TITAN Kicks-off its “Integration in the Air Transport System” and Holds Fourth Progress Meeting
On 31/01/2012, in TITAN, by steve
The EC 7th Framework Program project TITAN is slowly approaching the final leg of its exciting three year circuit looking at improving the aircraft turnaround process. The TITAN partners gathered in Madrid, Spain, on 14-15 December to review progress and to kick-off WP6. I will come back on the significance of this work-package in moment.
Participation, as we have grown used to in this project, was very good and SESAR also sent its WP6 (Airport) leader for good measure.
Participants noted that the general economic malaise was also impacting the air transport industry and it was increasingly difficult to get contributions in kind from airlines and even airports as they themselves were increasingly short of resources. Nevertheless the project partners were calling on their network of experts to compensate this unfortunate situation to the maximum extent possible.
Good news came in the form of the realization that based on the outcome of the gaming exercises run in the fall of last year, only minor changes to the TITAN Concept of Operations will be required. This is important as it confirms that the project has been on the right track from the start and is also the key to the longer term stability of the work.
Click here to read the full article
Are Airspace Users Really the Centre of ANSP Attention?
On 22/01/2012, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
More than a decade ago I was in the thick of a war raging between airspace users and air navigation service providers. At stake was the forced implementation of Mode S Enhanced Surveillance (ES), something some ANSPs considered to be vital while the airspace users in general considered to be an expensive folly. The business case developed by EUROCONTROL was at best dodgy and the promised benefits were seen as of questionable value.
At the time, Mode S elementary surveillance looked like a done deal. In the end, after having held back the Mode S ES for two years or so, three big ANSPs banded together and went ahead anyway… costing the industry millions without having realized measurable benefits to this day!
But now, Mode S Elementary Surveillance is rising from the ashes, more specifically the problems associated with the SES Implementing Rule (IR) on Aircraft Identification for Surveillance (Regulation (EU) No 1206/2011).
Two Members of the European Parliament have submitted questions for written answer (ref. E-000312/2012). You will find the text of the questions, as published, below in full.
I wonder what the answers will be. The questions paint a sad story indeed….
Click here to read the full article
Young European candidates wanted for Innotour USA – Application deadline 5 January 2012
On 26/12/2011, in Events, by steve
Dear Young European Innovators,
I am Kumardev Chatterjee, Founder and President of the European Young Innovators Forum (EYIF).
You will be aware of the competition for the Masterclass on Innovation we launched erlier this year with Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary, and which EYIF organised with the European Commission at its Innovation Convention (IC2011) in Brussels this December. We received a great response with over 60 submissions, from which four winners were invited to participate in the masterclass and present their innovative idea. The Masterclass was a spelndid success for us, the Commission and the candidates, one of whom was selected to have their entire research and innovation funded.
And now we have launched Innotour USA, an Innovation tour of the USA in February for a group of 10 young Europeans, with a full program of visits and meetings, and all travel expenses in the USA paid. The US Department of State via the US Mission to the EU, in collaboration with the European Young Innovators Forum, is responsible for the design, facilitation and managment of this intensive multi-state, multi-city programme to visit major American hubs of Innovation like Boston and Silicon Valley.
From 12-22 February 2012, a delegation of ten young European innovators and entrepreneurs will embark on a ten-day mission to the United States. Starting in Washington DC, they will visit major American hubs of innovation like Boston and Silicon Valley, interact face-to-face with top innovation practitioners and experts, experiencing first-hand best practices of turning innovative ideas into successful projects and businesses. More than just a study tour, Innotour USA is a cultural exchange that will have a broad and lasting impact, building bridges between Europe and the U.S. on a common quest for innovation and development.
You can find details here and on a dedicated Facebook page here.
Please note that the application deadline is 5 January 2012, so if you are interested act NOW!
Old habits that refuse to die
On 29/11/2011, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
Things like the Single European Sky (SES), SESAR, even the FABs were supposed to bring a fresh air to European ATM, dispensing once and for all with bad habits and procedures that kept making life for airspace users unnecessarily hard and expensive.
Among those old habits, the persistent mismatch between mandates to equip aircraft and adding the capability concerned to ANSPs was one of the most striking and expensive. What did this mean? The industry, sometimes all on its own but more often after “gentle persuasion” by the service providers “agreed” that a new piece of kit had to be bolted on the airplanes and a date was set by which time the new kit had to be operational. There was never a mandate for the ground to also equip, this happened in a haphazard way if it happened at all and often aircraft flew around for years with totally useless boxes on board that had cost a fortune to install with no benefit at all (just think of Mode S enhanced surveillance if you want an example).
One would think that under SES and its Implementing Rules (IR) this kind of mismatch is a thing of the past. Fat chance.
A few days ago two new SES IRs were published in the EU Official Journal.
Regulation No 1206/2011 prescribes that air navigation service providers must make use of the aircraft identification down-linked via Mode S by the second of January of the year 2020. This is a cool 17 years after the corresponding airborne retrofit date which was in 2003. Oooops….
Click here to read the full article
Commission Report Puts the Lie to Claims that ATM is in Great Shape
On 26/11/2011, in SESAR's Palace, by cleo
Regular readers of Roger-Wilco know that we have been sounding alarm bells over the European ATM situation and the even brighter future that some reports would make us believe is just around the corner. We did not make many friends with this kind of reporting… of course. It is much nicer to believe that all is well even when the plane is crashing. But we were not reporting unfounded facts. Our sources are better than most…
And now a press release from the European Commission finally brings to light just how bad the situation really is.
The “traffic light” assessments published today by the Commission – based on two progress reports – highlight serious cause for concern in relation to two major elements which go to the heart of the Single European Sky project: the performance scheme and the functional airspace blocks.
Only 5 out of 27 Member States (Belgium, Denmark, Lithuania, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) get a “green light” and are on track to meet both targets (for cost and capacity/delays) for the period 2012–14. The Commission has issued recommendations asking Member States to revise these targets. If necessary the Commission could adopt a binding decision requesting the Member State(s) concerned to implement specific corrective measures, although a short time remains available for the targets to be met without recourse to this action.
