journal of the civil air navigation services organisation
ISSUE 26 QUARTER 3 2014
Safety in Africa: CANSO Africa Conference
Space-based ADS-B Focus on Trinidad and Tobago PLUS: The development of performance-based regulation, the prospects for 3D radar, managing air traffic during the World Cup, 100 years of ATM and the latest news
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CONTENTS IN THIS ISSUE Space-based ADS-B 18 Rudy Kellar, Executive Vice President, Service Delivery at NAV CANADA and Martin Rolfe, NATS Managing Director of Operations, explain how space-based ADS-B will transform operations.
Director General 5 Jeff Poole, reiterates that safety is always the top priority and outlines some important projects.
Letter from America 22 Teri Bristol, Chief Operating Officer of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Air Traffic Organization, reports on two key campaigns to improve safety.
Chair interview Front cover: © Ugurhan Betin
Airspace No. 26 ISSN number 1877 2196 Published by CANSO, the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation Transpolis Schiphol Airport Polaris Avenue 85e 2132 JH Hoofddorp The Netherlands Telephone: +31 (0)23 568 5380 Fax: +31 (0)23 568 5389 Editorial content: Quentin Browell Quentin.browell@canso.org Advertisement Manager: Gill Thompson gill.thompson@canso.org Telephone: +44 (0)1273 771020 Design: i-KOS Telephone: +44 (0) 7928 2280 Web: www.i-kos.com The entire contents of this publication are protected by copyright, full details of which are available from the publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any other means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publishers. The views and opinions in this publication are expressed by the authors in their personal capacity and are their sole responsibility. Their publication does not imply that they represent the views or opinions of CANSO and must not be interpreted as such. The reproduction of advertisements in this publication does not in any way imply endorsement by CANSO of the products and services referred to herein.
6A irspace magazine met with CANSO Chair, Paul Riemens to reflect on CANSO’s achievements during the three years of his first term as Chair and to look ahead to the future.
regulation 24 A focus on performance outcomes could loosen the shackles of prescriptive regulation and boost safety and efficiency in airspace.
Zambia 10 Frank Chinambu, Director of Air Navigation at the National Airports Corporation Limited of Zambia says the country’s potential makes the transformational challenge worthwhile.
Holographic radar 26 David Crisp, CEO of Aveillant, explores the latest development in radar technology.
Safety in Africa
ATM in Brazil
12 Leapfrogging a generation of technology will enable African ATM to be at the cutting edge of development.MENT
28 Daniel Marinho explains how the Brazilian ANSP supported the FIFA World Cup with efficient air traffic operations.
Leadership
100 years of AVIATION
16 Rohan Garib, Executive Manager of Air Navigation Services in Trinidad and Tobago says that active participation in the latest projects has helped push his company to the forefront of airspace development.
30 In the third of our articles on 100 years of aviation, Andrew Charlton takes us from 1939 to 1990. ATM NEWS 32 The latest news from CANSO Members.
The CANSO Executive Committee APC3: Asia-Pacific CANSO CEO Committee
EC3: European CANSO CEO Committee
LAC3: Latin America and Caribbean CANSO CEO Committee
Paul Riemens
Chair CANSO and Chief Executive Officer LVNL
Yap Ong Heng
Vice Chair CANSO and Chair, APC3 Director General CAAS
MEC3: Middle East CANSO CEO Committee
AFC3: Africa CANSO CEO Committee
Capt. Mohammad Amin Al-Mustafa
Micilia AlbertusVerboom
Miroslav Bartos
Thabani Mthiyane
Ed Sims
Marc Viggiano
Chair, MEC3 and Chief Commissioner CARC
Chair, LAC3 and Director General DC-ANSP
Chair EC3 and CEO LPS SR š. p.
