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
5th International Conference on Research in Air Transportation — ICRAT 2012. 22-25 May 2012, University of Berkley, California
On 25/01/2012, in Events, by steve
Following the success of its four previous editions in 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010 ICRAT has now been established as a mainstream biennial event in Air Transport Research, alternating with the USA/Europe ATM R&D Seminar. ICRAT is an excellent forum for young researchers within air transportation to share their work, expand their professional network, and gain new knowledge and inspiration. This fifth edition of ICRAT will include one day of tutorials, two days of technical presentations and a doctoral symposium where PhD students can expose their research problems to get advice from established scientists in the field. ICRAT 2012, in addition to world class keynote speakers, will have panels where senior researchers will provide constructive feedback to the paper presenters. Senior researchers are encouraged to attend ICRAT.
ICRAT 2012 is organized by the FAA and EUROCONTROL. Other co-sponsors include NASA and JPDO. It will be held at the Berkeley International House (I-House) of the University of California, Berkeley on May 22-25, 2012.
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
An Opportunity We Should not Miss!
On 20/01/2012, in The future is now, by steve
I was talking to an old time, well respected colleague the other day discussing his view that instead of forcing the industry to implement yet another expensive capability, full use should be made of what was already there… Once the benefits start to accrue, airspace users would be much more inclined to take the extra steps and accept the costs associated with the extra functionality (assuming of course that there was a business case for it). This discussion was in the context of basic PBN and the addition or not of things like Constant Radius Turns in en-route airspace.
Although I have always preferred a more all-out approach, his pragmatic views make perfect sense and is also something airline bean-counters are likely to accept more readily. Investing in speculative functionality when the existing stuff sits idle most of the time is difficult to justify. Of course focusing mainly on use-what-is-already-there-first will not speed up progress but will make the simpler things happen with a higher degree of probability. Aim for too much, and nothing happens. I hate to admit it, but he is right…
Having given credit where credit is due, my incorrigible drive for wanting the whole thing kept chewing my soul. There was something here that we could turn to our advantage. But what was it exactly?
Then I remembered… The thousands of A320NEOs and Boeing 737MAXs. Airlines have ordered these more fuel efficient versions of the old favorites to basically replace a large part of their fleets almost overnight. Now if only those new babies could come with all kinds of goodies fitted right from the start…
What are we talking about? From an air traffic management perspective, there are three items that I would have on my wish list: air/ground digital link and CPDLC, ADS-B in and out and a full set of PBN capabilities.
I can almost hear opponents shouting: with those new versions not due for another three years or so, what technology should the manufacturers use for ADS-B for instance? Stay with Mode S Extended Squitter or go for something else? But what? Would it not be better to wait until the technology debate settles? We have of course heard this in the past. Waiting is equivalent to doing nothing and missing the boat. We have also seen that in the past… and suffer the consequences in the present day.
No Sire, this time we should be smarter.
Click here to read the full article
UDPP – What and Why?
On 28/12/2011, in Buzzwords explained, by Alex1
If I could give a word of advice to anyone embarking on a long ATM project (well, any ATM project, they’re all long) it would be ‘keep a good diary’. When Roger-Wilco’s indefatigable editor Steve asked me for a few words on the origins and meaning of UDPP, I struggled to find how and when the idea came about. I knew I had thought of it, and that it was first aired at a SESAR meeting in Bagneux in the Paris Banlieue. But beyond that I was guessing.
I was convinced it must have been ages ago, but even though I don’t have a diary note of a light bulb flashing, I see that it must in fact have been just about 5 years ago, about November 2006. I think the Work Group had been challenged by the Project Directorate to come up with some thoughts on the Network Operating Plan, not a subject I claim to know much about. But it did start me thinking about the way delays are distributed now (or more exactly, were then, but I doubt much has changed).
In the CFMU process flow rates, be they through a sector or in or out of a TMA, are determined by the service provider or passed to it, and slots are allocated on the basis of first applied = first allocated. In stable conditions this can keep the bottleneck well supplied with traffic, but it suffers from at least two flaws: the allocation of the delays is remote from the source, and the whole process is rather inflexible.
Click here to read the full article
Fact sheets on SWIM
On 21/12/2011, in SWIM, by steve
One of the ways SESAR communicates with the world is the so-called fact-sheets. These are compact descriptions of certain aspects of the work-packages and as such provide a fairly useful source of quick reference.
System Wide Information Management (SWIM) has its own set of fact-sheets, well worth a look.
Check them out here.
