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
Technologists vs. Economists
On 21/10/2011, in Managers' corner, by steve
It is not a secret that some people considered Boeing’s decision to forego the New Small Aircraft and follow Airbus’ lead in re-engining their existing product a poor one and something that will delay the appearance of a really novel aircraft by a decade if not more. I must confess that I am one of those who would have loved to see the two airframers rush to bring the single-aisle of the future to market.
Commenting on the same subject in a recent issue of Aviation Week, Richard Aboulafia , VP for analysis at the Teal Group, while approving the Boeing decision, divided the world in two groups of people. There are the Technologists and the Economists.
For Technologists, “aviation is a technology driven business, with new equipment stimulating demand and therefore creating its own market”. Economists on the other hand “view technology as a means to an end: profit”. He also points out that most airlines and aircraft companies are run by Economists.
Reading this very interesting article, I stopped to do some soul searching. Which camp did I really belong to?
Some years ago, still as an assistant director infrastructure at IATA, I was called to hold afternoon-length sessions for ATC supervisors at EUROCONTROL’s school in Luxemburg with the aim of outlining to them what the airline industry wanted from air traffic management in the future. I usually started out shocking them by the statement: airlines were just a business and air traffic management must behave in a way that facilitates that business. By proxy, ATC was just a part of a complicated business environment.
I have also often argued for having a business case for just about everything… New channel spacing? Business case. Air/ground digital link services? Business case. Mode S Enhanced Surveillance? No, I did not want that even if there was a business case (there never has been, not a credible one anyway).
Click here to read the full article
It is not easy to work with the airlines – Why the SJU should be careful
On 07/09/2011, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
Having airspace users on board in SESAR is an important development by anyone’s measure. Thinking that having individual airlines involved is the same as having the industry involved is a grave mistake that can cost dearly to all concerned.
The signs of trouble are already there. What do you think about there being a hard-won agreement from the airspace users at one or two pretty high level meetings and then the same users withdrawing their agreement just a few weeks later? The result is frustration on the part of the other partners (ANSPs in this case), confusion about where things were going and, worst of all, loss of credibility of the airlines.
It would be easy to wave this away by just saying that the airline people in the meeting were not up to speed with the subjects being discussed and so they agreed to something they did not fully understand. This would be a rather unfortunate situation and no excuse at all but the actual reality is even worse.
The problem is not new and it is called the industry voice, or rather, the lack of it.
Until about a decade ago, IATA had been recognized by its members as the industry voice on all technical aspects of air traffic management. One of the most important, and difficult, tasks of IATA’s experts had been to forge this common voice, bringing together the widely differing interests and business models of the member airlines so that to the outside world only consolidated, well defined requirements were communicated. This was vital because otherwise the ATM and avionics industries would have been totally confused and at a loss as to what they should develop to meet the airlines’ diverse requirements.
Click here to read the full article
Low Fare Airlines – ATM Nightmare of the Future?
On 04/07/2011, in Airline corner, by steve
There are two distinct schools of thought about how low fare airlines will evolve in the future. According to departing IATA boss Bisignani talking to Aviation Week, in Europe the model used by the low cost carriers, namely opening new point to point connections to secondary airports, will run out of steam within a year or two with all possible connections spoken for. They will than have to move closer to the model of the legacy carriers which is built more on a network of connecting flights. And higher costs. Though he did not say this, but one can almost hear the silent wish: and they will fade away.
In the same edition of Aviation Week, Pierre Sparaco quotes a study from York Aviation which predicts that by 2020 low cost carriers will increase their point-to-point market share in Europe to 60 % and the overall traffic share to 53 % with further growth a near certainty. This optimistic outlook is based on the clearly identified preference of large numbers of passengers for no frills, low cost service that is unlikely to wane in the coming years. The impact of low fares is bigger in Europe than in the US because there fares had been lower to begin with.