Existing plans by Member States would fail to meet the EU-wide capacity target of 0.5 minute delay per flight in 2014. If this target were achieved, some €920 million would be saved over 2012–14 due to fewer and shorter delays.
In addition, national performance plans would miss the EU-wide target for ATM cost efficiency by 2.4% in 2014. This would have a a major impact, both on airspace users and on the credibility of the Single European Sky. To meet the target, additional measures are needed to achieve a €250 million saving over the entire three-year reference period (2012–14).
Well, this is not exactly the bright picture that States and ANSPs would want the industry to see. Keep in mind also that all this is happening after the failure of EATCHIP and ATM2000+. I hope you are not going to say now that SESAR will be different. SESAR may be but the rest of the environment is not….
But there is more.
The great Functional Airspace Block fiasco.
Click here to read the full article
EU to invest 32 billion Euros to improve European transport – SESAR is one of the beneficiaries!
On 20/10/2011, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
The European Commission has adopted a proposal to transform the existing patchwork of European roads, railways, airports and canals into a unified transport network (TEN-T). The new core network will remove bottlenecks, upgrade infrastructure and streamline cross border transport operations for passengers and businesses throughout the EU. It will improve connections between different modes of transport and contribute to the EU’s climate change objectives.
European Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas, responsible for transport, said: “Transport is fundamental to an efficient EU economy, but vital connections are currently missing. Europe’s railways have to use 7 different gauge sizes and only 20 of our major airports and 35 of our major ports are directly connected to the rail network. Without good connections Europe will not grow or prosper.”
The new policy follows a two-year consultation process and establishes a core transport network to be established by 2030 to act as the backbone for transportation within the Single Market. The financing proposals published today (for the period 2014–2020) also tightly focus EU transport funding on this core transport network, filling in cross-border missing links, removing bottlenecks and making the network smarter.
The new core TEN-T network will be supported by a comprehensive network of routes, feeding into the core network at regional and national level. This will largely be financed by Member States, with some EU transport and regional funding possibilities, including with new innovative financing instruments. The aim is to ensure that progressively, and by 2050, the great majority of Europe’s citizens and businesses will be no more than 30 minutes’ travel time from this comprehensive network.
Taken as a whole, the new transport network will deliver:
• safer and less congested travel
• as well as smoother and quicker journeys.
The 31.7 billion euros allocated to transport under the Connecting Europe Facility of the MFF (Multi-Annual Financial Framework) will effectively act as “seed capital” to stimulate further investment by Member States to complete difficult cross-border connections and links which might not otherwise get built. Every 1 million euros spent at European level will generate 5 million from Member State governments and 20 million from the private sector.
Background:
The new policy sets out a much smaller and more tightly defined transport network for Europe. Its aim is to focus spending on a smaller number of projects where real EU added value can be realised. Member States will also face more rigorous requirements in terms of common specifications which will work cross-border, and legal obligations actually to complete the project.
Click here to read the full article
The advantages of not being American
On 17/10/2011, in Viewpoint, by cleo
Remember how we used to say to anyone willing to listen just how wonderful the FAA was and how happy they should be in the US for having just one big ATM organization to contend with?
This was of course before NextGen and the current reshuffle of the FAA to make it better suited to achieving the NextGen goals. We have now learned that David Grizzle, the COO of the Air Traffic Organization, is of the opinion that the FAA-wide changes will go a long way toward making them one FAA as opposed to independent and often feuding activities all housed at 800 Independence Avenue. I also read in Aviation Week with great surprise that two FAA guys will be used as “battering rams” to break down the cultural barriers inside the FAA… All this is of course set in the context of setting up a new Project Management Organization (PMO) within the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization, to look after NextGen and improve the general management of that project.
Wow… we always thought the FAA was better.
Of course this highlights immediately how lucky we are in Europe.
Our world is composed of EC and EUROCONTROL member states, the two sets not being identical. EUROCONTROL has more members but that organization is being made irrelevant albeit its final name (Network Manager) is something even the FAA can be jealous of. Then we have the FABs, composed of ANSPs but no real European organization that would oversee the FABs of which there are far more than anyone would ever need… The ANSPs in the FABs are forming alliances but those alliances do not align with the FABs. Then there is the SESAR Joint Undertaking with ANSP and industry members trying to realize SESAR, something that has never envisaged having to contend with the fragmentation represented by the FABs and the ANSP alliances. On top of all that, we have the European Commission who is actually responsible for the FAB idea in the first place (big mistake) but they are also laboring on what is called the Single European Sky (SES), something that almost died in trying to bring that jigsaw puzzle into a coherent whole… and the jury is still out on what will come of this all, SES or not.
Suppose, somebody somewhere discovers that there is a problem in Europe similar to what the FAA has faced and to which their reply was establishing the PMO. What would we do?
Wrong question. We can never discover a problem like that…
When is a FAB not a FAB?
On 09/08/2011, in FAB News, by cleo
We have written quite a lot about the Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB), their dangers and their impact on SESAR.
Although these days most everything is claimed to be happening in the context of the various FABs, the picture is far from ideal. It is not unusual to hear in meetings or in discussions with various ANSP reps that this or that subject is very “sensitive” in their FAB and one should be careful mentioning it. Of course it would have been naïve to think that States who were less than exemplary in working together under the EUROCONTROL umbrella would suddenly turn into sheep and cooperate smoothly within the FAB concept. Parochial thinking and the protection of their own turf remain in place and it will take long and hard work to overcome the old reflexes.
But the FAB concept seems to be evolving in a way its inventors probably never intended. You will have noticed in the news the announcement of various co-operation agreements between Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) being created apparently in parallel with the FABs they are participating in. In spite of the nice words of these new alliances, they begged the question right from the start: why? If the FAB is such a great thing and they are already in it, why form an alliance on top of it.