FAA/NextGen Bashing on the other Side of the Pond
On 12/12/2011, in NextGen, by steve
If you thought we were occasionally unkind to SESAR, read this post. Then make up your own mind. While doing that, do not forget that what you are reading was put together before FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt was charged for driving under influence and subsequently quit the top-job of the FAA. Babbitt is a veteran pilot who flew 25 years for Eastern Airlines… But back to the article.
You will read things like “ERAM is the dead elephant in the room” and “How will the headless bureaucracy handle a doomed program that must succeed?”
What about this one: “In order to cost-justify NextGen, they have cooked the books on all future budget plans.”
The article is interesting, even if in places it fees a bit over-stressed, because it highlights what is probably a true problem for NextGen: basing it on ERAM, the En-Route Automation Modernization program, which is evidently struggling and might very well pull NextGen as originally envisaged down with it.
May be, just may be, there is also a lesson here for SESAR. Sorry… there we go again.
States should be Made to Pay
On 09/12/2011, in Viewpoint, by cleo
When I read about the Paris-Toulouse flight conducted by Air France to show how much CO2 emission they can save by optimized air traffic management including continuous descent approaches, my immediate reaction was not happiness about saving the planet. No sir, my reaction was: here is the best source of funds to pay ATM developments with, including aircraft equipment.
For decades, airlines were (and still are by the way) obliged to fly uneconomical routes, circumnavigate military areas, stay on sub-optimal levels because of outdated letters of agreements between control centers, fly obsolete departure routes… the list is endless. Politicians have paid lip service to wanting to improve ATM but did little to actually implement really effective improvements. Just look at EATCHIP, ATM2000+ and the political statements associated with them and compare to what had actually been done. Hell, the first wave of SESAR “improvements” are little more than what should have been accomplished by ATM2000+ years ago.
By inaction and omission, European States have caused billions of extra costs to the airlines and by proxy to their customers, the passengers. If anyone had any doubts that it could have been done much better, just look at the improvements that are suddenly appearing in air traffic management, driven by environmental considerations but still using much the same ATC equipment that was there also 10 years ago!
Click here to read the full article
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
Airbus to support FAA Greener Skies Initiative with ATM expertise
On 25/11/2011, in Environment - Without hot air, by steve
Airbus has been selected to provide Air Traffic Management (ATM) and Performance Based Navigation (PBN) expertise for the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Greener Skies Initiative. As part of Boeing’s FAA System Engineering 2020 (SE-2020) team, Airbus will identify procedures which fully utilize aircraft precision navigation capabilities to reduce fuel burn, lower emissions and decrease noise.
The Greener Skies initiative seeks to improve ATM efficiency and to minimize the environmental impact on the ground and in the air through the expanded use of PBN including Required Navigation Performance (RNP), area navigation (RNAV), and Optimized Profile Descents (OPD).
The industry consortium includes Adacel, Airbus, Boeing, Cessna and Honeywell, and is tasked with establishing methods for the full implementation of PBN by utilizing advanced flight deck and Air Traffic Control (ATC) capabilities while analyzing new policies and procedures. Airbus subsidiary Quovadis will provide PBN consultancy and implementation expertise for the initiative. Seattle will be used as a key site to enable these initial advanced operational capabilities to be introduced into the US National Airspace System (NAS). Click here to read the full article
The pessimism of an optimist
On 21/11/2011, in Viewpoint, by cleo
Some readers of Roger-Wilco asked me why we tend to report on problems so often. The answer is simple. Because almost nobody else seems to be doing it.
If you read the official communiqués from various projects, they do tend to project a much brighter picture and if you read only those, you will sleep well. All is fine in the world of ATM. I am not saying that the official sources of information are saying things that are not true. But what they often do is leave out the context or simply ignore certain pertinent facts.
Let me give you a few recent examples.
SESAR has split its plan for implementing things into three packages, IP1 to IP3. Everyone is now raving over IP1 and the super effort going into realizing it. Great. What is rarely added is that the content of IP1 is nothing more than what should have happened under the previous European project, ATM2000+ anyway and some of the elements got delayed by 3+ years because everything stopped while the world was waiting for the SESAR miracle to happen…
A while ago the folks in the FAB Europe Central announced that airlines will be saving millions in fuel due to the more direct routes now formally agreed for night operations. What they did not add was the simple fact that most aircraft have been flying those direct routings at night for many years now on an ad hoc basis and these were now formalized. Sure, being able to plan for the shorter route brings some savings but to claim credit for the millions that were already being saved is not exactly how these things should be communicated.
SESAR has some 300 projects running… When was the last time you read in their official communications how far those projects have come and whether or not they are on schedule?
Click here to read the full article
NextGen and SESAR – is this a race???
