Uploaded May 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Back in January and March 2024, we welcomed controllers from DHMI, the Turkish ANSP, to the EUROCONTROL Innovation Hub (EIH) in order to perform a major real-time simulation for triple-runway operations at iGA Istanbul Airport.
This included testing new procedures for simultaneous and independent landing and take-off on three runways, which should pave the way for efficient use of Istanbul Airport’s all five runways.
The simulation saw EIH, NM Safety and DHMI teams work together for four weeks using our ESCAPE ATC simulator, with Turkish Airlines pilots operating our A320 cockpit simulator. This allowed us to introduce more than 80 ATCOs and several pilots to the new procedures and collect their valuable feedback in support of the Operational Safety Assessment study.
One of the specificities of the simulation was to test non-nominal cases that could occur in triple runway operations. A new “scenario manager” position was introduced to disrupt regular traffic flow by creating deviations to aircraft trajectories (climb or descend, turn, increase or decrease speed, adjust rate of descent, conduct missed approaches, etc.), measure reactions of air traffic controllers and pilots, and assess and possibly improve the related procedures.
The simulation project took several months to prepare and execute, and we are now working on the final report.
More about our simulation capabilities at EIH: https://www.eurocontrol.int/simulations
Back in January and March 2024, we welcomed controllers from DHMI, the Turkish ANSP, to the EUROCONTROL Innovation Hub (EIH) in order to perform a major real-time simulation for triple-runway operations at iGA Istanbul Airport.
This included testing new procedures for simultaneous and independent landing and take-off on three runways, which should pave the way for efficient use of Istanbul Airport’s all five runways.
The simulation saw EIH, NM Safety and DHMI teams work together for four weeks using our ESCAPE ATC simulator, with Turkish Airlines pilots operating our A320 cockpit simulator. This allowed us to introduce more than 80 ATCOs and several pilots to the new procedures and collect their valuable feedback in support of the Operational Safety Assessment study.
One of the specificities of the simulation was to test non-nominal cases that could occur in triple runway operations. A new “scenario manager” position was introduced to disrupt regular traffic flow by creating deviations to aircraft trajectories (climb or descend, turn, increase or decrease speed, adjust rate of descent, conduct missed approaches, etc.), measure reactions of air traffic controllers and pilots, and assess and possibly improve the related procedures.
The simulation project took several months to prepare and execute, and we are now working on the final report.
More about our simulation capabilities at EIH: https://www.eurocontrol.int/simulations