Now we may have the answer…
Click here to read the full article
Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) for aviation needs major repair
On 27/06/2011, in Environment - Without hot air, by steve
When you drive on France’s motorways, you pay for the privilege. In return you get first class asphalt, nice rest areas and a means to cover the vast distances of that country safely and efficiently. When Austria introduced their road toll system, the money went to refurbishing their aging motorways and to building new ones. The result was an astonishing improvement to a road system already of a very high quality. But not all toll systems are this nice…
When the European Union’s Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) is unilaterally extended to aviation on 1 January 2012, it will cost the industry a cool 3.4 billion euro a year and possibly more if we include the negative impact in terms of global competitiveness. There is a global outcry and it looks like politicians in Europe have found a way to upset the rest of the world for no possible good to Europe or anyone else.
Had it been so that the money gathered from aviation under the ETS would be reinvested in aviation related environmental projects, the case would have been very different. Nobody would be cheering and some aspects of this fatally flawed rule would still need to be repaired but at least it would have a semblance of common sense and would do some good for the environment.
As it is now proposed, the aviation part of the ETS is nothing but a new tax that will do nothing to protect the environment. Politicians in Europe usually find it very hard to agree on anything but they love taxes. They love ETS. Originally it was proposed that income from ETS should be reserved for environmental projects alone. The idea was never accepted… of course.
So, what is the big row about?
Click here to read the full article
The significance of services in TITAN
On 17/06/2011, in TITAN, by steve
As you may have heard, TITAN is an EU 7Th Framework project working on improving the predictability and efficiency of the aircraft turnaround. Its name says it all: turnaround integration in trajectory and network. Building on the baseline to be provided by Airport CDM (A-CDM), TITAN will make the details of the turnaround process more visible on a scale much wider than anything in the past. By providing context sensitive information to the various stakeholders enabling them to anticipate problems and take remedial action not only on a timely basis but also commensurate with the problem to be solved.
You can find more information on TITAN here. This article is about a very important characteristic of TITAN, namely its service oriented architecture (SOA). You can read more about SOA here, but to recap briefly, let me say that in this approach the business aspects and the IT aspects of a system are decoupled from each other, with the business aspects driving the IT aspects and not the other way round. This is a major step in the right direction already as in the past the blessings of modern IT were often negated by the limitations they placed on what the business side was able to achieve. The S in SOA stands for “service” and these are traditionally defined for the IT part of course but even more importantly, the business level also gets its set of services. Where do we get those business services from? Usually they are puzzled out from process models but this can result in an unmanageably complex result. By using domain models to deduce a “what do we actually do” model, things are much simplified and the result is actually usable.
But what does this all have to do with TITAN?
Click here to read the full article
When Titans speak
On 25/05/2011, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
Mid-March Aviation Week published a double interview in which Canso director general Graham Lake and Air Traffic Control Association president/CEO Peter F. Dumont spoke their minds about air traffic management developments on both sides of the Atlantic.
The interviews were refreshing and revealing. They both spoke about the prospects of SESAR and NextGen frankly and eschewing the usual bluster and we-have-won type of text so frustrating in the “formal” communications.
Mr. Lake tells us that it is not yet clear where the 4 billion euros implementation funding needed by SESAR will come from… With SESAR well into its 8-year life-span and 2.1 billion euros being burned through as you read this, such an uncertainty about the future is cause for concern to say the least.
He also makes the point that the new ATM system will still need people to operate it. He then goes on to say that some 70 % of the typical ANSPs costs are staff related, expressing surprise that parts of the ATM network face disruptions as a result of labor disputes and demands for unsustainable labor agreements. As an industry, we cannot allow this to continue he states. There is a strong message here and one is almost tempted to compare the number of pilots and other airline stuff who lost their jobs because of the economic crisis with the number of ATC staff who had been handed the pink slip for the same reason…
Click here to read the full article
European Commission Signs Memorandum of Cooperation with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
On 23/05/2011, in Shop floor talk, by steve
When I arrived in Paris in 1983 as a freshly hired ICAO Technical Officer RAC/SAR, the relationship between EUROCONTROL and ICAO was tense to say the least. ICAO, this all-important world-wide body, a specialized organization of the UN, was becoming ever more cumbersome and a thorn in the eye of some European states who back then believed that Europe’s aviation needs would be better served by something like EUROCONTROL. They were not aiming to replace the basic rule-making functions of ICAO but when it came to things like flow management, Europe was flexing its muscles… There was a group dealing with ATFM in Brussels and at ICAO in Paris for example and though the people attending both were usually the same, the things they said were often widely different.
I recall several meetings in Brussels that I attended as an ICAO expert and the position we had to represent was far from being helpful to the cause of EUROCONTROL.
As the budget of ICAO diminished year after year and their processes slowed to a crawl, the significance of EUROCONTROL grew at the same rate. Significantly, EUROCONTROL had never had the same low opinion of ICAO as was the case in the reverse direction. Right from the start EUROCONTROL accepted that changing certain rules required action from ICAO and they also sought to work well with ICAO’s regional bodies like the EANPG (European Air Navigation Planning Group). True, some of the changes proposed by EUROCONTROL did not pass muster by the more formalistic ICAO process but in time a rather well functioning cooperation came into being.
Soon, the ICAO member States also realized that without money ICAO could not function so at first resourcing was brought back to the required level and thereafter they set out to reform the creaking old machinery to create the new, more business efficiency oriented ICAO we know to-day.
ICAO had to face another difficult “client”, namely the US, where the FAA has always been a bit of its own master. This was an interesting thing since some of the most fundamental ICAO documents (including DOC 4444) had been originally been based on material developed by the FAA’s predecessor. Anyway, I guess the Americans were not too keen in subjugating their aviation system to rules some of which were arrived at within ICAO as the result of agreements reflecting not what was the best but what could be agreed on the world-wide podium. American airports have only started to use the ICAO standard markings and signs a few years ago…
Click here to read the full article
BUD Welcomes the EU Presidency
On 20/05/2011, in Tower chronicles, by lajos
If, based on my earlier writings, my esteemed readers have come to the conclusion that I am a grumpy old man, I am afraid I will have to largely agree with them. But believe me I would love to talk also about the nice things in the life of Ferihegy Tower, except that there are far fewer nice things than those that make one mad. So, I will now write about a good thing, then another thing that might be good and, to be true to form, about something strange.