Teri Bristol
Member at Large and Chief Operating Officer FAA ATO
© Copyright CANSO 2014
Massimo Garbini
Member at Large and CEO ENAV S.p.A. civil air navigation services organisation
Rudy Kellar
Member at Large and Executive Vice President NAV CANADA
Chair AFC3 and CEO ATNS
Member at Large and CEO Airways New Zealand
Associate Member Representative and President Emeritus Saab Sensis Corporation
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FROM THE DIRECTOR GENERAL
civil air navigation services organisation
The tragic loss of MH 17 shocked us all and has dominated the aviation agenda over the last couple of months. It has called into question the operation of civil aircraft in airspace over conflict zones. The industry response has been rapid, coordinated and focused. Following my request for urgent and collective action, CANSO, IATA, and ACI joined with ICAO and quickly established a senior-level Task Force to prevent such an incident happening again. CANSO is committed to working with industry partners to ensure that the right information is available at the right time to enable ANSPs and airlines to make better informed decisions to ensure the safety of airspace. As CANSO Chair, Paul Riemens, says on page 6, “we have the resilience to convert the intensity of this terrible event into a positive movement for change”. Speedy action on this issue demonstrates our commitment to safety, our number one priority. Two articles highlight the excellent safety work carried out by CANSO Members. On page 22 the FAA’s Teri Bristol explains the Turn Off Tune In campaign to make ATCOs more aware of the safety impact of distractions such as cell phones, social media, email etc. The FAA is also tackling fatigue through its Fully Charged initiative that gives a more scientific understanding of the hazards and contributing factors of fatigue. Safety is a particular priority in Africa. This edition has a special focus on Africa in advance of the CANSO Africa Conference in Zambia in October. On page 12 we explore how safety in Africa is improving but much more needs to be done. By the end of 2013, only 11 African States had achieved 60% implementation of ICAO’s Universal Safety Oversight Program. I believe that the implementation of ICAO’s Aviation System Block Upgrades will act as a catalyst for driving safety improvements across Africa and CANSO is fully supporting this with seminars, workshops and advice to ANSPs and States. Zambia’s ANSP, NACL, (page 10) is facing many challenges, particularly how its aging infrastructure can cope with the double digit growth in air traffic. However, it is optimistic that it can transform ATM performance by effectively skipping a generation of technology. New regulations will allow this transformation once the current outdated regulatory framework is replaced, whereby, for example, it was not even possible to increase charges without an Act of Parliament. Zambia is sadly typical of a country where an outdated regulatory framework has constricted growth, resulted in ageing infrastructure and hampered positive transformation and better performance. Many of the efforts to achieve a safe, efficient and harmonised airspace can only go so far before they come up against political, regulatory and governance constraints that only States can address. One of Vision 2020’s two focus areas is better regulation. We believe that regulation is often too prescriptive and are calling for States to adopt performance-based regulation (PBR) which focuses on what must actually be achieved by the ANSP. On page 24 we explore what PBR means for ANSPs and also look at the leading work of the UK’s CAA. In the third of our articles (page 30) to celebrate 100 years of commercial aviation, Andrew Charlton takes us from the birth of radar in the late 1930s to the dawn of the computer age in 1990. We have come a long way since radar was developed and on page 26 David Crisp writes about the latest development in radar technology – holographic radar, which transmits continuously in all directions, uses less spectrum, and can more accurately distinguish aircraft from, for example, wind turbines. While there continues to be a need for radar, there is now increasing reliance on satellite-based systems and surveillance. On page 18 NATS and NAV CANADA discuss the opportunities offered by space-based ADS-B, enabling surveillance in remote areas and increased efficiencies through optimised flight paths and altitudes. While space-based ADS-B addresses the capacity challenges of the future, Brazil’s ANSP, DECEA, shows on page 28 how a well organised and efficient ANSP can cope with the extra air traffic demand imposed by the FIFA Football World Cup. New records were set in several host cities including the 1,731 air movements in one day at Rio’s three airports. I hope you enjoy this edition of Airspace. Jeff Poole CANSO Director General
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Chair interview
Doing what is right At the CANSO AGM in June, LVNL’s Paul Riemens was re-elected as CANSO Chair for another three years. He reflects on his time in charge and looks ahead to the future. You speak passionately about change and your personal commitment to help drive that change. Casting your mind three years back, when you took on the role of Chairman, how has CANSO changed since then?
joined us as Director General in late 2011 and who, together with the ExCom, has brought leadership to the organisation, given CANSO a forceful voice in public policy circles and built the trust of our industry partners.
At the ICAO meeting in Montreal on actions to be taken following the downing of Flight MH17, CANSO sat side-byside with the leadership of the other organisations that shape global policy and commerce in civil aviation to tackle an issue that affects us all. We were part of the conversation because we had earned our place at the table.
One of Jeff’s first tasks was to launch the first World ATM Congress, which has done much more than help drive revenue growth. The Congress has allowed us to help shape the global ATM agenda.
The journey that took us there began only 18 years ago – much later than the journeys of our counterpart organisations in the airline and airport sectors.
What is your vision of the future of air traffic management? Technological trends are changing the aviation system as a whole, and they will continue to reshape all three nodes within the system: aircraft, airports and air traffic management centres.
When I took the role as Chairman three years ago, we all had the founders of CANSO to thank for their vision and commitment to building the organisation and subsequent leadership for expanding its membership scope. Our challenge was to give the organisation the structure, focus and resources to help drive the transformation of ATM performance in a world with an increasingly complex and busy global airspace.