On 16/11/2011, in NextGen, by steve
For the past several years news from the US repeatedly mentioned how the FAA was teetering on the brink of running out of money while Congress was debating the so-called FAA reauthorization bill. At one point the Agency actually shut down for a few days while extra funds were made available for them.
Of course this unholy situation was anything but helpful for NextGen, the FAA’s flagship project aiming to modernize the ATM system in the US. However, after all this wrangling, there is light at the end of the tunnel… and it is not the train that is coming!
A bill that would finally settle the funding issue will probably be on the President’s desk by Christmas. This was announced recently on the occasion of the opening of the renovated NextGen Test Bed at the Daytona Beach International Airport in Florida. This airport is famous among others for being the home-base of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
The bill in question will provide a four-year blueprint for the development of NextGen and will eliminate any reauthorization issues for the FAA during this time. Congressman John Mica, when talking about the bill, highlighted the fact that it includes deadlines, incentives to attract private money into the project and also a streamlining of the FAA processes used to certify new technology.
FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said that “NextGen will be more convenient, more dependable and it will improve safety and efficiency all at the same time.”
More surprisingly, it seems that there is a belief in some US circles that if the US gets NextGen up and running before Europe’s SESAR is ready, the US stands to reap important economic benefits. They believe that whoever sets the protocols and standards will also win he world market. The same people indicated that in their view, the US is ahead of Europe in this “race”.
Click here to read the full article
Outdated Mentality Slows ATM Progress
On 07/11/2011, in Viewpoint, by steve
I am sure Jane’s Airport Review will forgive me for picking the title of one of their articles but it was so stunning, I could not resist the temptation.
It looks like October was a month of bad news from the world of ATM and I am starting to get a terrible feeling of déjà vu… again.
Back in the times of EATCHIP and ATM2000+ meeting after meeting we were banging the tables, telling anyone who would listen that air traffic management modernization was not rocket science, the technology aspect was almost a no-brainer compared to the kind of cultural change that was necessary on the part of all stakeholders but from ANSPs and airlines most of all, if we were to get anywhere.
When EATCHIP was faltering, ATM2000+ came along and this latter was even signed off by the ECAC Ministers of Transport and what happened? Nothing… or anyway very little compared to the lofty aims defined originally. After a few horrible summers, it was 9/11 and the ensuing economic slump that saved the day. The ATM system would have collapsed had the 5 % year on year traffic demand increase actually materialize.
Then NextGen in the US and the Single European Sky and SESAR in Europe came along. This time it was going to be different… We are well into those programs and here is what we have learned in this black October of the year 2011.
As reported in Aviation Week, the FAA’s En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) is turning into a major embarrassment. It is four years late and may in fact slip by another two years while the cost is already 330 million bucks over the original budget and it may go to 500 million… ERAM is an essential step in getting NextGen operational, even if ERAM itself is not a NextGen element as such.
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…
EUROCONTROL cancels CDM group meeting
On 12/10/2011, in CDM, by steve
When the mail arrived announcing that EUROCONTROL was cancelling the upcoming CDM group meeting due to severe cuts in their budget, I was not really surprised. This was almost expected as part of what appears to be the killing off of EUROCONTROL. That the CDM group was one of the more successful activities was of course not enough to save the meeting.
Since the announcement, scores of posts appeared on various LinkedIn groups, most of them critical of the decision and regretting this short-sighted action. At least one commenter “reassured” us that this was the way the future will go, the stakeholders want to scale back EUROCONTROL and the ANSPs will take over the coordination of things.
In all the rightful indignation we should not forget a few additional interesting facts that all have a bearing on what is happening to EUROCONTROL to-day. Since I have been there from pretty early on, sharing the time as an ANSP rep and later as an IATA rep, I do have a peculiar perspective which I would like to share with you. Why are these facts important? Because by recognizing them we can hopefully design more effective remedies. So here goes:
1. EUROCONTROL was not perfect. BUT it had many excellent projects, truly forward looking initiatives most of which were consistently slowed down or killed by the stakeholders. I have been in many high level meetings where things got hammered for no other reason but that one or more big ANSPs were not ready to do “it”. Believe it or not, air/ground digital link work in the early phases would have been killed had we not organized a very strong protest… There are more examples.
2. There has been a wrestling match between EUROCONTROL and the EC for a long time. Things got a bit more balanced when the EC burned their fingers in the initial FAB and SES activity caused by the same reluctant stakeholders who were keeping EUROCONTROL from performing properly.
3. It is an open secret that there are certain ANSPs in Europe who have maintained for a long time that they could do a better job of ATM than EUROCONTROL does, being especially critical of the CFMU. The current financial squeeze is not the first initiative to kill EUROCONTROL (but is probably the most effective yet).
