NAV rolls out new system in Lisbon that could reduce flight delays

A new NAV system for air traffic reorganization in Lisbon, Point Merge, which could reduce delays, comes into force on May 16 after negotiations with the Air Force and an investment of two million euros.

At midnight (UTC) on May 16, control of the Lisbon airspace, which includes Cascais and the military bases of Montijo, Sintra and Alverca, will be exercised with the help of a new tool – Point System Merge – an investment of almost two million euros and will allow more efficient manage traffic, save fuel, reduce pollutant emissions and noise, as explained by Pedro Angelo, President of the Board of Directors of NAV Portugal, and Rui, Director of Aviation Procedures. Marsal at a meeting with journalists.

Due to increasing traffic and growing environmental requirements, NAV began in 2016 the largest restructuring of the airspace it had ever undertaken, and later, in a Resolution of the Council of Ministers (RCM) of June 2019, this was mandated by the government led by António Costa, signed with Air Force Operational Letter for the transfer of Sintra airspace to enable Point Merge to become operational from 23 April 2020.

However, as those responsible explained, the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the expected timing, and only now the conditions have been created for the implementation of the new system (PMS in its English acronym), after almost five years of negotiations with the Air Force on the provision of military airspace for civil aviation, mainly in Sintra, as well as in Monte Real, in the municipality of Leiria.

PMS is an airport approach queuing system in which, when traffic is congested, aircraft waiting their turn to land are lined up in two arcs and directed to land in sequence from these arcs at a constant speed.

In the model used so far, planes have to wait, circling around the same point, and when they are cleared to land, they go through a descent-through-landing procedure that requires, in terms of communication, between the airline operating the traffic and the pilots. .

Replacing circular holding with linear holding at higher altitudes allows for more efficient, organized and safe air traffic control, leading to greater fuel economy, reduced pollutant emissions and noise exposure to the public.

In addition, thanks to the provision of military airspace in Sintra, which even included the transfer of a flight school to Beja, it is now possible to fly to the west (Azores or to the USA), which was previously not possible, allowing airlines to save travel time and fuel.

Under the 2019 RCM, the Air Force was allowed to incur the costs of purchasing goods and services associated with the required transfers up to a maximum of €18.8 million, plus VAT.

Although they hope that the new system will contribute to reducing delays at Lisbon airport, NAV representatives stressed that this depends not only on the airspace, but above all on the infrastructure, stressing that in 2023 the contribution of air traffic control to flight delays was 10%.

The PMS system was only tested for Lisbon and was being worked on while planning to create a dual airport solution with Portela + Montijo to gradually increase the capacity of the Lisbon airport system from 44 to 72 flights per hour (46 in Lisbon, two in Cascais and 24 in Montijo).

However, the placement of Montijo was considered unfeasible by the Independent Technical Commission (CTI) responsible for the strategic environmental assessment of the new airport, which recommended a single solution in Alcochete or Vendas Novas, but noted that Humberto Delgado + Santarem “may be a temporary” solution.

Even before becoming prime minister, Social Democratic leader Luis Montenegro guaranteed that a decision on a new airport would be made “in the early days” of his government.