Increases in information availability between the nodes and navigational and decision-making autonomy of pilots in aircraft with advanced capabilities will transform the core status of ATM from making capacity available to managing 4-D trajectories. How soon this transformation will take place will depend partly on technological advances and largely on the willingness of ANSPs, airports and States to rethink business models, ownership and governance.
I am proud of our team when I look at CANSO today. We are a financially healthy, streamlined organisation with a culturally diverse Executive Committee that operates collaboratively as one with clout and executional strength. We are structured at the top to think and drive strategy throughout the organisation on the issues that affect us all, while enabling focused local implementation across the diversity of our regions and markets.
None of this can be achieved in isolation. All parties within the system have to collaborate with one another and dare to open the door for entrepreneurship and innovation.
The five region directors have done an outstanding job in addressing the continuously diverse challenges from one region to the next and delivering value to our Member ANSPs. I am also proud of Jeff Poole, an aviation industry veteran who
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How do you see the future of CANSO in this context? As a sector and organisation, we mustn’t fear or try to stand in the way of this systemic transformation. We should embrace it and stimulate the kind of innovation and smart thinking that will help bring it about. In the meantime, we have much to do realise the goals we’ve articulated for ourselves for the next six years in our Vision 2020.
practices and systems of governance that stimulate this bottom-up innovation within the aviation system as a whole. We plan to do so globally and within the regions themselves. As we look to the future, sovereignty, ownership of airports, ANSPs and airspace and top-down governance models will be the last hurdles to stand in the way of positive transformation. I believe in leadership that stimulates bottom-up innovation, one that finds ways to tap energy from within the organisation or system to ignite the energy of entrepreneurship. I believe that a similar bottom-up approach to regulation and governance will create healthy competition between ANSPs and stimulate innovative, effective partnerships. That kind of leadership combined with technological change and market forces is what will drive transformation in the sector. The challenges we face vary according to region. In Europe, we have a clear role to play together with the European Commission to find ways to stimulate collaboration and boost performance amid the complexity of a geography and airspace with dense, multi-State sovereignty. In the Middle East, we need to focus on structuring the business amid political instability and interstate conflict. And in Africa, we must ensure improvements in infrastructure and technological performance to support the steep growth in air travel. I believe stimulating the privatisation process and loosening government and military ties to ANSPs will be the key to success in Latin America while in the Asia Pacific region we expect to see rapid growth and the widest implementation of best practices in bottom-up innovation and collaboration within the aviation system. At CANSO, we will continue to lobby for and promote policies,
Will you continue to strengthen ties with aviation stakeholders? At a broader systemic level we aim to further strengthen our relationship with ICAO, IATA, ACI and other stakeholders, recognising that the many of the challenges and opportunities we face within our individual sectors on a global and local/ regional scale can best be addressed by working together. We will look to play an increasingly proactive role in driving innovative cross-sector, cross-border collaboration and new ways of working. Within our own organisation, we aim to continue to attract the best talent within the sector. And we plan to continue our programme of inviting staff from individual ANSPs to join CANSO for development purposes. We believe there’s no better training for ANSPs’ top talent. A two-year employment at CANSO cuts two ways, helping us marshal our best resources to meet our organisational goals and broadening the experience, global horizons and leadership
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CHAIR INTERVIEW
Paul Riemens also leads the Netherlands ANSP, LVNL.
skills of local ANSP staff. In this way, we help our member ANSPs prepare themselves for future transformation. Finally, if you look back from the future, what would you like to see as the legacy of CANSO under your chairmanship? I’m aiming to build an organisation that’s equipped with the right resources to do what’s right for society on a global scale. I’m especially proud of the quality, commitment and character of the leaders in CANSO’s Executive Committee.
Each and every one of them brings dedication, loyalty, intellectual acumen and deep mutual respect to the job. It is inspiring to see the group work whole heartedly on something bigger than themselves and cultivate a culture of co-operation. I believe that together with the Executive Committee, we have changed the ground rules of how we work with one another within the sector.