With most hub airports, homes to the legacy carriers, reaching their capacity and the chances of building new runways scant, competition from their low fare brethren will be the least of the problems legacy airlines will be facing when contemplating growth.
A white paper published by the EC recently clearly stated that capping traffic was not an option in the future and of course this bodes well for those able to meet increasing demand. Suddenly, flying to less constrained smaller airports will look even more attractive once the hubs get truly saturated… as they soon will do.
Members of the European Low Fare Airlines Association (ELFAA) carry more than 150 million passengers per year and York Aviation forecasts say their seat-miles offered will grow by 72 % by 2020. That is a lot of airplanes whichever way you count it.
Regardless of what Bisignani may be hoping for in my view this latter type of future is the more likely scenario.
If this is indeed true, the implications for air traffic management can be profound.
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
Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB) – the EC’s biggest blunder?
On 30/04/2011, in FAB News, by pbn
That the EC meant well when they originally came up with the idea of Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB) is not in question. That they did not anticipate the monster they were creating can be put down to the engaging naivety of someone venturing into the jungle of European air traffic management for the first time. That IATA was blind enough to support the FAB concept shows how desperate they were for a solution, any solution, to the continued ills of ATM.
As we head towards a summer promising to be vary bad in terms of delays and in the midst of the general euphoria about FABs and ANSP alliances, it should be interesting to look into the history of the FAB idea and its present reality. If for no other reason then to learn why it will not bring the improvements the industry craves.
Those amongst you with the longest memory will recall EATCHIP and ATM2000+ the two European flagship air traffic management projects which dragged on for years and in spite of Ministers of Transport signatures on the ATM2000+ documents, they delivered very little. We suffered through meeting after meeting, all kinds of new groups were created but in the end, when it came to implementation the deadlines always seemed to slip to a date comfortably in the future. Comfortably for the service providers and frustratingly for the airspace users. Europe was treading water and the industry did not drawn but this was in spite of ATM2000+ rather than because of it.
The European Commission was taking an increasing interest in the problems of air traffic management and seeing that it was not possible to create a truly European project, they decided to take a pragmatic approach when they finally intervened. Enter the Functional Airspace Block or FAB. If you cannot get the whole of Europe to work on a harmonized system, have at least a few groups of ANSPs work together… A nice idea which unfortunately ignored the fundamental problems and realities of European ATM.
The FAB concept was met with a conspicuous lack of enthusiasm. Working together, giving up even a small bit of their independence was anathema to the ANSPs and any idea coming from the EC was suspect to begin with. The first round of the Single European Sky regulations was struggling to take off at about the same time and was kept firmly on the ground for the very same reason…
Then SESAR came along. This was a truly European undertaking working to define a truly European air traffic management system. SESAR’s definition phase was hard going but on that particular battle field it was no longer possible to go against the pan-European solution, so instead the proposed new paradigms and solutions were attacked with the usual gusto.
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SESAR at ATC Global 2011 – Connecting vision with reality
On 09/03/2011, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
Roger-Wilco was given a special opportunity to interview SESAR’s Chief Program Officer on the occasion of ATC Global 2011 and in particular in connection with SESAR Release 1, being presented as the most important SESAR deliverable for the year.
Florian Guillermet talks to editor Steve Zerkowitz.
Roger-Wilco: Looking at the details of SESAR Release 1, one sees that this is basically a very big and complex validation exercise. We have seen such things, even if possibly not on this scale, in past programs like EATCHIP and ATM2000+.Regrettably, not much came from those… What is the difference now, what makes everyone confident that this time things will work out better?
Mr. Guillermet: There are three important differences compared with past exercises:
• Clearly defined scope
• Clearly defined time-frame
• Close control by the SJU
Let me explain. The operational concept of SESAR is very ambitious and it can only be achieved if there is a clear focus on what has to be done and in what time frame. The elements of Release 1 have been carefully selected to ensure an initial maturity level that lends itself to development to a pre-industrialization state. This selection process was carefully controlled by the SJU so no pet-projects, be it on an organizational or personal level, were allowed in if they did not meet the agreed, stringent selection criteria.