4. Giving EUROCONTROL the role of Network Manager is a smokescreen and an incredible affront to the industry. Since EUROCONTROL does not get any additional powers to make things happen (so it will be nothing like the Command Centre in the US), it will be a toothless tiger… Possibly in a few years time it will be established that EUROCONTROL is not being very effective as the Network Manager, so it can disappear completely. Clever… Click here to read the full article
NEWO Workshop on Innovative Operational Approaches – 25 October 2011, Madrind, Spain
On 27/09/2011, in Events, by steve
The objective of the 1st NEWO project Workshop is to identify new operational approaches for the queue management of departures in the air transport network. The approach is to explore complex networks solutions for solving capacity problems at nodes/edges implying the application of prioritisation criteria for the distribution of elements in the network. Isdefe’s team will raise the problem and experts from ATM but also from other domains related to the management of complex networks such as logistic, energy and telecommunication will discuss about any potential solution that is applied in their domain and which could be mirrored in the air transport world. Innovative ideas will be captured by means of Expert Groups, questionnaires and brainstorming sessions.
The contribution and knowledge of the experts from different domains (logistics, energy, ICT, air transport…) is appreciated. The event will:
- Provide an occasion for cross-fertilisation and for the attendees to be acquainted with researchers in diverse domains dealing with complex networks (logistics, transport, energy networks, ICT, etc.)
- Explore the applicability of past and on-going research in complex networks to the particular case of Air Transport and,
- Exchange views on management approaches for prioritization of elements in complex networks.
The workshop is open to participation and interests are gathered by the workshop point of contact. Funding for attendance is also available on a “first-come first-served” basis. Contributions other than attendance to the workshop are welcomed through downloading and filling the questionnaire you can find under the “Documentation” heading on the NEWO webpage and sending it to the NEWO WS point of contact.
You can download the workshop brochure here.
Air Traffic Control – Your Safety in the Air? Or something more…
On 13/09/2011, in ATC world, by steve
Back in the early 70s I was the vice-president of the Hungarian Air Traffic Controllers’ Association (HATCA) and we were busy searching for a good slogan for the association. In the end, we decided to use an adapted version of the slogan put out by the Canadians: “Air Traffic Control means you will have a safe flight”. The HATCA version became: “Air Traffic Control – Your safety in the air”.
Many many years later, when I was working in the airline Project Coordination Platform supporting the SESAR definition phase I introduced the idea of the “business trajectory”. This term referred to the trajectory defined by an airline, the one they wanted to fly and which best expressed their business intentions in relation to the flight concerned.
While the airlines really liked the idea, there was an immediate outcry from the controllers involved in the definition phase. How could I mention the term “business” in the same sentence with trajectory and air traffic control! ATC was there to ensure safety and business had nothing to do with it.
Recalling my time as HATCA president, I did not blame them. After all, when we were looking for the logo, we too highlighted safety as the aim of ATC and the word “business” did not cross our minds. We did this in spite of the fact that ICAO has been saying right from the start that the aim of air traffic services was to maintain a safe and efficient flow of air traffic.
Of course a lot has changed since then and while the importance of safety has not diminished, the relative importance of efficiency has grown tremendously. It is not an exaggeration to say that safety and efficiency are equally important if this industry is to survive. Concentrating mainly on safety is not enough by far… Our thinking must change so that the terms “safety” and “business” may coexist peacefully in our minds.
While the awareness to maintain safety is generally high in the ATM world, the business aspect still tends to be considered a necessary evil, even an affront to people anointed, after all, to uphold safety.
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
SESAR Catch 22
On 29/08/2011, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
When SESAR was launched all kinds of claims were made for why it would succeed where every other project before it had failed. It was certainly bigger and more all-encompassing than its predecessors; there was more, far more, money involved than ever before; and it had the backing of the EU’s Single European Sky initiative. A baby born with such credentials need not worry about the future, right? Wrong!
The one thing SESAR has not yet found a solution for is the age old problem of chicken and egg… Airlines will not equip until there are benefits and it is not possible to provide, even early, benefits until aircraft are equipped. The myth that airlines will equip for improved ATM if there is a clear business case is indeed just that, a myth. First of all airlines will normally spurn any business case, however promising, that does not give them a 2-3 year return on investment and very few, if any, ATM projects can do that. But even if we disregard this, we have seen in the past how otherwise perfectly good business cases were still not enough to make the industry move en-masse. Not that the ground side is much better… As the sad track record of ATM projects in Europe demonstrates, airlines and ANSPs can happily share the honor of being the cause of missed deadlines and missed opportunities.
