART regulation.
[M12] Implement Bordeaux Barcelona Boundary Transfer Point NATPI Agreement
It is recommended that Barcelona and Bordeaux complete the procedure design and implement the
agreed additional transfer point, NATPI, in time for summer 2019. The additional actions to improve
traffic distribution on the new transfer points and the existing points should be formalised in a new
Letter of Agreement between Barcelona and Bordeaux Area Control Centres.

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[M16] Weather Prediction Tools, Direct Meteorology Forecaster Support and SMART
Regulation
It is recommended that ENAIRE deploy the weather prediction tools and AEMET meteorology
forecaster support as planned. ENAIRE should ensure tha t their weather regulation process is
updated, ensure staff are fully trained in the new tools, have clear procedures for AEMET and
ENAIRE staff to work together and have clear SMART regulation decision making criteria covering
how weather regulation will be deployed, justified and reviewed.
[M18] Post-Operational Staffing Analysis
In alignment with [M21] Enhance, Focus and Deepen ATC Post Operational Analysis, it is
recommended that ENAIRE widens the current post-operational analysis to also include an in-depth
review, specifically aimed at analysing the data and factors important for the staff planning processes
(e.g. optimum sector opening, hourly sector allocation, actual working time on position versus
available working time, and actual sector loads versus declared loads).
[M21] Enhance, Focus and Deepen ATC Post Operational Analysis
In alignment with [M18] Post-Operational Staffing Analysis, it is recommended that ENAIRE further
enhance, focus and deepen the post-operational analysis capability, both ENAIRE corporate and
locally in Barcelona, to fully understand the performance levels of the current capacity and resource
management processes.
[M29] Departure Clearance DCL
It is recommended that ENAIRE deploy the data-link based Departure Clearance solution, DCL, in
time for summer 2019 and if not possible, ensure a second frequency and associated ATC Departure
Clearance delivery procedure is deployed. Airlines must make maximum use of this facility once
implemented.
Long Term
[M03] Hourly Based Custom Slot Capacity
It is recommended that ENAIRE deploy their proposed hourly “custom slot capacity scheme” in time
for 2020, that maximises the availability of ATC Capacity and Staffing resources during periods of
peak demand and creates troughs of reduced capacity, that responds to airlines needs whilst
recognising that a respite period is required to recover from reactionary delay.
[M04] Performance Based Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs)
It is recommended that ENAIRE implement SIDs based on RNAV with diver ging splits of 21° that
aircraft establish on when turning left after climbing through 500ft, and which will permit ATC to fully
optimise runway 25L departure separations.
[M06] Implement ROCAT, Runway Occupancy Categorisation
It is recommended that ENAIRE implement ROCAT at Barcelona following the deployment of
performance based runway occupancy time (ROT) management and the agreement to reduce
minimum radar separation to 2.5 nm, both of which are pre-cursors to ROCAT.
[M09] Improved Boundary Update Message for AMAN
It is recommended that ENAIRE identify another data source to update the Barcelona arrival
manager with arrival estimates other than those sent following the Bordeaux advanced boundary
information. A more accurate estimate could be taken from one of the A-CDM milestone times such
as the Flight Update Message sent by the Network Manager, or an appropriate estimate from the
SACTA ATC system.
[M10] Reduced Minimum Radar Separation
It is recommended that ENAIRE implement a minimum radar separation of 2.5 NM in time for
summer 2019, to reduce the impact of non-preferential wide-body departures from runway 25R. This
will require a detailed local safety case to justify the improvement to the National safety regulator.

