Medium Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 22
Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Workload; Situational Awareness; Distraction
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Procedure
ZAU uses ERAM automated adaptation to turn on and off preferential routes to KORD on the ERNNY and MADII STARs. However; when the STAR is turned off; ZAU does not issue a NOTAM to the NAS telling the users that the procedure is not valid. When you turn off a STAR in ERAM; it no longer exists in space. Then; when the users (Airlines/GA/Military) file the flight plan they get it rejected. This causes confusion because NADIN [National Airspace Data Interchange Network] is rejecting a valid flight plan with and no NOTAMs have been issued alerting the users that the procedure(ERNNY STAR) does not exist currently; even though it is nationally charted.I was training a D Side trainee when CWA Tower called for clearance on Aircraft X. We did not have a flight plan; but the Aircraft X flight said company filed one for them. We continued to research; but did not find anything. Finally 22 minutes later; we got the flight plan straightened out and Aircraft X departed. After some initial research; we found out that the Aircraft X Dispatch filed ...GRB.ERNNY2.KORD and later received a reject which contributed to the confusion and flight delay. We also had issues with Aircraft Y and Aircraft Z today. This is the same issue that was a contributor to the Aircraft A pilot deviation which is in the report database. We also had similar problems on a later date when I was working with three other company aircraft; and a couple of flights of which I do not remember the numbers. This issue is creating unnecessary additional workload for CWA Tower; SAW Tower; and ZMP controllers as well as causing flight delays and confusion for the airline dispatchers.If ZAU is going to turn off a published and charted route in the NAS; then they should be issuing a NOTAM so the users know and are not confused when they receive a reject on filed flight plans.
ZMP Controller describes various situations where flight plans are not correct due to ERAM configurations being turned off by ZAU. This in turn causes route changes and or routes/clearances not being sent out by the clearance computer; which then delays flights on the ground or in the air.