SESAR has not provided a solution to this yet and if they fail to do so, its jumbo size will mean a bang on a jumbo scale.
However, there is an important difference compared with the past. SESAR has recognized this problem, the SESAR JU is talking about it quite openly and they have a stated intention to find a solution.
Click here to read the full article
BLUE MED FAB Newsletter No. 3
On 15/08/2011, in FAB News, by steve
In case you were wondering what folks are doing inside a FAB, help is at hand in the form of the BLUE MED FAB Newsletter No. 3.
With EUROCONTROL now having been officially appointed as the Network Manager, there is the inevitable interview with Joe Sultana, the boss of EUROCONTROL’s Directorate Network Management. Then an interview with Patrick Ky about SESAR is followed by news of the Malta Free Route real time simulation and the BLUE MED OLDI real time simulation. Perhaps it is surprising to have a free route and an OLDI RTS being reported on alongside each other… OLDI is old and should have been replaced by SYSCO long ago. But the newsletter, to its credit, discusses frankly how the legacy systems in the BLU MED FAB area are trying to co-operate for best effect and how they are looking forward to the time when SESAR will bring the long awaited changes.
You will also read about the events at the 5th meeting of the BLUE MED FAB Governing Body Meeting where Dr. Georg Jarzembowsky, the European Commission’s Coordinator for the FAB initiatives and the Single European Sky reassured the participants that the implementation of FABs is a key element of the Single European Sky legislation and of the European Union’s transportation policy.
Click the picture to download the newsletter.
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
Airbus Acquires Metron Aviation
On 27/07/2011, in Just to let you know..., by steve
Airbus has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Metron Aviation, a leading provider of advanced Air Traffic Management (ATM) products and services for the global aviation industry. This acquisition strengthens Airbus’ strategy to accelerate and support ATM programs that will dramatically improve global air transportation capacity, efficiency and environmental sustainability.
The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals, and the acquisition is expected to be completed later this year. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Earlier this year, Airbus launched subsidiary Airbus ProSky, dedicated to supporting the FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), Europe’s Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) and other global ATM modernisation programs.
Click here to read the full article
Meet EDA – The Efficient Descent Advisor
On 21/07/2011, in NextGen, by steve
You will have heard of Tailored Arrivals… they are nice and work well but they often also need to be broken off prematurely when conflicts between aircraft arise. Now here is a tool that pre-empts the conflicts and releases the full power of tailored arrivals. Meet EDA, the Efficient Descent Advisor being developed by NASA.
What is the problem?
As an airplane transitions for landing, today’s air traffic control procedures often force the aircraft to fly inefficient arrival paths involving frequent changes in vectoring, altitude, and speed in order to maintain safe separation from other aircraft. The frequent changes of this stair-step approach are problematic because they often require added engine power, which increases fuel burn, causing detrimental effects to the environment.
What is the solution?
Continuous Descent Approaches (or CDA) is a next generation aviation concept that enables aircraft to “coast” during the final stages of flight, using less engine power. Instead of approaching an airport in a conventional stair-step fashion, CDA allows aircraft to fly a continuous, gliding descent at low engine power, thereby minimizing fuel consumption, environmental emissions, and noise pollution.
What is NASA doing to help?
Click here to read the full article
First SESAR Innovation Days
On 19/07/2011, in Events, by steve
Announcement and call for papers
The First SESAR Innovation Days will take place at the Ecole Nationale de l’Aviation Civile (ENAC) in Toulouse, France from 29th November to 1st December 2011.
This event, which replaces previous INO Workshops held at Brétigny, is the main forum for dissemination of WP-E results and for interaction with an enlarged ATM research community. SESAR Workpackage E, Long-term and Innovative Research, supports research activities that are not currently part of the ‘mainstream’ SESAR development work packages. This research is targeted beyond the current SESAR timeframe, nominally 2020, as well as for innovation that may have application in the nearer term.
The event will bring together researchers and industry, vital for the health of the air transportation community. It will also include a number of parallel events, including sessions of the WP-E research networks. Keynote presentations, a panel discussion and an accompanying exhibition further add to the interest of the workshop. Unlike any other scientific event in ATM research the focus is explicitly on long-term and innovative research.
In addition to presenting results of WP-E networks, projects and PhDs, the event also seeks contributions from the ATM research community through an open call which is available here. The submission deadline for papers is 16th September.
The web site of the event is here. Check back often as new information will be published here as it becomes available.
Questions? Email the organizers!
