A transitional system for operating both sectorless and sectored airspace in Southeast Asia

Abstract

As air traffic demand grows, airspace planners work around the increase in workload on air traffic controllers by dividing the airspace into sectors for better manageability. However, this method has its limits and also brings about inefficiency in the air traffic system. One possible solution to this problem is the implementation of a sectorless airspace — an airspace with a single unified sector. Its benefits include dynamic manpower allocation, shorter flight path and more. It has been many years since the introduction of the sectorless airspace concept, and yet this idea has not become operational to date. This paper therefore discusses some of the key considerations with regards to the implementation of this idea — the stakeholders, the changes necessary, and the work already done by others. To date, researches done on the sectorless idea are mainly confined to laboratory and simulations. For the sectorless idea to take off, there must first be a trial performed in the real-world. The trial is a necessary step to gain approval and acceptance from many stakeholders and must therefore be carefully designed. Following this, a transitional system for operating both types of airspace is conceptualized and discussed in this paper. The proposed transitional system is a mixed-mode system for operating both traditional sectored and sectorless airspaces in tandem. Several aspects such as flight rules, scope of coverage, arrangement of air traffic controllers, as well as coordination strategies between agencies are presented. In addition, the benefits, trade-offs, and dangers of this transitional system are also briefly examined. In this paper, the airspace of the Southeast Asian region is used as a case study. Preliminary analyses also showed that the effect of route lengthening as a trade-off on the regional traffic is minimal. Finally, the future of the sectorless implementation in the Southeast Asia context is discussed. Several areas of necessary development and future study for this concept are also briefly presented.