What is your view of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 tragedy? I feel an enormous sense of loss of lives that shouldn’t have been taken; the safety of passengers and crew that should have been guaranteed. What happened on 17 July was horrific. I feel devastated by it personally and professionally. As ATM professionals, safety is our core task. Securing it under all circumstances is in our DNA, and, as a community, we strive day in, day out to improve it to the millimetre, edging closer and closer to a 100% performance level. As the horrible facts of the MH17 incident came to light, it hit me at the core of my being. I was overwhelmed. Our partners ICAO, IATA and ACI stood shoulder-to-shoulder with CANSO at a meeting at ICAO’s headquarters in Montreal in condemning the use of weapons on commercial aircraft, calling upon ICAO’s 191 Member States to share information and intelligence so that airlines can make informed decisions about the safest routes to fly and setting up a senior Task Force to explore fail-safe channels through which essential information is made available to civil aviation authorities and industry. It heartens me to see our resolve to join together as one within the sector to try to prevent such a disaster from taking place in the future. As an ATM community and broader aviation sector, we have the resilience to convert the intensity of this terrible event into a positive movement for change. The Montreal meeting marked an important first step in our dialogue with one another and with the Member States. The only way to tackle this is by working together.
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Zambia
Breaking regulatory constraints Frank Chinambu, Director of Air Navigation at the National Airports Corporation Limited of Zambia says the country’s potential makes the transformational challenge worthwhile. Zambia is a country with incredible potential. It is politically stable with strong economic growth, averaging around 6% annual GDP growth in recent times. And of course the country is home to Victoria Falls, one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. But having potential is a description you can only use for so long. The task ahead for air navigation is to make the improvements that will provide the necessary framework for this potential to be realised. As a landlocked country, air transport will be a critical ingredient in Zambia’s future success. But we face a number of challenges. One such challenge is the constraints placed upon air navigation development by an outdated regulatory framework. These constraints have held us back for many years. It wasn’t possible to raise charges without an Act of Parliament, for example, and there were lots of exemptions to air navigation charges too. The result, understandably, is ageing infrastructure that is constricting growth. Fortunately, all that is about to change. We have begun a serious attempt to put the right rules in place. New regulations should be operational within a few years and these will allow us to transform airspace over Zambia. And we will use the ageing infrastructure to our advantage by effectively skipping a generation of technology. So we’re confident of being at a compatible level of technology with the rest of the world in the near future. We must rise to many other challenges. There is double digit growth in air traffic in Zambia and we must ensure we have sufficient capacity to deal with this demand. And most importantly, we must respond to the global need for improved safety and for compliance with global standards and initiatives. We are using this as
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positive pressure for progress. Safety is always paramount. To overcome these challenges, there is a very ambitious programme in place to ensure we are as well prepared as we can be. An ongoing study will allow us to redefine our Master Plan and give us realistic short, medium and long term strategies. Other industry initiatives are also providing an excellent framework for planned improvements. Aviation System Block Upgrades, for example, give us the opportunity to develop new technology in a realistic timeframe without making us feel as if we are missing the boat. CANSO is providing an excellent platform for African collaboration too. Every ANSP realises that it can’t go it alone if seamless airspace and harmonisation are the goals. Several subcommittees have been formed under the CANSO banner that are doing excellent work in moving specific areas forward. These are meeting regularly, reviewing progress and ensuring inter-operability. Where possible, CANSO is also helping to allocate resources so these are shared to everyone’s advantage. The National Airports Corporation of Zambia’s active participation in transforming ATM
performance in Africa is demonstrated by hosting CANSO’s second Africa Regional conference. The challenges we face and the good work being done to clear the paths to progress are also clearly illustrated by a project to collaborate on upper airspace in the Southern African Development Community countries. We have established that we could make upper airspace far more efficient but its impact on lower airspace and cost recovery complexities are causing concern within government circles. But this does not mean we simply blame governments or stop trying to resolve the many issues facing us. We must always have ideas and we must evaluate them and if possible implement them where appropriate. And this is the biggest difference today compared with the Africa of a few years ago. Now, there is a real desire to work through the issues and arrive at a mutually agreed solution. The ideas keep coming. There is drive and purpose in our work. I look forward to meeting you all at the CANSO Africa Conference to discuss existing ideas and to generate new ones. Welcome to Zambia!
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Safety in Africa
Safe and efficient
Leapfrogging a generation of technology will enable African ATM to be at the cutting edge of development. The trials and tribulations of African aviation are well documented. Historically, resolving the many issues has proved difficult at best and impossible more often than not. Aviation infrastructure in Africa is not what it should be, the Yamoussoukro Decision remains largely a theoretical construct and it is no surprise that, according to IATA, African airlines are expected to return a combined profit of just $100 million in 2014. The net profit margin of 0.8% is the lowest of all aviation regions. Nevertheless, the rewards on offer continue to outweigh the challenges. Demographic data, abundant resources and a lack of alternative transportation modes drive innovative thinking and attempts to make the impossible possible. One area of progress stands head and shoulders above all others in ensuring Africa’s potential is realised: safety.