Enhanced Surveillance of Aircraft and Vehicles – 2011 (ESAV ’11)
On 11/07/2011, in Events, by steve
Island of Capri, Italy 12-14 September 2011
Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems and airport systems are rapidly evolving to meet increased efficiency, safety, security, environmental and business demands. A deep evolution with radical changes of the current Air Traffic Management System is going on both in Europe, with the SESAR program, and in the USA (Nex Gen program). New architectures are needed for modern control and traffic management systems in air and in ground operations, as well as for service vehicles on the airport surface. The related Communications, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) infrastructures permit enhanced positioning and identification means such as Multilateration (MLAT) and Wide Area MLAT (WAM), automatic dependent surveillance (ADS-B) and automatic vehicles location and management. Radar techniques, including the novel Passive Coherent Location, and Multistatic techniques, still pre-operational or in research phase, permit detection and location of non-cooperating aircraft. Most of these enhanced surveillance means are both spatially and logically distributed.
In this frame, new system architectures and new algorithms for integrity monitoring and for multi-sensor data fusion are required. Security and defense systems use similar algorithms for passive location of targets based on measurements of Time, Doppler frequency, angle/direction.
Following the successful Symposia ESAVS 2007 in Bonn/Germany, ESAV’08 in Capri/Italy and ESAVS 2010 in Berlin/Germany, ESAV’11 is dedicated to provide up-to-date information to researchers, operational experts and decision makers in the world of sensors and systems development, tracking, sensor data fusion, avionics and airport operations as well as of the pertaining air traffic control procedures.
You can find the ESAV web-site here. Click here to get the printable announcement.
Pioneering and progressing: Assessing the progress of SESAR with Florian Guillermet
On 06/07/2011, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
The SESAR programme was launched on 3 June 2009. Now almost two years since its launch, It’s a good time to take stock of the status of the programme’s 300 projects, assess progress in the execution of the first SESAR release and the first project deliverables. In a short interview, Florian Guillermet, SESAR JU Chief Programme Officer, gives his evaluation of the programme and the first release, and looks at some of the challenges facing SESAR in the second half of 2011..
At mid 2011, what is the situation of the SESAR programme in general?
It’s almost time to celebrate the second anniversary of SESAR’s launch, and after two years of hard work we’ve made great progress: the ramp-up phase of the programme is complete and 85% of projects are now in full execution mode; the first concrete deliverables are arriving; all the programme management processes are now in place; and the programme delivery approach through SESAR Releases has been implemented. In addition, we are now fully integrating airspace users into the programme and they will directly participate in the execution of projects. Overall, we are on track…
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
Fly4D takes off
On 22/06/2011, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
The Fly4D consortium – led by Airbus with Cassidian, Honeywell, Lufthansa Systems and Sabre Airline Solutions– has been awarded a contract to perform SESAR sub-work package 11.1 (Flight and Wing Operations Centres). This challenging work addresses the definition, the development and the validation of Airspace User’s future flight planning and control systems and procedures in support of the SESAR ATM Target Concept. The selected consortium consists of world leaders in this domain, and will be working closely with the SESAR JU Members and overall the airspace user community on this critical topic. First validation results are already expected by the end of 2012. The contract is signed by EUROCONTROL on behalf of the SESAR Joint Undertaking.
The SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) programme is one of the most ambitious research and development projects ever launched by the European Union. The foundation of the SESAR ATM Target Concept is trajectory-based operations. A trajectory representing the business/mission intentions of the Airspace Users, and integrating Air Traffic Management and airport constraints, is elaborated and agreed for each flight. Trajectory based operations ensure that the Airspace User flies its trajectory close to its intent in the most efficient way.
Patrick KY, Executive Director of the SESAR Joint Undertaking commented: “We are the first in the world to start to integrate ATM future concepts with airlines operations. This is truly a breakthrough in our sector of activity.”
The misunderstanding of the decade or sloppy terminology?
On 15/06/2011, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
Buzzwords are powerful things. They can be dropped in speeches and writing almost at random and the casual audience or reader will be suitably impressed. Luckily they seldom bother to ask the author for an explanation of his favorite buzzwords… Our little air traffic management world of to-day has lots of buzzwords but my all time favorite is “performance based”.
Just about everything is performance based these days but I have yet to see a truly convincing definition of what this really means in the ATM context. Mind you, Performance Based Navigation (PBN) is something else again and it does actually have a meaning.
In the SESAR definition phase already we had things like the performance partnership and the performance framework being put forward as the basis of the improved ATM system even if it was still hard to get a good explanation of what was meant by it all…
More recently however buzzworditis mutated into a new and rather disturbing variety while elevating itself to the highest level of the SESAR implementation plan.
Reading the corresponding text we learn that SESASR is progressing from time based operations to trajectory based operations to, eureka, performance based operations!
So what is wrong with this picture?
Click here to read the full article
Should we listen to the jungle telegraph?
