AirNav Ireland participated in the EUROCONTROL Point Merge Forum, held from 3-4 June held at EUROCONTROL Innovation Hub (EIH), Brétigny, France. The forum brings together air navigation service providers, airlines, regulators, airports and operational experts to share experience on the design, implementation and operation of Point Merge procedures.
AirNav Ireland was joined by Paul Donnelly (Aer Lingus) and Alan Caul, MSc (Ryanair Group) who participated in the forum and shared their operational experience of Point Merge at Dublin Airport. Their contributions provided valuable airline perspectives on the day to day use of the procedure and underlined the importance of close collaboration between ANSPs and airspace users in delivering operational and performance benefits.
Across the two days, discussions focused on how Point Merge supports safer, more predictable and more efficient arrival management in complex and high density airspace. Key themes included operational lessons learned, human factors, environmental benefits, and the contribution of Point Merge to network performance, resilience and sustainability. AirNav Ireland exchanged practical insights on implementation challenges and opportunities for further optimisation.
After 20 years since its inception at the EIH, with 14 at Dublin and 15 years of operations at Oslo the two pioneers., today 60 airports using it around the world. Point Merge has become a standard for arrival sequencing.
Image Credit: Air Nav Ireland
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