Click here to read the full article
First concrete SESAR achievements in 2011
On 08/03/2011, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
At the biggest international Air Traffic Management exhibition, ATC Global being held this week in Amsterdam, the SESAR Joint Undertaking presents the first components of the future European ATM system. The aim of this first SESAR Release is to group projects and validation exercises and to start delivering together with the 49 SESAR members and associate partners tangible results at a reindustrialization stage as of this year.
“SESAR is set to modernize air traffic management in Europe. Recent projections predict for Europe a doubling of flights by 2030 compared to 2009 levels. This equals 16.9 million movements; everybody knows that the current air traffic management system cannot cope with such an increase. SESAR is prepared to address this challenge by presenting first benefits for the aviation community this year, just as planned.”, says Patrick Ky, Executive Director of the SESAR Joint Undertaking.
Periodic releases
With the commitment of the private and public partners involved in the work program, SESAR will deliver results through periodic releases.
The first SESAR Release is the outcome of a thorough status review of the approximately 300 SESAR projects to see where early results can be achieved to
quicker serve the aviation world. Projects which are included in the 2011 Release will have been verified and validated in an operational environment to allow for a decision on industrialization and subsequent deployment.
With the first SESAR Release, the European ATM modernization program reveals initial components of the future European ATM system. The validation exercises will cover the areas of efficient and green terminal airspace operations, the initial 4D trajectory, end to end traffic synchronization, as well as integrated and collaborative network management. Concrete benefits will be achieved for airlines, pilots, airports, air traffic controllers, pilots, passengers and the environment.
Improved procedures, tool sets, prototypes
Through simulations, prototypes, shadow mode or live and flight trials, the SESAR members will perform 29 validation exercises all over Europe, the first of which have already taken place in February.
Click here to read the full article
FAA Funds ADS-B for JetBlue
On 04/02/2011, in NextGen, by steve
Low-cost carriers are not known for their willingness to pay for extra equipment that may be required to improve air traffic management. In this respect they are very much similar to their legacy brethren… Even when there is a clear business case, the mad rush to equip is usually conspicuous by its absence. There are exceptions to rule though. Southwest had announced earlier that it will equip all its fleet with RNP capability and the news is out now that US low-cost carrier JetBlue is equipping 35 of its Airbus A-320 aircraft with ADS-B Out capability, including the ACSS SafeRoute suite of applications. The catch? This is a demo project funded by the FAA to the tune of 4.2 million dollars.
Once equipped, JetBlue’s aircraft will be able to fly more precise trajectories under ADS-B surveillance from Boston and New York to Florida and the Caribbean although this latter will have to wait until 2012 as there is no ground ADS-B infrastructure there just yet.
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
Incentives for Early Airborne CPDLC Equipage
On 13/12/2010, in Shop floor talk, by steve
The LINK 2000+ programme has been working on the definition of incentives schemes for early airborne equipage since 2005. Various creative schemes were explored with stakeholders, such as reduced route charges for those that equip early. However, it proved impossible to get stakeholders to commit to such schemes even though the principles of the route charge system were modified to accommodate them.
Following an economic analysis by the industry consultation body for the Single European Sky, several short-term projects were recommended for funding to accelerate early ATM benefits and to provide the launch pad for SESAR.
Click here to read the full article
EGNOS is here now – should you care?
On 08/09/2010, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
Few other new aviation systems have generated as much controversy and opposition from the airspace user community as EGNOS, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service.
Like the US Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), EGNOS enables precision approach procedures to be implemented using only space-based signals. As such, it is one possible future replacement of ILS.
On 1 July 2003, an airspace user position paper signed by AEA, IATA and others stated bluntly:
“Finally, the airspace users would like to recall that they have resisted the development of the European Geostationary Overlay System (EGNOS), which has been mainly developed for political reasons and for which all attempts to build a credible aviation business case have failed. As a consequence, public funds have to be provided to fund the entire EGNOS system (development costs as well operational costs). Reference is made to the AEA, IATA, ERA, IAOPA, IACA joint position paper on the European Commission’s Communication COM(2003)123final) on the Integration of EGNOS into Galileo.”