On 08/06/2011, in SESAR's Palace, by cleo
Editor’s note: When the material for this article hit my desk, I thought long and hard, pondering what to do with it. Most of what is said in it I have heard also myself and Cleo, the original author is well connected and not given to crying wolf… Having consulted a number of friends, I decided to go ahead and publish it, duly qualifying some of the information as bits off the jungle telegraph. As you know, there is a lot of noise coming off that particular type of telegraph but if you listen carefully, you can learn surprising things. Some of which might even be true.
No ATM person having suffered through EATCHIP and ATM2000+ could wish anything but for SESAR to succeed. There is no plan B and if the European Commission, not to mention the airlines, sees all this money being squandered, there will be hell to pay. Literally…
When you ask people close to the program about how things are going, you will either get a blank stare or a few mumbled words about SESAR being reoriented, project dates slipping, some technical projects having run ahead without the non-technical underpinning having been delivered to them and the need to stop several projects for anything up to a year to get things back on track again. There are strange noises also about a SESAR 2. Mind you, this is on the jungle telegraph and the messages are unsigned.
With just one or two people saying such things one may think it is the normal noise in a complex project. When you have scores of them, it is hard not to take notice. Of course in a project involving so many people and so many organizations, there are bound to be those who always complain. Yet, somehow you get the feeling that there is more to this than meets the eye…
Click here to read the full article
If you are delayed – now at least you can watch a SESAR video
On 02/06/2011, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
A few days ago my attention was directed to a new video produced by SESAR. It was tagged: watch this video to see the future of flying. Perhaps a bit too lofty a claim for SESAR but ok, enthusiasm is not a bad thing.
What struck me first and foremost was the dynamism of the little clip. It really manages to grab the viewer by the collar and take them along for the ride. Feels a bit like the push you feel when take off power is applied and your plane starts to accelerate down the runway.
The content itself is less impressive. Lots of numbers with the visuals only so so. At first I was at a loss to understand why such a video got produced in the first place. For those in the know the numbers were not new at all and in any case at this point in time one would expect to have the focus on the achievements rather than the promises.
A quick email exchange with the SJU clarified the matter, however.
This video clip is for the European citizen and it will be shown in airports, on airline and other web sites and no doubt some enterprising companies will also include it in their on-board videos, you know the bits that show you images of your destination just before landing. I guess it will be fun reviewing the planned improvements while your flight is holding over London.
With the upcoming debate over SESAR, someone must have felt the need to involve the citizenry and sell them the SESAR message. Nothing wrong in that. I would even say the clip is quite good and fit for the purpose.
Will passengers notice it? Perhaps…
Have a look here.
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
Big brother in the sky
On 18/05/2011, in Satellite Navigation, by steve
Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) is only now starting to make inroads as a surveillance means more accurate and cost-effective than traditional radar. With the ground infrastructure slowly being built, someone has already come up with a new idea: why not put the ADS-B receivers on satellites and start a surveillance service that covers every nook and cranny of the planet, oceans and the deepest mountain valleys included, and sell the service to Air Navigation Service Providers? Whether as a second layer of surveillance or as the primary one, the satellite based solution promises to be much cheaper in deployment and cost of usage than the already not too expensive ground ADS-B network.
This is a very innovative and absolutely market oriented approach that is of course not without some risk. That surveillance data is essential is not in question. Whether ANSPs will be ready to relinquish their hold on the surveillance infrastructure and go for a more efficient and cheaper solution that is as good as or better than the existing heavy iron is the big question of course.
In any case, Iridium thinks the risk is worth taking. These are the same folks whose first attempt at bringing us satellite telephones was a flop but who have risen from the ashes offering more interesting and viable solutions.
Of course the idea is logical and the timing is good. With both Europe and the USA heading towards all aircraft being equipped with ADS-B, broadcasting their GPS derived position and other information for everyone who cares to listen to hear, a system not limited by geography or topography to pick up and forward the broadcast information makes perfect sense, especially if the cost of its deployment and operation is comparable or less than that of a ground based ADS-B network.
Click here to read the full article
HungaroControl has opened its Centre of Research, Development and Simulation
On 11/05/2011, in Simulator world, by steve
Central-Europe’s only simulation centre is operating under the aegis of HungaroControl from 10th of May in Budapest. The centre, equipped with state of the art technology, was opened by Mr. Pál Völner, Secretary of State responsible for infrastructure, Mr. Joe Sultana, COO of Directorate Network Management of EUROCONTROL (European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation), and Mr. Kornél Szepessy, CEO of HungaroControl (Hungarian Air Navigation Services) in the presence of the leaders of Air Navigation Services in the region. The aim of the Centre of Research, Development and Simulation (CRDS) is to aid the regional cooperation and the establishment of the Single European Sky.