On the runway The statistics show that Africa has made enormous strides in improving safety. In 2013, it suffered 2.03 hull losses per million flights of Western-built jets compared with the region’s five-year average of 6.44, according to IATA. In fact, the Western-built jet hull loss rate improved 55.4% in 2013 compared with 2012, while the region’s accident rate for all aircraft types improved nearly 50% (7.45 accidents per million flights from 14.80 in 2012) in the same period. But these figures disguise the fact that Africa still lags behind global averages in safety. The 2012 Abuja Declaration on African Safety – signed by the transport ministers of the African Union – set out a goal for African aviation to match the safety levels in place in the rest of the world by 2015. While progress has been made, it has not been quick enough. As of the end of 2013, for example, only 11 African states had achieved 60% implementation of the safety-related standards and recommended practices that form part of ICAO’s Universal Safety Oversight Audit Program, says IATA.
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Areas of focus for the Abuja Declaration include the implementation of runway safety measures; training on preventing loss of control; the implementation of flight data analysis (FDA); and greater use of safety management systems (SMS). Runway safety is a particular priority for Africa. Again, there are grounds for optimism in that runway excursions are falling in number. CANSO and the ATM industry are playing their part in facilitating improvements. CANSO is a partner in the global runway safety initiative launched in May 2011 and hosted a regional runway safety seminar in Cape Town in October 2012. And in June 2013 it launched its runway safety initiative, with industry partners, to reduce unstable approaches, a key factor affecting runway incidents. As a follow up CANSO has, in partnership with ICAO, organised a runway safety seminar, scheduled for Zambia from 9-10 October 2014. The aim is to develop a programme to educate airport managers, ANSPs, pilots and air traffic controllers on the causes of, and risks concerning, unstable approaches. This includes ensuring that controllers appreciate what is required for a pilot to achieve a stable approach. CANSO has produced a one-page, easy-to-read key tips for pilots and air traffic controllers, to make sure that aircraft are managed safely in the final stage of flight before landing. It is also focused on ensuring that the right systems are in place to improve runway safety overall through the Runway Safety Maturity Checklist. It is hoped that 100% of CANSO Members in Africa will complete a survey on runway incursions by 2015, giving the organisation an invaluable insight into the causes and solutions of a prevalent safety issue.
Technology upgrades But while the gap in safety standards between Africa and other regions has been closed, much work remains to be done. CANSO Director General, Jeff Poole, highlights Aviation System Block Upgrades (ASBU) as a key driver of safety improvements in Africa. “ASBU implementation is particularly important in Africa, where we need to address the lack of infrastructure and air navigation services in remote areas,” he says. “But this is also
Safety in Africa covers all aspects of operations. Photo © ATNS.
an opportunity as we can put in place the latest technologies and practices without having to convert from legacy systems. “We have identified certain priority areas in Africa including: improving en route safety and efficiency through improved appropriate surveillance and communication infrastructure; optimising approach procedures through performance-based navigation implementation; reducing delays and improving runway traffic flow and sequencing through Airport-CDM and arrival and departure manager; and improving air traffic flow performance through Air Traffic Flow Management and Collaborative Decision Making (CDM),” he continues. “We are fully involved in training and educating States and ANSPs on the ASBUs. To that effect, CANSO hosted an ASBU implementation Seminar last year.” Mozambique typifies the efforts being made to introduce the latest technology. Emanuel Chaves, CEO of Airports Company Mozambique, which runs both airports and ATC in the southern African country, reveals that Automatic Dependence Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) is being rolled out across the whole country. “We already have it in Maputo, which covers 250 nautical miles,” he says. “We will put in a second hub in Beira, which is about halfway up the long Mozambican coast, and there will be eight remote stations. We hope to have this all in place within two years.” Mozambique has coordinated with neighbouring countries on the project and while most are not yet ready to push ahead with ADS-B, Mozambique is siting its stations so that the eventual implementation of ADS-B in other countries will fit in seamlessly with a regional plan. “This project will also allow us to optimise our airspace so on completion we will have great navigational tools and a very
efficient airspace in which to implement them,” Chaves notes. CANSO is facilitating IATA involvement in these discussion. A follow up seminar is scheduled for November 2014 and will be hosted by CANSO. Alongside ADS-B, Mozambique has two other major technological projects in progress. “The first is improving our communication tools so that we have 100% coverage,” informs Chaves. “We have a large oceanic airspace to cover and we have previously had about 95% coverage, which is not bad. But new technology will allow us to be everywhere. “Backing up these tools is new software, which will essentially make the latest aeronautical information easily available to all users,” the CEO continues. “It’s designed to handle big data so we will be future-proofed to some extent once this is fully installed.” Airport Company Mozambique’s strategy is very closely aligned with that of its government and particularly the Government’s Agenda 2025 project. This calls for aviation to be safer, more efficient and more comfortable for the passenger. “Often, governments are held to blame for a lack of progress in Africa due to poor finance or poor governance but that is definitely not the case in Mozambique,” says Chaves. “The challenge is the scale of the work and implementing it quickly enough. But the Government is very supportive. “Over the next 20 years, we will spend about US$4 billion upgrading facilities or building new ones,” adds Chaves. “Maputo Airport is being developed and there will new airports in Tet, Pemba and Nacala. Not all of this will be government money though and a number of innovative public-private partnerships are envisaged.”