The above position paper would suggest that had there been a business case, opposition to EGNOS would have been less or non at all. Unfortunately that was not true either. For systems where there was a business case (like air/ground digital link for example), it was promptly refused as unrealistic… Unfortunately, in some cases like Mode S Enhanced Surveillance, this was even true and such cases did not help the other projects where the benefits on the level claimed were actually there.
Click here to read the full article
Conversion course – Does anyone understand the airlines?
On 22/06/2010, in Airline corner, by steve
My fascination with aircraft started at about age 5 and I first heard about air traffic control when I was 16. Gabi Nemeth who made music besides being an air traffic controller was on a TV talk show and he made a gallant effort to explain what ATC was all about… He must have done a great job because I for one understood what he was saying and from then on wanted nothing better than to be a controller. Being accepted to the physics faculty of a University in Budapest almost derailed my destiny but I corrected it soon enough and on my 21st birthday I issued the first landing clearance all on my own!
In the years that followed I collected just about every qualification a controller can have and added a bit of computer programming skill also. In time I exchanged the microphone for a desk at ICAO in Paris and later, for a post involved in building the new Amsterdam ATC system, AAA. But I never thought of myself as anything other than an air traffic controller. I was also very much convinced that what I was doing with or without the microphone, was the best possible course for our charges, the aircraft and their operators. Giving them directs, shortening the tracks wherever possible and the many other “treats” all appeared as going out of our way to help them.
My first exposure to IATA was at the very first Flow East meeting which was held in Budapest. We knew relatively little about this mighty organization or how it worked and were generally a bit suspicious of its motives… They sent a diminutive Swissair captain as one of their representatives and what he lacked in stature was more than made up for by his forceful personality and very clear words blasting us for the very poor job we were doing. He did not spare the civil aviation authorities either, drawing multiple color lines on a wall chart showing where the air routes should be in his view… Very few of the existing routes were where he thought they should be of course. His propensity for drawing colored lines earned him the nick “Tintoretto”. I remember how deeply hurt I felt by all the verbal abuse but also the feeling that may be, just may be, Tintoretto had a point. Had I known what profound effect his colored lines would have on my life many years later, I would have kissed the little captain on the brow for sure.
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User Requirements for Air Traffic Services – IATA booklet
On 11/06/2010, in Bookshelf, by steve
Publisher: IATA
IATA has put together a very useful booklet offering a better understanding of international airlines’ requirements and capabilities for communications, navigation, surveillance and air traffic management.
Gunther Matschnigg, IATA Senior Vice President, Safety, Operations and Infrastructure, has this to say in his introduction to the booklet:
“There are times when airlines are taken by surprise from announcements of new equipment for air traffic control being purchased that, as far as airlines are concerned, holds little promise of benefit. In most of these cases, airlines and other airspace users were not consulted during the planning process and the technology was bound to disappoint.
Such misadventures are costly to everyone and are a waste of scarce funding. Regrettably, such undesirable situations continue to occur today, when waste can be ill afforded by the air transport industry.
On the other hand, successful procurement projects are invariably associated with a planning and consultation process that draws upon input from representatives of the airspace users, as well as equipment manufacturers and neighboring States. Such planning also helps airlines schedule their own investments in aircraft technology to work in synch with new air navigation services equipment, leading to clear operational benefits.
Based on a thorough understanding of airspace user requirements and capabilities, these projects are far more successful in providing much-needed benefits to airspace users in terms of increased safety, on-schedule operations and cost efficiency.”
The booklet aims to help ensuring that ATM projects of all kinds are based on the real requirements of the airspace users and not guesses or technologies for technologies’ sake.
Download the booklet here.
