The innovation is more than just efficiency; it also provides greater safety and a lower workload.
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Small aircraft pilots (such as recreational pilots, helicopter pilots, or private jet pilots) can submit flight plans using the digital Homebriefing system of Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL). The underlying system that processes these flight plans has now been updated, ensuring even greater safety and a lower workload. At the same time, Homebriefing is now accessible to airports, giving them direct insight into planned flights.
“Roll it out and go!” - that was the reaction team manager Huib van der Eem received during the first training session with the updated system. After months of preparation, Home Briefing 2.0, LVNL's flight plan processing system, went live. The difference is like night and day. Previously, Flight Service Center employees had to deal with a slow process involving a lot of manual work, especially on busy days. Now they receive the correct information much faster, organized in a clear and logical manner.
The most symbolic moment? Saying goodbye to the ‘call box’. Project leader Oscar Bal explains: "For every flight with a flight plan that was heading to a small airport such as Hilversum, Midden-Zeeland or Hoogeveen, we would print out a slip of paper and put it in a box. We would then call the airport and say: ‘There is a plane arriving at that time.’ And we waited for them to call back when the plane had landed." Now these airports work directly in the LVNL system. No more hassle, less chance of errors, and all information is available in real time.
The innovation is more than just efficiency. The system now automatically warns if a plane is not arriving on schedule – something that airports previously had to keep track of themselves. And where possible, the system is linked to the airports' information systems. “That's unique in Europe,” says Bal. “No other country integrates flight plan and airport systems as far as we do now.” Experts from various divisions worked together on this development for fifteen months. The result: “This significantly reduces the workload for the Flight Service Center,” says Van der Eem.