During the last decades research programmes have been developed principally to increase the capacity of airspace. Studies of future traffic demand and of the available capacity show that today it is the airports that have become the major problem when considering the expansion of air transport. It is therefore necessary to reconsider the direction of research in the airport domain.

The EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre (EEC) has created the APT throughput Research Area (RA) for which the challenge will be to create extra airport capacity with the help of new procedures and technology, while resolving the environmental problems affecting airports. The paradox for airports is that it is necessary to increase airport capacity but that no one wants to have a new airport in his area. Similarly, it is necessary to increase the use of existing airports, but no one wants to have aircraft passing over his home any longer.

The principal partners of the APT RA will be the European airports, the Airlines, the European Commission and national ATM service providers, to name but some.

The activities of the APT RA will be guided chiefly by the ATM2000+ strategy as well as the strategic research agenda of ACARE. A work schedule will follow on from this that will be integrated in the work programme of the EEC. At the moment, the APT RA is engaging in projects for the 6^th Framework Programme.

The chosen strategy to set up the activity is initially to develop and to maximise existing solutions while in the longer term the research will look at new technological and operational solutions to define the elements that outline the blueprint for the Airport of the Future.

The main study issues will be the following:

Ø Airspace issues;

Ø Runway utilisation;

Ø Ground movements;

Ø Landside items;

Ø Collaborative airport;

each of which will be analysed from the point of view of their efficiency, safety, environmental effect, human factors and under different meteorological conditions.

At the moment, the main body of activities of the APT RA addresses:

Ø Airside, exploiting the progress made in the knowledge of the effects of meteorological conditions on the nature of wake turbulence in order to maximise runway use. The objective is to allow a reduction in the spacing of aircraft while keeping the optimum conditions of safety and thereby increasing the runway capacity.

Ø Landside, developing an active collaboration amongst the numerous actors concerned with the landing and airport servicing of an aircraft in order to have common knowledge of the departure time of the aircraft. The objective is to better respect the demands imposed by the daily regulation plan. These CDM projects have already various experimental airports.

Very soon, projects related to the surveillance and safety of airports (A-SMGS) as well as research into new reduced-noise approach and departure procedures will complement these activities.

In parallel, a European airport research network will be set up to develop a synergy between different establishments. In addition, airports willing to participate in research will be identified, and a co-operation with the FAA should be established.

Within the EEC the links between the APT RA and the other Research Areas have been identified in order to integrate the research done on airports into its more global aviation framework. The expertise required and the tools identified for the activity have been accounted for in the overall development plan.