As you probably know, since 1 January 2011 Hungary is fulfilling the rotating role of EU Presidency, a honor bestowed for six months. This circumstance meant lots of delegations, state aircraft and other VIPs coming and going during the six month period. Already last fall the doomsayers were crowing about how everything at the airport will sink into chaos, how it will be impossible to get to the airport, whether as a passenger or someone working there. Things however have turned out to be very different. Even we were surprised how efficiently the VIP movements were being handled both inside and outside the airport. I am not sure who came up with the excellent idea of moving most of the meetings to Godollo, a town just a few miles outside of Budapest. This meant that most delegations leaving the airport headed towards the M0 ring-road instead of towards downtown Budapest driving to Godollo on M0 which, on that stretch anyway, has plenty of capacity to handle such things. With this arrangement the increased diplomatic activity went almost unnoticed and Budapest was able to carry on with its already hectic life that was not made even more hectic by the road closures usually accompanying the movement of VIPs.
Click here to read the full article
Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB) – The best thing since sliced bread!
On 09/05/2011, in FAB News, by cleo
It is definitive now, FABs are the greatest invention since sliced bread! I mean, what other construct would give European Air Navigation Service Providers the chance to boast about doing things now that they should have done decades ago but failed to because of parochial thinking? It is hard to understand why they were so opposed to the FAB idea when it was first put out by the European Commission… But no problem, FAB has become the new buzz word and the opiate of people with short memories.
Not so long ago, the folks at FAB Europe Central proudly announced that aircraft in their FAB will now fly shorter routes at night as a result of the new and wonderful co-operation between the states concerned. What they forgot to mention was the minor fact that what they did was nothing more than formalizing something air traffic controllers have been doing for decades: giving directs at night. This was not a FAB achievement, just common sense finally prevailing.
But there is more.
Air Traffic Management magazine has just published news of the UK-Ireland Functional Airspace Block Plan for 2011-2014 and the annual report of achievements for 2010, having been released. This FAB is the oldest in Europe in operation since 2008 and by all accounts it is “highly successful”. Well, let’s see…
One of the key elements of the 2011-2014 FAB Plan is ODNET: Optimize Domestic, North Atlantic and European Traffic Flows. Hmm… If I recall correctly, this was also one of the aims of EATCHIP and ATM2000+ though admittedly, not on a UK/Ireland scale. EATCHIP and ATM2000+ were trying to achieve this on a European scale.
Click here to read the full article
BLUE MED FAB Newsletter Number 2 now available
On 21/03/2011, in FAB News, by steve
BLUE MED is the Functional Airspace Block (FAB) being put together by the States in the Mediterranean Sea area and their naturally sunny disposition is amply reflected in their newsletters, of which the second is now available.
FABs are exciting because the idea pre-dates SESAR and when we created the SESAR Concept of Operations it was designed to work in a true single European sky and not in what is essentially a larger scale fragmentation of that European sky. The participants in the various FABs are doing a lot to harmonize their operations but harmonization between the FABs themselves is another cookie… It is on that scale that things were always derailed in the past so it remains to be seen how they will be handled this time round.
Another aspect to think about is that SESAR uses a trajectory based paradigm while FABs continue to be based on the legacy, airspace based paradigm. A lot of work will have to be done (and little or none of it is visible so far) to move the FAB concept away from airspace orientation and towards the trajectory based concept that is the only viable future.
It would be good to hear from FAB experts how they are approaching the above issues.
In the meantime, read the second BLUE MED Newsletter here.
FAB brings European diversity into SESAR – the one thing we were all waiting for?
On 12/03/2011, in FAB News, by cleo
The latest issue of ATC Global Insight was nothing if not extremely entertaining. In a previous article Steve described why the reported claim of DSNA’s boss about SESAR having been built on FABs is total nonsense.
But it seems there was more… Insight tells us that Mr. Georges assured his audience that “FAB will bring European diversity” into SESAR. Oh boy!!!!
I hope somebody has misunderstood something here. I know that it is very fashionable to say that Europe’s strength is in its diversity (cultural, language, outlook, temperament and so on) but diversity in air traffic management is not so much a strength as a huge failure.
Click here to read the full article
DSNA CEO says SESAR CONOPS was built on FABs from day one…
On 12/03/2011, in FAB News, by steve
No Sir, it was NOT!!!!
If ATC Global Insight is to be believed, Mr. Maurice Georges, CEO of French DSNA, said in Amsterdam that “The SESAR operational concept has been built on FABs from day one.”
Well, I do not know which SESAR operational concept they use in France but the concept we wrote and which bears the text, inter alia, “…it is considered that the level of detail reached in the work and the degree of assessment performed are sufficient to give guidance on what should be contained in the SESAR Master Plan.” does not talk about FABs. This is of course WP2.2.2, Deliverable D3, the famous CONOPs, the only real concept of operations that reflects the discussions in the definition phase. That is “from day one” to use Mr. Georges’ words.
This document mentions Functional Airspace Blocks only once towards the end in the context of provision of meteorological information and the abbreviation of FAB is not shown at all!!!
That one lonely mention of the functional airspace block is obviously an editorial oversight because we were very careful not to mix a legacy concept like the FAB into a future oriented concept like SESAR.
Why was that?
To understand this, we must go back a little in history. For many years and through many programs like EATCHIP and ATM2000+, Europe tried to update its ATM system along continent-wide lines to harmonize things in an effort to make an end to the delay crisis. While some progress was made, States’ reluctance to relinquish even a little of their ATM castle mentality basically prevented any big breakthrough. When finally the European Commission got fed up with the obfuscation, the idea of Functional Airspace Blocks and the Single European Sky were invented in the hope that under the stewardship of the EC things would go faster. Fat channce…
In all the hoopla currently surrounding FAB implementation it is easy to forget that the FABs were not embraced with enthusiasm at first and the reluctant brides, the ANSPs had to be dragged to the altar kicking and screaming… causing considerable delay in FAB implementation.
Click here to read the full article
Successful Second Workshop Held by TITAN
On 03/03/2011, in TITAN, by steve
The 7th Framework program TITAN, dealing with optimizing the aircraft turnaround process held its second workshop on 22 February, in Madrid, Spain.
