Feasibility and Benefits of Implementing Flight Centric ATC in the Spanish upper airspace

The Flight Centric Air Traffic Control (Flight Centric ATC or FCA) concept introduces a new approach to airspace design and air traffic controller operations in en-route environment. By removing traditional sector boundaries and restructuring controller workflows, FCA aims to alleviate capacity constraints caused by the continuous growth of air traffic in Europe. This concept also enables a more balanced distribution of traffic among controllers within an Area Control Center (ACC), based on workload allocation. As a result, both airspace and overall controller capacity can be optimized. With FCA, it becomes possible to control the same number of aircraft with fewer controllers compared to sectorized airspace. In this paper, we present the latest research findings from the Single European Sky ATM Research Programme (SESAR2020 Wave 2 PJ.10-W2- 73 FCA). Specifically, we discuss the Real Time Simulation (RTS) validation exercise conducted by the Spanish Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) ENAIRE in collaboration with INDRA, focusing on the upper Spanish airspace.