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Safety in Africa
As African skies become busier, safety and infrastructure will become even more important. Photo © ATNS
Improvements across the board Safer African skies will also require improvement in myriad other areas. In terms of safety management systems, their implementation across ANSPs would go a long way to improving safety in Africa. CANSO has developed the Standard of Excellence in Safety Management Systems that provides a framework for continually improving the management and oversight of safety within ANSPs. It goes beyond the requirements of current domestic and international regulatory practices but allows ANSPs to build a system which is appropriate to their size and operational complexity. The funding of technology upgrades is another issue. Many ANSPs have difficulty in adequately funding the modernisation and expansion of infrastructure, putting safety progress in jeopardy. Poole believes two specific measures would help address any shortfalls. “First, revenues generated by the civil aviation sector should be re-invested in the sector,” he says. “Second, regional cooperation and integration should be explored as the best way to secure costeffective investments and achieve better returns.” Africa actually has a good example of what can be done to deliver services in line with the operational requirement of airspace users rather than according to national borders. ASECNA – the multi-state Agency for Aerial Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar that was established in 1959 and is based in Dakar, Senegal – manages 16.1 million square kilometres of airspace, 1.5 times the size of Europe. Poole says that such co-operative arrangements among States need to be encouraged. “Improved airspace structures and design will lead to greater efficiency and reduced emissions,” he says. “Greater visibility
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of the capacity and efficiency opportunities to air navigation in certain regions could be a positive step to their resolution.” Co-operation with neighbours extends to training. Mozambique’s Chaves says his company is working with a company in Spain and also with NAV Portugal to ensure its controllers and technicians at the forefront of knowledge. “NAV Portugal helped the Azores modernise so they have great experience in this type of project and will be a big help to us,” says Chaves. “We also have recruits undergoing an IATA training programme.” The benefits of this approach are already being seen. Mozambique’s major route is the relatively short flight between Maputo and Johannesburg. Chaves says his company is working closely with South Africa to enable airlines to make continuous descent approaches to Maputo and generally improve the air traffic flow between the two capitals. “We are going to offer a very modern airspace experience,” Chaves says. “It will be safe and efficient. We are really making a difference.” That difference must be extended throughout the continent. Aviation is ready to play a much more prominent role in the African region, providing jobs and economic stimulus. That can only come about if safety assured. Progress is being made and a different mindset among governments seems to be taking hold. But there is still a lot of work to be done. Allowing greater and more flexible use of military airspace, political reform and liberalisation will be crucial. Bringing 54 countries together to improve airspace safety will be extremely challenging given the divergent strategies of many of these countries. But the rewards on offer make the effort worthwhile.
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Leadership
Leader of the pack Rohan Garib, Executive Manager of Air Navigation Services in Trinidad and Tobago, says that active participation in the latest projects has helped push his company to the forefront of airspace development. Trinidad and Tobago immediately brings to mind a sense of relaxation, the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean edged by palm trees gently rustling in the sea breeze. But for Rohan Garib, Executive Manager of Air Navigation Services in Trinidad and Tobago, a totally different attitude prevails. “We are extremely focused on working hard,” he says. “We have positioned ourselves to be a leader in the region. Our strategy is to look at how we can implement the ideas coming out of the bigger picture, such as the Global Air Navigation Plan, and how we can help our neighbours in this respect so that we can move towards seamless airspace together.” The go-getting ethos has forced some internal adjustments. There has already been a move to an ultra-modern Area Control Centre (ACC) to enhance the efficiency of aviation operations and improve the delivery of service to the users of the Piarco Flight Information Region. The new infrastructure is helping to reduce operational unit costs, facilitate increased traffic and optimise the use of existing and emerging technologies. The focus on the long-term efficiency and sustainability of airspace development is also being facilitated by a new department, Air Navigation
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Services Planning and Development. This undertakes the research and training necessary for the company to achieve its objectives. Its findings input directly into company strategy and future projects. Such a major shift in organisational structure and culture is rarely seen in a government-owned ANSP but Garib insists that both he and his team are driven to succeed. “We are government owned but we are run along the same lines as a private business,” he notes. “I would regard us as semi-autonomous. It is this entrepreneurial spirit that has allowed us to take a leadership position, which is driven from the top by our Board of Directors and our first and present Director General, Ramesh Lutchmedial. Equally important is that we have great staff.” CANSO has played its part too. Garib says the association has broadened his company’s horizons and exposed its thinking and methodologies to global best practice.