Call sign similarity rules
On 08/06/2010, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
One key element in reducing the number of call sign Confusion events is an agreed set of Call Sign Similarity Rules i.e. agreed definitions of what constitutes ‘a similarity’.
These Rules have been identified by analysis of safety reports concerning call sign confusion and published by the Call Sign Similarity User Group (CSSUG), which includes representatives from Aircraft Operators (AOs), Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) and other aviation organisations’ (e.g. ICAO and IATA).
Read the full article here.
Is it nice to work for an airline?
On 20/04/2010, in Viewpoint, by steve
When I started my life in aviation, air traffic control was part of the corporate structure of the local airline, Malev. A bit like having the police department integrated into the taxi company and with no less interesting situations that arose when the owner airline was not given the priority they desired.
So, yes I have worked for an airline and it was not bad. We were even entitled to free travel and this was being granted long after IATA had decided that controllers were not really worthy of the privilege.
Good. But all that was long ago and we are now interested in what it is to be working for an airline today.
Around February each year, Fortune magazine publishes an article describing the 100 best companies to work for. I browsed the list with interest. Google is number 4, Cisco number 16, Intel 99 and Colgate-Palmolive 100. So, who are the first 3? Are there any airlines up there? Nope! Other than FEDEX at the 90th position, there is no airline or even aircraft manufacturer mentioned at all.
Click here to read the full article
2009 Aviation Safety Performance Data published by IATA
On 15/03/2010, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
2009′s accident rate for Western-built jet aircraft is the second lowest in aviation history.
The 2009 global accident rate (measured in hull losses per million flights of Western-built jet aircraft) was 0.71. That is equal to one accident for every 1.4 million flights. This is a significant improvement on the 0.81 rate recorded in 2008 (one accident per 1.2 million flights). The 2009 rate was the second lowest in aviation history, just above the 2006 rate of 0.65. Compared to 10 years ago, the accident rate has been cut 36% from the rate recorded in 2000.
Read more here.
8.33 kHz Channel spacing – what is this?
On 04/03/2010, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
The radio spectrum, a scarce resort
One of the most basic activities in a cockpit is tuning the radio to the assigned frequency of whoever we want to talk to. Contacting ground control, the tower or one’s own company is done by turning a few knobs until the right numbers show in the radio control panel display and we can talk.
Air traffic controllers see the same thing slightly differently. They do not normally have to tune their radios. The proper frequencies for their sector or other working position are pre-set and need no further attention.
With the matter being so pedestrian and the actions so routine, few of us realize that the ability of pilots and controllers to talk to each other is in fact dependent on one of the scarcest resources in aviation, namely the radio spectrum allocated to aviation use.
Many other disciplines have their own radio spectrum and we all guard jealously what we have been given and for good reason. With so many users wanting to use the radio waves, the incumbents better watch or the use it or lose it principle kicks in. Luckily, the frequencies most widely used by aviation (118 – 137 MHz) are not coveted so strongly by others. Our problem is different but not in the least less serious.
Click here to read the full article
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
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
Interesting people, unusual flight plans…
On 22/01/2010, in Interesting people, by steve
Guenter Martis – The humanist among us
Guenter is Director of European Affairs at CANSO (Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation)
What were you dreaming of becoming when you were a kid?
I wanted to become an inventor, like Marconi. I wanted to invent things with which I could contribute to the well being of mankind. In more concrete terms I wanted to be a communications officer on a big ocean liner. No ideas about airplanes back then.
So what made you become a member of the aviation family after all?
The actual trigger was a job opportunity at Austrian Airlines but the main driver was something else. I hated the idea of becoming electrical engineer number xyz in a big company. I wanted to be different and the airline job seemed to offer that chance.
Click here to read the full article
Who is in charge here?
On 13/01/2010, in SESAR's Palace, by pbn
Those of us who have served the airline industry know full well that what may appear as a monolithic industry (all airlines fly aircraft after all, do they not?), is in fact a multitude of differing business models, interests, attitudes, readiness to invest in new things, inertia, vision and what have you. Even within the group of legacy carriers or the group of low cost folks, the diversity is immense.