The interest in the subject was amply demonstrated by how well this event was attended at a time when it is not easy to get travel authorization in most organizations. Handling agents, airports, universities, research institutions as well as members of the TITAN team were all well represented and everybody actively contributed to the brainstorming.
The two main themes of the workshop were focusing on the definition and contents of warnings and the information flows and actors concerned.
The program uses a process based, service oriented approach in defining what TITAN will do in order to make actors aware of the progress of the turnaround at a granularity exceeding the currently planned detail and warnings play a crucial role in shaping this common situational awareness. The term “warning” is in fact a generic expression and it covers output generated for information only as well as actual alarms which in turn may be categorized as green (heads-up only, no action), yellow (action to be taken) to red (urgent action to be taken, nominal operation no longer possible). Obviously, getting the trigger events and the warning responses right is crucial for effective operation.
Click here to read the full article
New clouds on the Mode-S/ADS-B horizon in Europe
On 18/01/2011, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
Most of those who took part in the epic battle over the introduction of Mode S Enhanced Surveillance (EHS) have either retired, moved to other activities or flew west to greener pastures but I guess there is still a hard core who will remember how the airspace users lost that one to the three big States in Europe and EUROCONTROL who was caught between a rock and a hard place… I was one of those doing the shouting, telling anyone who would listen that Mode S Enhanced Surveillance would cost the airlines an arm and a leg and would generate next to zero benefits. The majority of the airlines and some ANSPs agreed… This was back at the beginning of the previous decade and in the end, the three promoters of Mode S EHS, fed up with the indecision of the others and the opposition of the airlines, banded together and set up the Three State Program, in effect deciding that they would put in Mode S EHS regardless of the opposition. They did have the grace to announce clear time-frames (2003) to have everything on the ground ready and the benefits accruing for the airspace users. We are now in 2011 and very little of that grand promise has been realized, certainly if we look at things from the benefit point of view. If anyone out there has news about Mode S Enhanced Surveillance quantifiable benefits being available to anyone, please let us know…
But the story continues except that the stakes are even higher. This time the matter is on the level of the European Commission and its Single European Sky Implementing Rules (SES IR). Mind you, there is nothing wrong with the Commission wanting the jump start SES via implementing rules. On the contrary, this is a good thing. Except that the old specter of Mode S implementation is beckoning again in the Surveillance Performance and Interoperability IR.
Click here to read the full article
Aerodays 2011 – Sixth European Aeronautics Days
On 02/12/2010, in Events, by steve
Innovation for a sustainable aviation in a global environment
The sixth European Aeronautics Days will take place from 30 March to 1 April 2011 in Madrid, following its successful predecessor events that took place in Brussels (1991), Naples (1993), Toulouse (1997), Hamburg (2001) and Vienna (2006).
The event will bring together aeronautics stakeholders, ministries, agencies and R&D centers from all over Europe and overseas to network, present their latest research results and discuss common future projects research and technology
activities in aeronautics and air transport.
Click here for further information.
Email contact here.
SESAR and SWIM – things are slowly becoming reality
On 03/11/2010, in SESAR's Palace, SWIM, by steve
Good news at long last
Not so long ago, I was asked to make a presentation about System Wide Information Management (SWIM) to the participants of a project we are involved in. While most of the audience noted what I said and asked a few relevant questions, there was also a small minority who expressed the opinion that SWIM as I described it will never happen. This reminded me of arguments I have had years earlier with someone who went so far as even wanting to banish the name “SWIM” for reasons I could never really understand (you can read more about how this name was born here).
It also struck me as strange that if you ask the average person involved in or near SESAR about what is going on in the project in the context of information management generally and SWIM in particular, you are likely to get a list of work packages and companies involved in working on them but little else.
I at Roger-Wilco have written a lot about SWIM but most of the time I was trying to describe the why with an indication of possible “how” options but that was also not the information we crave so much: what is going on with SWIM?
Into this void came finally information from recently published papers (e.g. from the Stakeholder Consultation Group SCG) that describes not only the why and how of SESAR but also the status as it is now with important details about the work that is ongoing.
Having been involved with SWIM right from the day it was born (hell I can claim part of the fatherhood for this baby), I am now especially pleased to see that the terminology being used to describe the SWIM concept and its practicalities is exactly as we have always intended it to be. This is important because over the years there were several attempts to water down the concept, to change its focus or main principles and there was a very real danger that it would end up like so many good initiatives before it, dead before it had a chance to prove itself. But apparently this danger is now past and those involved in the work to-day are developing SWIM along the correct lines.
I will not bore you with a repeated description of what SWIM is. You can read more about that here. Instead, I will focus on the ongoing activities and their significance.
As you will see, there is plenty to talk about.
Click here to read the full article
ASD/CEAS Conference, 1-2 December 2010, Brussels, Belgium
On 02/11/2010, in Events, by steve
Change! Innovation! Vision 2050!
The most important multistakeholder high level roundtable congress in Brussels in
December 2010.
This is the aerospace event of the year where decision maker of the most leading European industry, politics and research meet.
The key objective of the Conference is to present and discuss the strategic issues facing European Aerospace in the light of the economic and environmental realities of the day, as well as the challenges and opportunities posed by the European political choices as the Union charters its way ahead for the next decade and beyond.
Aerospace drives innovation in science and technology, providing technology transfers and spill-over benefits to a variety of other economic sectors. Beyond its socio-economic importance, the Aerospace sector is also a powerful driver of European integration and can be considered as a vital part of the EU economy. But in the face of growing challenges stemming from climate change, much more needs to be done.
The skills and competences of its workers are a major component of EU’s productivity, sustainability and innovation.
In recent years however, there has been a marked decrease in interest in scientific studies among young people, resulting in a worsening mismatch between the needs for new skilled engineers and technicians, and the number of graduates provided by the education system. Public authorities, educational establishments and industry must join forces to reverse the trend.
