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Real-Time Airport Surface Operations Planning: Advancing Punctuality, Efficiency, and Safety Across Europe 27 June 2025 by author

The SESAR Joint Undertaking’s Integrated Airport Operations (IAO) project exemplifies a landmark collaborative effort among European scientific institutions and industry leaders to enhance the punctuality, efficiency, and safety of complex airport surface operations. Through the implementation and large-scale demonstration of pioneering Air Traffic Management (ATM) solutions, tested extensively at major European airports including Nice, Budapest, and Hamburg, the IAO project is delivering actionable innovations that address the multifaceted challenges of aircraft taxiing, take-off, and landing sequencing. Enhancing Controller Capabilities through Advanced Automation

Under the leadership of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and coordinated via the IAO PJ.28 project, these SESAR-developed solutions introduce transformative functionalities that assist air traffic controllers in making informed, real-time decisions. According to Project Manager Steffen Loth from DLR’s Institute of Flight Guidance, “Our research is dedicated to developing innovative tools that support routing, planning, and departure management, while integrating robust safety mechanisms tailored for airport surface operations. By analyzing live traffic scenarios and optimizing scheduling processes, we strive to minimize delays and elevate the overall efficiency of flight operations.”

The comprehensive approach focuses on three core solution pillars:

Automated Assistance for Surface Movement Planning and Routing: This solution delivers a dynamic, route-planning tool—often termed a ‘digital taxi manager’—designed to assist apron controllers by generating optimal taxi routes for individual aircraft. The system continuously adapts to evolving traffic conditions while enabling controllers to retain manual override capabilities. This not only streamlines aircraft movements but significantly enhances controllers’ situational awareness, thereby reducing operational uncertainty.
Pre-Departure Sequencing Integrated with Route Planning: Building upon optimized taxi routing, this solution ensures engine ignition occurs no sooner than necessary. By replacing generalized assumptions with precise, real-time calculations tailored to each aircraft’s surface movement, it achieves better departure sequencing. The resulting benefits extend beyond operational efficiency to encompass environmental gains through reduced fuel burn, decreased noise pollution, and lower CO2 emissions.
Advanced Airport Safety Nets: Leveraging comprehensive surveillance and operational data, these safety nets provide proactive alerts to controllers about deviations from ATC clearances or established procedures. They enable rapid detection of potential conflicts during runway operations, supporting prompt corrective measures to uphold stringent safety standards.

Real-World Validation Across Diverse Airport Environments

To ensure broad applicability and robustness despite significant local operational differences, the IAO project meticulously conducted live demonstrations across three distinct airport settings:

Hamburg Airport: Characterized by intersecting, interdependent runways, offering complex traffic interdependencies.
Nice Côte d’Azur Airport: Featuring interdependent, parallel runway configurations facing seasonal capacity constraints.
Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport: Featuring a complex network of taxiways supporting interdependent, parallel runways.

Infrastructure was deployed and integrated on-site to facilitate real-time access to live operational data, including active traffic scenarios and up-to-date flight plans. Critical to the authenticity of the testing, local air traffic controllers operated the systems in their real work environments, providing invaluable feedback and enabling iterative refinements.

At the 2019 Hamburg Demo Day event, Michael Eggenschwiler, CEO of Hamburg Airport, highlighted the value of the collaboration: “Our long-standing partnership with DLR has enabled research under authentic operational conditions within our contingency room—an essential backup facility mirroring live control environments. This partnership allowed us to rigorously test these innovations alongside our controllers, accelerating their readiness for real-world deployment.” SESAR 2020 and the Path to Industrial Deployment

The IAO project serves as a flagship Very Large Scale Demonstration (VLD) under the SESAR 2020 framework, demonstrating a scalable pathway for transitioning innovative ATM solutions from research to widespread industrial implementation. These solutions align with Europe’s strategic ambitions to enhance air transport punctuality and efficiency while upholding the highest safety standards.

The project has yielded promising early results, demonstrating measurable improvements in surface movement efficiency, controller workload management, and safety assurance. Comprehensive analysis and final evaluations were scheduled for completion in early 2020, reinforcing the commitment to evidence-based modernization of airport operations. Consortium and Funding

The IAO project is a testament to cross-border collaboration:

Indra Norway and HungaroControl led the Budapest Airport demonstration,
DSNA delivered the Nice Airport trials,
DLR, together with the Norwegian research institute SINTEF, coordinated and executed activities at Hamburg Airport,
DLR maintained overall project coordination to ensure consistency and integration.

This initiative is co-funded by the SESAR Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through grant agreement No 731787, exemplifying the EU’s commitment to pioneering sustainable and cutting-edge aviation technologies. Recent Developments and Strategic Outlook

Building on the successful demonstrations and collaborative groundwork laid by the IAO project, SESAR 2020 continues to expand adoption of these solutions across European airports. Innovations in automated routing and pre-departure sequencing have contributed to tangible reductions in surface congestion and associated emissions, consistent with Europe’s Green Deal objectives. These advancements have also been integrated into the European ATM Master Plan, aligning operational improvements with long-term airspace modernization goals. The continued collaboration between research entities, industry partners, and operational stakeholders ensures that SESAR’s pioneering technologies maintain momentum toward comprehensive deployment, establishing Europe as a global leader in efficient and safe airport surface management.