In the past, the airline industry booked its most significant successes in influencing the political scene as well as air traffic management when it was able to speak with one voice. That voice on the world-wide stage used to be IATA. The most spectacular flops were booked when dissent in the family silenced the common voice. Just think of the Mode S Enhanced Surveillance debacle if you want to have proof.
Click here to read the full article
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
Successful “Performance Based Navigation (PBN) Workshop” in Budapest
On 19/11/2009, in Events, by steve
Although the concept of Performance Based Navigation (PBN) is generally known, when it comes to filling in the details, there is a lot of uncertainty, misunderstandings and even diverging views on what exactly should we understand under PBN. Big organizations like ICAO and EUROCONTROL are doing their best to clarify things but clearly, more is needed.
The idea of organizing a workshop on the grassroots level to discuss PBN and shape common understanding of the issues first came up in 2008 when a number of industry experts discussed how their partners could be helped in getting a better grasp on PBN and its implementation. The idea was to bring together air navigation service providers, airlines, international organizations, research institutions and manufacturers for a focused but easygoing discussion of this complicated subject. 2008 was a bad year for any undertaking requiring traveling and it was only this week that the workshop finally took place in Budapest, Hungary.
HungaroControl, the Hungarian air navigation service provider had kindly offered to host the workshop and we were able to enjoy their excellent facilities on 17 an 18 November. The number of participants (30) was a good compromise between the range of partners represented and overall size for a workshop-type meeting.
The agenda was structured to ensure a logical progression through the most important aspects of PBN.
Click here to read the full article
Put your 0.5 % where your mouth is
On 23/10/2009, in Viewpoint, by steve
The next big event on the environmental Agenda is the UN’s climate change Summit in Copenhagen in December. Since tackling aviation is high on the Summit’s priorities, the aviation world has been working frantically to get ICAO to agree on a set of high level emission goals to be put forward at the conference. For a time it looked like all efforts to the contrary, ICAO might go to the meeting with precious little to say. This would have been a total disaster because in the ensuing vacuum interests not exactly big fans of aviation would have tried to dictate the terms with regional differences and other spice added for good measure.
This danger is now past, the ICAO agreement is not only there, but it is more or less what the airspace user community and other partners in the industry wanted. IATA was key in shaping the industry position and also in advocating it in the ICAO machinery.
In the end, the industry found itself in the rare position of being praised by the Secretary General of the UN who said that aviation’s targets could be set as examples for other industries to follow.
Click here to read the full article
Will training finally meet the future?
On 16/10/2009, in Viewpoint, by cleo
There are places in the world where ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information System) is still the hard to understand analogue affair, suffering not only from poor voice quality but also the multitude of accents their operators will dish out for you. Of course, somebody somehow will have approved them for use, poor quality, accent and all. Now talk to any organization that has installed a new type of digital ATIS and most of them will tell you horror stories (backed up by the manufacturers) about the new and in many cases totally unreasonable requirements such a digital system had to meet, supposedly to improve safety.
Safety is of course our primary concern but it is not served at all by allowing suspicions about the hidden gremlins in digital technology to drive requirements which are either not possible to meet or which drive up costs without contributing to safety. It is also counter productive to dream up new requirements simply because new digital versions of old tools “can do it”.
Click here to read the full article
Under Control – The story of The International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations
On 14/10/2009, in Bookshelf, by steve
By Neil Vidler
Publisher: IFATCA
ISBN – 0-646-40574-8
A book written about the history of a professional association, published by the same association, will tend to present events from their particular point of view and Neil Vidler’s work on IFATCA is no exception. 318 pages of sometimes laborious text that is no doubt factually correct but it fails to properly present the rest of the aviation world in which IFATCA was created and in which it grew into the respected organization we know to-day.
