Free route airspace and the need of new air traffic control tools

As part of the Single European Sky Airspace Research program (SESAR) a new operational instrument is being developed: the Free Route Airspace (FRA). FRA defines airspace areas where user can decide about the best performance routes, not subjected to airways or mandatory crossing points. Currently, 11 FRA projects are been deployed specially in low density areas and low density time periods. Long-term benefits for one single FRA can account for saving up to 32,000 nautical miles per day, which may represent around 100,000 Euros savings per days. In this paper we assess the benefit figures with the opinions of the involved air traffic controllers. They point to the challenges to be overtaken before extending the future FRA. An important issue, raised by the air traffic controllers, was the importance of the support tools. Also important are the previous training and a full FRA deployment.