These are some of the main topics to be discussed at the Conference, which is an integral part of the forthcoming ASD Aero Week (Brussels, 29 November – 3 December 2010). In order to do this, the ASD/CEAS will bring together representatives of EU institutions, national governments, nongovernmental
agencies, industry, research institutes, financial community and the media.
The Conference registration fee includes the attendance of the whole conference, lunch on the first day and all coffee breaks as well as the Conference Dinner.
For more information, click here.
European Parliament vote endorses new rules for investigation and prevention of aviation accidents
On 05/10/2010, in Safety is no accident, by steve
Like so many things in united but still fragmented Europe, the investigation of aviation accidents has long been an area where differing State legislations rules the day and often prevented vital information from being shared to improve future safety or, conversely, the abuse of information by judiciary authorities to allocate blame rather than to learn from threatened to shut down the all important confidential reporting systems. It was high time that something got done and the European Commission has long been busy formulating new legislation that would eliminate the shortcomings. Although the new legislation voted upon by the European Parliament still leaves some issues unresolved, it is an important step in the right direction and a good basis for finally moving aviation accident investigation from the state to the European level.
It is understandable therefore that the European Commission welcomed the vote on 21 September supporting a new regulation on investigation and prevention of accidents in civil aviation which paves the way to a first reading agreement between Parliament and Council. The new legislation will strengthen the independence and effectiveness of air accident investigations in the EU, promote cooperation between the accident investigation authorities, and ensure better follow-up of safety recommendations. In addition, the new regulation significantly reinforces the rights of victims of air accidents and their relatives.
Vice-President Siim Kallas, responsible for transport, said: “While aviation is one of the safest modes of transport in the EU, accidents may happen despite the aviation regulators and the industry’s best efforts, leaving passenger victims and their relatives in distress. We have to be prepared. Efficient and independent investigations of civil aircraft accidents are crucial for aviation safety. New rules will allow us to improve investigations, but most importantly, better prevent accidents from happening. They will also establish uniform rules for assisting victims of air accidents and their relatives. The Parliament came to an agreement in less than a year after the Commission’s proposal was presented. The Commission is now looking forward to a swift adoption of this new legislation by the Council”.
Building on more than a decade of experience
Click here to read the full article
European Parliament adopts resolution on sustainable future for transport
On 30/09/2010, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
The European Parliament adopted in July a resolution that sets out the priorities for a sustainable European transport policy in the next ten years. The resolution puts high emphasis on a safer, cleaner and more efficient European transport system but also underlines its economic impact and need for more research. Consequently, the report gives reference to the completion of the Single European Sky and the SESAR program to enhance the EU’s competitiveness and efficiency. The resolution also makes the link between research leading to environmental improvements. Thus, the European Parliament states that for programs such as SESAR, not only research and development activities should be supported but also their application.
Read the resolution here.
Ramp inspections at European Union airports – SAFA
On 27/07/2010, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary.
The European Community Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft (SAFA) program began in 1996 as a voluntary ECAC program. Its legal basis was subsequently established by Directive 2004/36/CE of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 – the so-called “SAFA Directive”. Under this legislation, international safety standards have been enforced within the European Community by means of ramp inspections of third-country aircraft landing at airports located in the EU Member States.
Read the full report here.
You can read more about the past, present and future of the SAFA program here.
Smooth cruise – The WizzAir experience
On 17/06/2010, in The lighter side, by heading370
Editor’s note: This article dates from 2007. We are now an economic crisis later but the essence of the story is still the same. What is more, WizzAir, operating 30 aircraft, is still with us and hopefully will remain for a long time to come.
WizzAir, the largest low fare – low cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe launched operations in May 2004. They concentrate primarily on the lucrative markets of the newest EU member states where air travel is going through some really dynamic expansion. This policy has lead to the opening of routes to Eindhoven for example. The company operates these flights from Budapest, Hungary and Katowice in Poland. The author, who is an Air Traffic Controller at the Maastricht Upper Area Control Center (MUAC) was happy to join the crew of the Eindhoven-Budapest-Eindhoven flights at the end of March.
On the ramp at EHEH
Eindhoven is still a relatively quiet airport where the atmosphere is quite relaxed and hassle-free. It is shared by civil and military users the biggest operator – apart from the Koninklijke Luchtmacht (The Royal Air Force of the Netherlands) – is Ryanair. Also Transavia and a few Turkish charter companies fly there regularly and on a typical day the airport handles about 20 arrivals.
After some really helpful co-ordination with the company’s operations control, crew rostering section and the Head of Training, Captain Gabor Lezsovits, I was ready to board HA-LPD, (c/s number 1902) an Airbus A320-200 that operated as WZZ228B.
Click here to read the full article
The tower with a soul… 18.
On 10/06/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
Approaching the present day…
What a strange folk we are, we Hungarians! We complain when we have to work with an obsolete system and when it is replaced with something new, we complain that we are forced to learn new tricks when we had actually grown used to the old ones. This was the situation with the introduction of the MATIAS system that followed Eurocat2000 and whose introduction was anything but smooth. As I heard from “inside”, the new system was simply too complicated for many an experienced colleague and they were actually quite happy to profit from the announced cut in personnel. They retired and my generation had a chance to follow them up in the Supervisor positions. Their place was in turn filled with new hires and those youngsters showed in short order that controlling the terminal area was not such a difficult task after all.
All of a sudden traffic became much more fluid and they turned aircraft on final with a flair never before seen. This was a revelation for us in the tower. Wow, it can be done like this also! We saw the change clearly since watching traffic being handled by the old guard we often shook our heads in amazement, especially when the odd aircraft flew all the way down to the town of Kecskemet for a bit of sightseeing as a result of being cleared for descent and turn to base leg far too late…
Click here to read the full article
SWIM-SUIT final User Forum – 24-25 June 2010, Rome, Italy
On 01/06/2010, in Events, by steve
System Wide Information Management (SWIM) is one of the mainstays of both SESAR and NextGen. SWIM is the set of institutional arrangements, rules, roles and responsibilities, applications and networks that enable information sharing and the common situational awareness, among others things, that are essential for developing the future net-centric air traffic management system.