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[M11] Terminal Airspace Redesign

It is recommended that ENAIRE continue its efforts as identified in the ATENEA Strategy to improve
the sector design and segregate arrival and departure traffic. An early deployment of a FIS Controller
with a dedicated frequency during peak traffic should also be considered to segregate VFR and IFR
traffic, reducing workload and frequency over loading.
[M13] Implement SACTA Flight Plan Retrieval for Weather Deviating Flights
It is recommended that ENAIRE develop a flight plan retrieval application in SACTA for summer
2019 that allows a Controller receiving an aircraft diverting from one Centre’s airspace to another’s,
to quickly retrieve and create a flight plan for that flight, thus enabling the flight monitoring, sector
profiles and transfer functions in SACTA.
[M14] Dynamic Sector Volume Allocation
It is recommended that the ENAIRE develop the “dynamic airspace volume” concept, validate the
procedures and complete a detailed safety proposal to justify its use to the regulator, in time for
implementation by summer 2019.
[M15] Negotiate a Flexible Use of Airspace Solution to Reduce Impact of D21A
It is recommended that ENAIRE and the Spanish Military Authorities work together to identify a
Flexible Use of Airspace solution that equitably resolves the issue o f re-routing and additional sector
crossing to the satisfaction of both organisations.
[M19] Implementation of a Flexible Rostering Scheme
It is recommended that ENAIRE implement a flexible demand based rostering scheme that at the
same time satisfies the upcoming regulation for Fatigue Risk Management Scheme (FRMS).
[M20] SMART Regulation Study
It is recommended that ENAIRE undertake an assessment of the application and impact of
regulations to understand regulation interactions and the actual processes us ed to identify
opportunities to reduce or apply SMART regulation.
[M22] Enhance and strengthen the ENAIRE-Wide Performance Management Culture
It is recommended that ENAIRE enhance the communication and cascading down of agreed
performance targets as well as understanding of actual performance, to all levels in the organisation.

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6.2.3 AENA
Short Term
[M23] Airport Performance Communication Process
It is highly recommended that AENA implement a daily briefing through conference calls to inform
and discuss with all stakeholders, on critical performance events such as system outage,
infrastructure availability, work in progress, expected capacity challenges, Network issues, bad
weather and associated weather regulations.
[M28] A-CDM Health Check and TOBT Updating by Airline / Ground Handler
[M28b]It is recommended that AENA with ENAIRE undertake an A-CDM “health check” supported
by EUROCONTROL, to identify the airline issues, explain why these occur if it is due to a non -optimal
airline / ground handler process, or take action to resolve the issues, if feasible in the A-CDM system,
benefiting from EUROCONTROL knowledge of other airport A-CDM operations.
Long Term
[M02] Implement Day-Time (Mixed Mode) Independent Parallel Runway Operations
It is recommended that DGCA and AENA revisit current local noise constraints together with local
population and municipal stakeholder groups to implement independent parallel and mixed -mode
runway operations between 0700 and 2300 local time.
[M05] Runway 25L Extension
It is recommended that AENA extend runway 25L by at least 500m to the east of the current
threshold, thus providing additional TORA, suitable for wide-body departures.
[M24] Implement an Airport wide Performance Management Processes
It is recommended that AENA develop a common overarching airport performance management
process to proactively drive Barcelona Airport performance together with all key stakeholders.

6.2.4 AIRLINES
Short Term
[M17] Airline Pre-Defined Scenarios to Mitigate Industrial Action
It is recommended Barcelona based airlines develop operational scenarios to avoid the impact of
industrial action in 2019, including the possibility of reducing flights through and defining preferred
re-routing options around, the affected airspace. These scenarios should be discussed with ENAIRE
and the Network Manager so they can be coordinated with the Air Navigation Services likely to be
involved, and preferential routings agreed in anticipation.
[M25] The main Barcelona carrier and AENA Gate, Night Maintenance and Daily Schedule
Coordination
It is recommended that the main carrier work more closely with AENA on Terminal 1 gate
management allocation, with Ground Handling and Aircraft Maintenance to be fully aware of night
aircraft maintenance tracking and progress reporting, a nd use non-contact stands when
maintenance is known to be late, to solve gate position and aircraft -to-destination allocation issues
to improve the probability of a successful first morning departure wave.
[M26] LCC Operators Summer Delay Preparations
It is recommended that Airlines implement their plans in time for summer 2019. Other airlines
operating in Barcelona should be equally prepared, using the example of Vueling’s actions,
measured to their operation.