To make European air navigation more effective and competitive, the airspace presently segmented along the borders will be organized into functional airspace blocks within the Single European Sky implementation program. The integration requires unprecedented cooperation from the Air Navigation Service Providers and controllers and it makes changes necessary to numerous procedures and processes, also the shortening of the air navigation routes. HungaroControl’s innovation centre opened today enables the testing of newly developed theoretically secure processes and air traffic controller procedures before their actual usage.
“Hungary does its very best to enhance the establishment of the Single European Sky, and for the successful operation of the Central-European functional air space block, the treaty of which we signed last Thursday together with the countries of the region” – said Mr. Pál Völner Secretary of State responsible for infrastructure on the opening ceremony. “The Hungarian Air Navigation Service Provider invests great efforts in the advancement of the whole Central-European air navigation and the regional cooperation. A great example of this is the CRDS, an innovation centre which is open for all service providers” – added the Secretary of State.
Click here to read the full article
Aircraft turnaround made visible from a TBO/SOA perspective
On 29/04/2011, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
Trajectory Based Operations (TBO) and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) are two concepts rather new to air traffic management (ATM) and apparently they continue to cause some head scratching when it comes to agreeing what TBO really means or how to define services in the ATM context. In this article I will attempt to explain a few relevant aspects of those concepts and will also try to visualize the concepts using the aircraft turnaround as an example.
Why the aircraft turnaround? Because we see that in spite of the original SESAR Concept of Operations having made clear that the trajectories of flights performed by the same aircraft are in fact always connected via the given airframe, some experts are now laboring to show that this is so and are trying to bring in new constructs to account for this “connection”. The trajectory does go through important metamorphoses during the turnaround and so using that phase of the operation gives us the opportunity to examine TBO and SOA in all their glory.
But first a few basics.
The concept of services.
“Service” is a word that can mean different things depending upon the context in which it is being used. In general, the context is based upon a consumer/supplier relationship. Further, a hierarchy of services can exist with, for example, a high-level service being made up of a number of lower level sub-categories of services. Therefore, it is very important to ensure that the nature, scope and detailed characteristics associated with each service are clear and unambiguous each time it is used, including defining who is supplying what to whom.
Services may be defined from a business perspective or an IT perspective.
Click here to read the full article
Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area – EC White Paper
On 27/04/2011, in Bookshelf, by steve
For many years now aviation lived under the shadow of demands that envisaged solving environmental and congestion problems by capping aviation growth. Misguided and economically damaging as this idea was, it was getting traction in various fora in Europe, sending shivers across the industry.
With the publication of the EC White Paper entitled “Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area”, for the first time a high level EC document refutes the capping idea, stating bluntly: “Curbing mobility is not an option”. Although a white paper is not law, it does send a powerful message about the thinking of the Commission.
The paper does provide the inevitable support to EU star projects like Galileo and SESAR but other than that, it does not go into detail on how some of the essential funding will be provided especially in terms of SESAR. This is crucial as SESAR’s success is viewed more and more as dependent on seed money coming from public sources.
While far from perfect and obviously missing a few important elements (like water-tight assurances that the regulatory burden on operators will not be allowed to unduly increase), the paper does bring a fresh and refreshing framework that is suitable for guiding the development of future policies. This fact is reflected by the generally positive reception of the paper in the wider aviation community.
Get your copy here.
SWIM – One size does not fit all?
On 24/03/2011, in SWIM, by steve
Whatever the context, this is a very true statement. And I hate it from the bottom of my heart.
Why?
Because in the area closest to my heart, air traffic management, it has been used over the years as the (rather lame) excuse for not harmonizing things, be it implementation dates, system functionality or the working position user interface. The results were inevitably increased costs, missed project deadlines, unachieved goals or goals achieved that were different from what the ATM community needed.
When the concept of a Single European Sky first surfaced, even its name was refreshing as it suggested a departure from the old buzzword and a bright new future where things would finally work to the same gauge everywhere. What a naïve thought…
At the ATM Global conference in Amsterdam recently, the top guy of DSNA, the French air navigation service provider, talking about the Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB), informed his audience that no single FAB would fit all and that FABs were bringing European diversity to SESAR.
It was rather disappointing to hear him use this well worn excuse for Europe’s inability once again to set up a truly single sky! One would have hoped for a more modern (digital?) excuse but that was probably expecting too much…
I got another jolt last night when the SWIM thread on LinkedIn directed my attention to new information on SWIM posted on the SESAR web site. There I found another echo of this hated claim.
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