SWIM-SUIT, an EU 6th Framework Project, developed a SWIM prototype that provides a basis for assessing the technological solutions used. Although the idea of developing a SWIM prototype may suggest that this was a technology driven project, SWIM-SUIT also addressed the legal and financial aspects of SWIM implementation. Since SWIM is less of a problem from the technological point of view, with most obstacles expected in the institutional area, this latter contribution of SWIM-SUIT will be especially valuable.
SWIM-SUIT will hold its final User Forum in Rome, Italy, on 24-25 June 2010.
You can register here. Registration closes on 4 June!
Seat pitch – a matter for the European Parliament?
On 10/05/2010, in Viewpoint, by cleo
My travel plans were only slightly affected by Iceland’s wayward volcano but I understand some members of the European Parliament and the European Commission were less fortunate. This is good. Hopefully they now have a better appreciation of the value and performance of an industry they are so keen to regulate but which otherwise they tend to take for granted. Kiwi growers from New Zealand to flower tillers in Africa all got a good appreciation of just how important and indispensable aviation really is.
This reminder came just about in time. If the rumors are anything to go by, the new parliament and commission is about to go into one of their regulatory overdrive periods and what better target for something like this than aviation? For some reason aviation is the first that comes to their minds when there is a need to pay for something (see Galileo) or where, in their view, passengers must be protected by big brother (and increasingly big sister).
We all know what EU regulatory zeal can lead to… just think of past attempts to standardize the curvature of bananas and the proposed ban on some French cheeses because of their too high concentration of bacteria (never mind that it is the bacteria that make the cheese in the first place).
Click here to read the full article
Latest edition of SITA’s “Air Traffic Management Highlights” now available
On 25/02/2010, in Bookshelf, by steve
The latest edition of SITA’s newsletter, Air Traffic Management Highlights, dedicated to the ATM community is now available.
In this publication, you will learn more about two major initiatives undertaken by our industry in 2009:
• The Data Link Services Implementation Rule adoption by the European Commission and
• SITA’s selection by EUROCONTROL to deliver the Pan European Network Service (PENS).
This newsletter will also provide you with a high-level overview of the different air traffic management activities that SITA has been involved in recently.
Get your copy here.
Copenflop fall-out – what next?
On 16/02/2010, in Environment - Without hot air, by cleo
The Copenhagen environment conference was supposed to bring solutions to the problems nearer. The conference was a complete flop, certainly in
respect of aviation. Of course, trusting anything this serious to politicians is a bad idea to begin with, but this is the world we live in. We must trust them to get it right every now and again. Copenhagen was not one of their better days… But what will aviation be doing now?
Luckily, we are long past the initial arguments saying that aviation’s part in harmful emissions was so small, it was not even worth talking abut. The contribution is still very small but avoiding talking about it gets few friends for any industry… Aviation has built itself a reputation of environmental consciousness and as a source of innovative solutions, both of which were set as examples to other industries just before the Copenflop. That none of those ideas were used or even considered by the conference is not aviation’s fault….
Click here to read the full article
European Parliament – The terrorists’ best friend?
On 13/02/2010, in Battle stations, by cleo
They have done it again! After condemning full body scanners as being in conflict with human rights, the European Parliament now voted down the so called SWIFT accord, something that would have given US authorities more visibility of the funds being transferred between the world’s banks and hence would have enabled better tracking of the activities of terrorist groups. The European Ministers of Justice had approved the SWIFT accord but this was now killed by the EP. The reason? The privacy of European citizens was not properly protected under the agreement, some euro-parliamentarians claimed.
In case you have forgotten, the European Parliament is the circus that commutes between Strasbourg in France and Brussels in Belgium because European States could not decide where it should actually be headquartered and the members of which are chosen in elections with record low (and decreasing) turnout of European citizens. In 2009 the average turn-out across the Union was just 43 %…
Watching on TV as the good EP members cheered at this latest folly, one was reminded of a bunch of immature school children who had just pulled off a particularly nasty prank.
Click here to read the full article
CANAC2 operational – is there a future for CANAC2?
On 12/02/2010, in Viewpoint, by pbn
February 10 was a day many in Belgium will remember for a long time. Most of the populace for the longest ever traffic jams, 950 kilometers in total, caused by early morning snow bringing chaos to the motorways. For a select few, February 10 will mark CANAC2’s going into live operations. CANAC is Belgium’s cutting edge air traffic control system and its most recent incarnation, representing a 60 million euro investment, puts a host of new, even more advanced functions at Belgian controllers’ fingertips. Surely a cause to celebrate…
But this is not what a number of protesters thought, picketing Belgocontrol’s entrance with slogans that read: “No SABENA bis, no time to celebrate”. What is going on?
Click here to read the full article
Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) – History and current practice
On 09/02/2010, in CDM, by steve
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
The concept of Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) was originally defined in the United States by a group of airlines, led by US Air, in response to what the airlines perceived as inadequate co-operation between airports, the FAA and the airlines themselves. They formed the so called CDM Group, members of which visited several airports with traffic flow problems and analysed the reasons.
Significantly, they discovered that in many cases the reasons were in fact quite trivial. In one case, a missing telephone connection between the FAA tower and the Delta ramp controller was found to be at the root of major departure delays; in another case the “secret” nature of cancelled flights was found to be the cause of unused slots at an otherwise seriously congested airport.
The CDM Group in its original reports had actually established three of the most basic rules of CDM which remain valid to this day even if, unfortunately, in some cases they are being ignored. The three rules are:
• Most problems have simple causes with simple solutions
• Better information sharing eliminates a very large proportion of the problems
• CDM can only be successful if trust is established between the partners as the first step
Although the CDM Group did at first address problems at airports (Atlanta and Philadelphia) when the FAA embraced the concept, they focused on applying it in the en-route environment. This was a natural consequence of the US scene where capacity constraints were present en-route while airports were almost all free flow at the time. Nevertheless, US airports got involved in CDM early as a result of the FAA’s ground-delay concept. The value of information sharing was shown right from the start. Just by being better informed, airlines were able to respond to the restrictions in a much more efficient manner. The initiative in the early 1990s called FAA/Airline Data Exchange (FADE), supported among others by Northwest Airlines, can be seen as the direct forerunner of what evolved into the US CDM project of to-day.