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[M27] Airline Summer Schedule Resilience Analysis

It is recommended that Barcelona airlines review their schedules to assess the potential impact and
cost of reactionary delay during summer 2019 operations, based on the results of summer 2018, the
expectation that Network delays are expected to be similar in 2019, and the need for explicit recovery
periods in their daily schedule.
[M28] A-CDM Health Check and TOBT Updating by Airline / Ground Handler
It is recommended that A-CDM refresher training is offered on a regular basis.
[M28a]It is recommended that airlines ensure that their staff or representatives are fully trained in
A-CDM, regular refresher training is offered and post operational analysis is undertaken to identify
any A-CDM performance issues.

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Annex 1: ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviations Definitions
ACC Area Control Centre

A-CDM Airport Collaborative Decision Making

AEMET Agencia Estatal de Meteorología

AENA Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea

AESA Agencia Estatal de Seguridad Aérea

AIP Aeronautical Information Publication

ALA Asociación de Líneas Aéreas

AMAN Arrival Manager

ANSP Air Navigation Service Provider

AOBT Actual Off Block Time

AOC Airline Operations Centre

APT Airport
ASMA Arrival Sequencing and Metering Area

ATC Air Traffic Control

ATCO Air Traffic Control Officer

ATENEA ENAIRE Strategic Operational Improvement

ATFM Air Traffic Flow Management

ATM Air Traffic Management

ATS Air Traffic Service

BAMBI Barcelona, Madrid, Bordeaux Interface

BAS Barcelona Sector

BRAIN Barcelona RNAV Approach Innovations

CCC En-route Central Sector in Barcelona Airspace

CCL En-route Low er Central Sector in Barcelona Airspace

CCU En-route Upper Central Sector in Barcelona Airspace

CDG Paris Charles de Gaulle

CDM Collaborative Decision Making

CEM Collaborative Environmental Management

CODA Central Office for Delay Analysis

DCL Departure Clearance

DDI Terminal Sector DDI

DECMA Directorate European Civil-Military Aviation

DGCA Director General of Civil Aviation

DLC Data Link Connection

DME Distance Measuring Equipment

ECAC European Civil Aviation Conference

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Abbreviations Definitions

FAB Functional Airspace Block

FIR Flight Information Region

FIS Flight Information Service

FMP Flow Management Position

FRMS Fatigue Risk Management Scheme

FUM Flight Update Message

GIROM Bordeaux, Barcelona boundary Transfer Point

IAF Initial Approach Fix

IAG International Airlines Group

IATA International Air Transport Association

IFR Instrument Flight Rules

ILS Instrument Landing System

KPI Key Performance Indicator

LCC Low Cost Carrier

METAR Meteorological Aerodrome Report

MUAC Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre

NATPI New Bordeaux, Barcelona boundary Transfer Point

NATS National Air Traffic Services (UK)

NOP Netw ork Operations Plan

OCC Operational Control Centre

OKABI Bordeaux, Barcelona boundary Transfer Point

PBN Performance Based Navigation

PCP Pilot Common Project

PDCA Plan-Do-Check-Act

PRM Passenger w ith Reduced Mobility

PRU Performance Review Unit

RECAT Re-categorisation of Wake Turbulence Separation Minima

RED ENAIRE Corporate 24 Hour Unit

RFL Requested Flight Level

RNAV Radio Navigation

ROCAT Runw ay Occupancy Time

ROT Runw ay Occupancy Time

SACTA Sistema Automatizado de Control del Tráfico Aéreo (ES)

SESAR Single European Sky ATM Research (Programme)

SID Standard Instrument Departure

SMART Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely

SOT Sector Opening Table

STAR (s) Standard Instrument Arrival

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Abbreviations Definitions

STD Scheduled Time of Departure

TAF Terminal Area (Aerodrome) Forecast

TAM Total Airport Management

TBS Time Based Separation

TMA Terminal Control Area

TOBT Target Off-Block Time

TORA Take-Off Run Available

TSAT Target Start-Up Approval Time

UIR Upper Flight Information Region

VFR Visual Flight Rules

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Annex 2: ENAIRE ATENEA CAPACITY EVOLUTION ROADMAP

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