This lack of context is particularly regrettable in the light of the long paragraphs devoted to ICAO (Friend or foe?) and the IATA Resolution 200 debate. While denying controllers free tickets is of course not the best way to make friends, this issue was certainly not the biggest problem of aviation at the time yet the book makes it look like it was the only issue that needed solving.
The book launches with the foundation of the federation and its first decade starting in 1961. The rest of the aviation world was transforming itself into mass transportation mode and in fact grew alongside IFATCA itself. The 70s, 80s and of course the 90s saw a huge culture change happen in the cockpit and after deregulation also in how airlines were being run. Pilots had to evolve and become not only good airmen but also system managers… They were called upon to manage a very expensive and sensitive business tool, the modern aircraft.
While ATC also evolved and did a marvelous job of handling ever more traffic, the same fundamental culture change had not really happened there yet in the time frame of this book which ends in 2001.
IFATCA’s life and struggles could have been made even more understandable to the reader if the revolution that was taking place in the cockpit and in the airline world had been provided as the backdrop to the story.
If you are looking for no more than a rather detailed, factual history of IFATCA, this book is a good choice. Not only to read end-to-end (something that might be a bit of a struggle) but also as a source of hard-to-find information in the years to come.
EGNOS open service available
On 13/10/2009, in Perspectives, by cleo
Quote from an airspace user position paper dated 1 July 2003:
“Finally, the airspace users would like to recall that they have resisted the development
of the European Geostationary Overlay System (EGNOS), which has been mainly
developed for political reasons and for which all attempts to build a credible aviation
business case have failed. As a consequence, public funds have to be provided to fund
the entire EGNOS system (development costs as well operational costs). Reference is
made to the AEA, IATA, ERA, IAOPA, IACA joint position paper on the European
Commission’s Communication (COM(2003)123final) on the Integration of EGNOS
into Galileo.”
Read the complete paper here (source: Internet).
Quote from an ESA press release dated 1 October 2009:
“During a press conference today, Mr Antonio Tajani, European Commission Vice-President for Transport Policy, announced the official start of operations for EGNOS, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service. The EGNOS ‘Open Service’ is now available. This allows users to determine their position to within two metres, compared with about 20 metres for GPS alone. The Open Service is provided free of charge.”
Read the complete press release here.
The cartoon dates from Christmas 2003, artist unknown.
New directions for Airport Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) – a detailed example
On 13/10/2009, in CDM, by steve
If you have read my article on the New Directions for Airport Collaborative Decision Making (CDM), you will be interested in this narrative description of the envisaged working of the expanded CDM concept. I do strongly recommend that you read the New Directions article first!
The example used is that of a departing flight. It is not a formal use-case as such and it focuses on the most important new features only. The scenario does not aim to be all-encompassing but sufficient detail is provided to enable readers to get a better understanding of the novel applications of CDM. A number of new services are mentioned in this scenario which are in addition to those mentioned in the original article. Their role is self explanatory but if you have any question, please write a comment and I will explain things in more detail.
Click here to read the full article
Performance Based Navigation Workshop, Budapest 17-18 November 2009 – Reminder
On 13/10/2009, in Events, by steve
BluSky Services is organising a Performance Based Navigation (PBN) workshop, to be held in Budapest, Hungary on 17-18 November 2009. The event will be hosted by HungaroControl and will take place at their premises.
Participation in the workshop is free.
As is well known, both IATA and CANSO have expressed their support for PBN and this important evolutionary step is also part of ICAO’s ATM strategy.
Participants at the workshop will learn about the ICAO PBN concept and how it relates to Performance Based Navigation (RNP) and technologies like ADS-B, MLAT and GNSS landing systems.
The list of presenters include ICAO, IATA, Honeywell, ERA Corporation, APAC, Quo Vadis/Airbus and ZEBRAFISH International.
Interest from all areas of ATM is substantial. Register now to ensure your place at this unique event!