Click here to read the full article
Is being blown up part of my human rights?
On 12/01/2010, in Battle stations, by cleo
It is bad enough that aviation is the target of people hell bent on blowing things up. It is even worse that there are others in pretty high places who will help them… even if unwittingly.
Violating human rights?
There is no point in denying that the aviation security system, including the extensive and supposedly fool-proof US elements, have failed miserably when it allowed a Nigerian guy with explosives in his underpants to board several planes on Christmas day. I can only surmise what his dad is thinking about all this when his noble act of warning the US embassy about his son’s activities went totally unheeded… Will he, or other dad’s in a similar predicament, raise the flag in the future or just shrug their shoulders? But there is worse…
Body imaging technology is a proven tool to discover this kind of plan. True, no scanner will (for now) see explosives tucked in body cavities but that will surely come one day. Or not…
The good ladies and gentlemen of the European Parliament maintain that full body scanning violates EU citizens’ human rights. In some EU states, the problem arises only if “sensitive” body parts are also displayed. Great! So what have the same nice, caring EU persons done to make aviation safer?
They decided that it was not their business!
While in the United States aviation security is seen as an important government task, in Europe security and its related expenditures are thrust squarely onto the shoulders of the flying community. Airline passengers pay through the nose for the privilege of not being blown up while politicians sit back contentedly… Would they be so relaxed if the threat was the same against the underground or the railways? Hardly!
Airline security does not bring votes… passenger rights and emission trading schemes do. So, focusing on the latter, Europe has never bothered to build a comprehensive, effective and cost-efficient security infrastructure for aviation.
Shooting their mouth off about protecting human rights and so eventually blocking the introduction of full body scanning is nothing short of being misguided on the grandest scale possible.
I would dearly like to know whether the MEPs really consider it preferable to be blown to kingdom come in the knowledge that no screener has seen their willy to arresting the one guy who is behind all the mischief. Makes you almost wonder: what is in the parliamentarians’ underpants?
Environment. The Copenflop – Is aviation better off now?
On 27/12/2009, in Environment - Without hot air, by cleo
We all remember how seriously aviation had been preparing for the UN environmental conference held earlier this month in Copenhagen. Led by IATA, the aviation industry arrived with concrete proposals and plans which were seen by several non-aviation experts as templates suitable also for other industries.
Once the conference kicked off, aviation experts must have felt like adults thrown into a kindergarten with a very poor teacher at the helm. Kids shouting all over the place, getting into fights, leaving the playroom when not granted their favorite toys… Those who ventured outside to escape the worst of the circus fared no better. There was another kind of kindergarten out there, albeit with destruction and tear-gas thrown in to increase the fun.
Of course the kids inside were the same politicians who are convinced that electric cars charged from a public utility produce virtually no emissions and also who had promised to shutter nuclear reactors while having no idea how to replace their generating capacity. It was no surprise to see them come together after having brandished the environmental flag at home and then fail to agree on the time of day, let alone actual environmental action.
Click here to read the full article
TITAN Kicks into high gear
On 08/12/2009, in TITAN, by steve
After several months of careful preparation, TITAN, a project in the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme, kicked
into high gear on 3 December 2009 when the TITAN Consortium held the kick-off meeting at INECO’s premises in Madrid.
The name TITAN stands for “Turn-round Integration in Trajectory and Network”. The project will analyze the aircraft turn-round process with a view to identifying opportunities for improvements as well as to pinpoint the influence of external actors and processes like passenger flow and baggage handling. The improved turn-round process will be modeled and validated and a decision support tool will be developed suitable for use by different partners, enabling them to manage the turn-round process more efficiently. This will be achieved primarily by providing predictive, common awareness of all the relevant influences, including those coming from the airport land-side.
Click here to read the full article
My FAB my Castle – is there hope for the European air traffic management enterprise?
On 27/11/2009, in Viewpoint, by pbn
I guess from a purely political point of view, criticizing the Functional Airspace Block (FAB) concept is probably not correct. I will not criticize the FABs. What I will do is share a few thoughts with you and also raise a few questions. Who knows, someone may even have the answers.
So what is a FAB? Contrary to what you may have heard, the FAB concept was/is an effort by the European Union to bring some order into the fragmented European ATM scene. That this was not exactly to everyone’s taste was amply evidenced in the time it took to get the first FAB (and subsequent FABs) off the ground. The process stalled a few times and lots of screaming brides had to be dragged to the altar before it was restarted again.
Click here to read the full article
Air accident investigation – is Europe moving?
On 14/11/2009, in Viewpoint, by cleo
If you purchase a WiFi router or other WiFi piece of gear, you expect it to work anywhere in the world. After all, that is what standards are all about. Except for some channels not being available in the US for example, your expectation is correct. If you inspect the specs on the box however, you will find an interesting note, at least if you buy your gear in Europe. The authorized output power is different in France from that in other countries of the Union! Why is this relevant?
Well, in daily practice you will not notice much of this discrepancy but in our little EU there are other examples of this parochial approach to handling things, to the greater glory of our politicians and their efforts to gain popularity even at the expense of public good. European Union public good to be sure.
When we step on board an aircraft, we expect to step out in one piece and becoming a statistic is far from our minds. This is the correct attitude, after all flying is still the safest method of transport and the odds of not getting hurt are all on our side.
Click here to read the full article
Single Sky Committee unanimously supports Aeronautical Data and Information Quality (ADQ) Implementing Rule
On 04/11/2009, in SWIM, by steve
The drive is on to transform Aeronautical Information Services (AIS) into Aeronautical Information Management (AIM). This is needed to set the scene for the introduction of System Wide Information Management (SWIM), the ultimate goal of the activity.
The change from AIS to AIM is primarily the morphing of the traditional, package based aeronautical information system into a data-based one, where users are provided with data to feed their particular applications in the way they need it rather than being fed with pre-cooked packages that do not really satisfy anyone while also being extremely difficult to change when new requirements turn up.
Click here to read the full article