Part of the global picture Trinidad and Tobago ANS is actively participating in a number of projects as it looks to spearhead the region’s airspace development. Rather than spreading resources thinly, however, it
has allowed Garib to understand where his company stands and to formulate a coherent strategy for the years ahead. Aviation System Block Upgrades (ASBUs) are being studied to ensure that any improvements can be achieved in the stipulated timeframes while Automatic Dependence Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) and various other technologies are equally high on the agenda. The new ACC can process ADS-B data and is equipped with an ATM system that includes a voice communication system and very high frequency (VHF) radio equipment. Safety in all aspects of the organisation’s operations remains the primary consideration. Safety management system (SMS) programmes are being expanded to develop SMS processes such as risk identification and assessment. The commitment is seen through the recent additions to its ANS organisational structure, including an ANS Safety Unit; AIM Quality Assurance Unit; and an Aeronautical Search and Rescue and ANS Security Unit. But progress at the individual level is always looked at in relation to regional and global development. Garib wants Trinidad and Tobago ANS to slot seamlessly into the big picture.
From left to right: Riaaz Mohammed (Manager ANS Planning and Development, Ag); Alexis Brathwaite (Manager Air Traffic Services and ANS Safety); Rohan Garib (Executive Manager Air Navigation Services); Ramesh Lutchmedial (Director General Civil Aviation) and Krishna Ingraham II (Unit Chief – Aerodromes, Ag)
“We are the chair of the Caribbean Aviation Safety and Security Oversight System, ANS Committee, which is looking at the CARICOM region as a whole,” he says. “And we are also very active participants in wider discussions about the North American, Central American and Caribbean regions. Trinidad and Tobago is the vice chair of the Air Navigation Implementation Working Group, for example, and we chair the performance-based navigation task force too. In fact, we are involved with every task force relevant to the region.”
Co-ordinating role Alongside this, Trinidad and Tobago’s geographical position just off the Venezuelan coast means it cannot ignore what is happening in South American airspace. Collaborating with partners to the south suggested to Garib that it was equally logical to look at other points of the compass too. “So we are trying to co-ordinate with everyone,” he reveals. “We deal with Santa Maria, Dakar and the Sal to the East, San Juan to the North West and with New York to the North; and of course, we liaise with all our friends in the Eastern Caribbean as well. Recently, we organised a meeting with Santa Maria and New York FIRs to see how we could
collaborate and develop our services in line with global best practice.” Being in such a tight-knit region means there is little point in acting in isolation. But close co-operation is easier said than done. The challenge is interacting with ANSPs that are run very differently to the twin island ANS. Many are still wrapped in a government, institutional mind-set. Fortunately, says Garib, his people understand the other point of view and there are always plenty of suggestions about a way forward. “We know what it takes because we have been there and we can suggest the right response mechanisms,” says Garib.
Best Practice The ultimate vision is an Eastern Caribbean region that is harmonised around best practice. “So we need to be able to point to our achievements and the efficiencies we have brought to the table and explain to the other states how they could do the same,” Garib informs. “Importantly, we need to bring technology implementation forward and that is a challenge. But I’m sure we’ll get there if we can persuade ANSPs to be less reliant on governments and think more in terms of airspace efficiency and technological innovation.”
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SPACE-BASED ADS-B
Signals from space
Rudy Kellar, Executive Vice President, Service Delivery at NAV CANADA and Martin Rolfe, NATS Managing Director of Operations, explain how space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast could transform the busiest oceanic airspace in the world. Why did NAV CANADA feel that space-based ADS-B, supplied by Aireon was worth the investment?
how we manage air traffic within and across borders related to the absence of surveillance data.
In what way will Aireon improve safety and efficiency for the North Atlantic?
Rudy Kellar – NAV CANADA continues to be responsible for vast areas of airspace without surveillance, in Canada’s north and over the busy North Atlantic.
