After the exercise is before the exercise – while this may not be entirely true, the Exercise 002 team has been busy since the validation campaign concluded in November 2024. The collected data is now being processed and evaluated to provide answers to each of the twelve validation objectives covering several categories (five operational, two performance-related covering fuel consumption and ATCO productivity, one safety, and four human performance) each assessed through multiple success criteria.
During the simulation campaign, ten controllers acting as FCA ATCOs went through three days of thorough training on the modified radar interface and support tools and FCA-specific procedures, followed by five days of validation, with a total of 16 runs. After each validation run, they completed a post-run questionnaire and at the end of the validation week, a final questionnaire. They also provided valuable qualitative feedback through post-run and post-validation debriefings and reported their perceived workload at two-minute intervals throughout each simulation run. Additionally, log data was recorded to allow for an assessment of fuel consumption and conflict situations.
Although the evaluation is still in its early stages, with final results and values to be published in the Solution’s Final Validation Report in November 2025, preliminary findings indicate a small reduction in fuel consumption during the Solution runs compared to the baseline as well as an increase in ATCO productivity. Throughout all runs, participants reported acceptable workload levels with no instances of overload. Similarly, situational awareness was generally rated positively across all runs. In general, the air traffic controllers found the tools reliable and the concept feasible. While they provided feedback and suggestions for improvements regarding some interface designs and functionalities of support tools, no major issues were reported. These suggestions, along with all outcomes and recommendations, will be carefully analysed and detailed in the Final Validation Report
