Analysis of general aviation domestic air traffic structure in controlled airspace of poland with refer to SESAR 2020, PJ.06-02 project solution

Civil air traffic in Poland is organized in accordance with international regulations provided by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Flight operations are performed in controlled airspace (CAS) or uncontrolled airspace. The division contains different approach to flight planning (FP) and group specific types of airspace users (AUs) and aircrafts types. Typically, General Aviation (GA) operations are placed in uncontrolled airspace while airline operations in CAS. This practice results from air operations types and aircrafts flight performance. GA includes sport, school, private transport or business flights and therefore the uncontrolled airspace with its vertical border form the ground to FL 95 contains most of the GA operations. However, there is a part of GA operations performed in CAS according to Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). The aim of the work is to describe the structure of domestic GA operations in IFR flights in CAS of Poland. Using the archival air traffic data from previous five years (2012-2016) the defined subject was analysed. In the first part, the aircraft fleet is presented. It contains the description of aircrafts types with relation to route distances, number of flights, propulsion type and wake turbulence category (WTC). In the second part, the network of defined air traffic was shown. It contains data about departure and destinations airports, the airports loading, month statistic of flights and trend in traffic changes. The traffic data are obtained from Eurocontrol database Demand Data Repository (DDR2) and using the NEST Eurocontrol software. The article arose during author’s traineeship in Eurocontrol within a framework of SESAR 2020 project, PJ.06-02 solution. Presented analyses are useful from the FP point of view since the PJ.06-02 solution refers to “Management of Performance Based Free Routing in lower Airspace” and need to consider the features of every airspace users.