For more details, the Agenda and registration, click here
To learn more about BluSky Services, click here
Anniversary – The Y2K roll-over
On 02/10/2009, in Anniversaries, by steve
10 year anniversary on 31 December 2009
On call to usher in a new millennium
I am no longer with IATA but when I joined originally, night shifts were not mentioned as part of the job. Not that I would have minded, as an ex-air traffic controller I had plenty of experience watching the sun rise over the airport perimeter fence, or looking at the radar screen with the morning traffic building slowly…
But somehow 1999 brought two events that landed me once again in night shifts. One was 8.33, the famous new channel spacing in Europe and the other, the even more famous, Y2K computer bug.
As it happened, I was not closely involved in the preparations for the year-end rollover, this task having fallen in our office to other colleagues who had their hands more than full for the 18 months or so preceding the end of December . As our readers will probably know, the Y2K problem was the result of some “clever” programming tricks used by early programmers to save storage space, representing the year in dates by only two characters. Possibly they never expected computers to be still around by the year 2000… In the end, not only did some legacy hardware, as well as a lot of legacy software, survive to see the new millennium, even some of the latest creations came with the Y2K problem still built in and ticking away…If you enter a date in the year 2000 into one of those machines, the year will show 00, resulting in the computer possibly crashing in a number of colorful ways.
Click here to read the full article
Standing all together… separately?
On 16/09/2009, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
Reading the upbeat communication from the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) announcing the arrival of the airspace users on board the project, it may be worthwhile to take a look at the composition of the new arrivals and start worrying… just a tad mind you but still. There are individual airlines, both big and small and associations ranging from giant IATA to IAOPA (much smaller but with significant influence) and a consortium coordinated by EBAA. Diversity is nice but who exactly will be the conductor of this orchestra?
In the past one of the strengths of the airspace users was in their ability to speak with a common voice. This common voice in Europe came from IATA (mainly on technical matters) and from AEA (on the political level). Achieving the common voice was not easy and sometimes downright impossible but at least while there was disagreement, no cacophony of diverse tunes was allowed to fill the auditorium.
Click here to read the full article
Major airlines, business & general aviation, associations on board of SESAR
On 15/09/2009, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
The SESAR Joint Undertaking, a unique public-private partnership in air traffic management research and development, has signed contracts with Air France & Régional, KLM, Iberia, Lufthansa Group including SWISS and LCAG, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, TAP Portugal, Novair, a consortium coordinated by EBAA including NETJET and Dassault Aviation, as well as IATA, and IAOPA to engage their technical experts in the SESAR programme. The SESAR Joint Undertaking is now poised to tackle its vital mission: to develop a user-driven, modernised and affordable Air Traffic Management system for Europe, which will prevent crippling congestion of the European sky and reduce the environmental impact of air transport.
Giovanni Bisignani, Director General and CEO of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents some 230 international airlines, commented: “SESAR needs to deliver results on the industry’s top priorities—safety, environmental responsibility and financial sustainability. It must also be completed on time and in-line with customer needs. Today’s agreement is important because it accelerates validation of future technologies with flight trials in real conditions.”
Click here to read the full article
Performance Based Navigation Workshop, Budapest 17-18 November 2009
On 10/08/2009, in Events, by steve
BluSky Services is organising a Performance Based Navigation (PBN) workshop, to be held in Budapest, Hungary on 17-18 November 2009. The event will be hosted by HungaroControl and will take place at their premises.
Participation in the workshop is free.
As is well known, both IATA and CANSO have expressed their support for PBN and this important evolutionary step is also part of ICAO’s ATM strategy.
Participants at the workshop will learn about the ICAO PBN concept and how it relates to Performance Based Navigation (RNP) and technologies like ADS-B, MLAT and GNSS landing systems.
The list of presenters include ICAO, IATA, Honeywell, ERA Corporation, APAC and ZEBRAFISH International.
For more details, the Agenda and registration, check out http://pbn.bluskyservices.com
To learn more about BluSky Services, go to www.bluskyservices.com