Martin Rolfe – I agree. Actually, I think there are two ways in which spacebased ADS-B will greatly impact the industry.
Rudy Kellar – The North Atlantic has long been the busiest oceanic airspace corridor in the world. The fixed track structure has enabled us to manage that volume safely, but has significant limitations.
As a result, we have lots of experience with the fixed route structures that are required in such airspace to ensure safety. We were motivated by the desire to provide improved service in airspace under our control, but we also knew that space-based ADS-B would have important applications across the globe. The chance to achieve global coverage cost-effectively, by adding spacebased ADS-B capability to a satellite constellation that was already being launched by Iridium, was an opportunity not to be missed. As a future customer of the service, how do you see space-based ADS-B changing global air traffic management? Rudy Kellar – At its core, it holds the potential to eliminate inefficiencies in
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In the North Atlantic specifically, there is a huge demand for increasing capacity along optimal routes, but the lack of ground-based surveillance and slow updates from position reports result in further spacing of aircraft and an inefficient track structure. If oceanic and remote surveillance were more in line with the capabilities of radar, including update rates that are every few seconds and the ability to precisely know where aircraft are relative to each other, you could increase efficiencies through optimised flight paths and altitudes. The second part, which is equally important, is the fact that space-based ADS-B offers independence from ground-based assets. This is particularly useful when you look at areas which are either less secure or places that are so remote that it would be difficult or costly to put ground-based infrastructure in place.
Aireon will fundamentally change the way airlines flight plan between city pairs. It will enable air traffic controllers to offer more domestic-like trajectories in oceanic airspace and will provide flexibility that will change the way we handle current operations, such as opposite direction traffic, and how we respond to emergencies. Martin Rolfe – I echo Rudy’s sentiments. The North Atlantic is an extremely safe airspace and that is because of the way it is procedurally managed. The advantage of Aireon and space-based ADS-B is that it effectively allows you to reduce the separation between aircraft and add capacity while maintaining the same or providing better levels of safety by virtue of the fact that you have increased position accuracy.
Could we not have achieved these benefits with Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Contract (ADS-C)?
What would the potential benefits be in other flight information regions (FIR) outside of the North Atlantic?
What steps should an ANSP take to evaluate space-based ADS-B in their FIR?
Rudy Kellar – Reduced longitudinal separation minima (RLongSM) and reduced lateral separation minima (RLatSM) using ADS-C position reporting will bring benefits. But those benefits don’t match what ADS-B surveillance will provide. Positive constant surveillance will support reduced separation and enable more efficient air traffic management, period. And it will provide those benefits at a lower cost than trying to increase the update rate for ADS-C position reporting.
Martin Rolfe – If you are in a country with considerable growth in traffic, but do not have existing radar infrastructure in place, ADS-B gives you the opportunity to have a surveillance solution in place for a relatively low cost. This also applies if you are an ANSP with low-density airspace and your radars are coming to the end of their useful life or you have large areas of airspace that aren’t suitable for ground-based systems.
Martin Rolfe – My advice to other ANSPs is to start by evaluating what types of airspace they have and how space-based ADS-B could be of benefit. For example, if you are an ANSP with responsibility for a large geographic area, you may want coverage for all or only parts of your airspace depending on how heavy your traffic is. I can’t imagine that there are any ANSPs out there that aren’t at least looking at this solution and following it with interest.
Martin Rolfe – I would add that ADS-C can be very costly to integrate if an aircraft isn’t already equipped with the right systems. ADS-B avionics are effectively already in place on all aircraft due to upcoming mandates for equipage, making it a more practical, simple and cost-effective solution.
Rudy Kellar – Exactly. Each ANSP will have to look at its own situation but we believe that there are many oceanic and remote locations, and other moderate density areas where space-based ADS-B will support positive flight tracking and enable improved air traffic management while allowing ANSPs to reduce or avoid ground-based surveillance infrastructure costs.
Rudy Kellar – In Canada, we looked at the business case for space-based ADS-B in terms of its potential to allow us to avoid infrastructure costs in the north; to provide enroute surveillance in some mountainous locations with multiple airports; to accomplish what had been previously impossible in the North Atlantic; and potentially to provide an
Space-based ADS-B could make a huge difference to airline operations. Photo © Aireon.
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SPACE-BASED ADS-B
ANSPs could add capacity safely and efficiently. Photo © Aireon.
effective back-up for domestic groundbased surveillance. Much of our business case was focused on the improvements in service and the fuel savings that could be realised by our customers, with benefits flowing to the travelling public and the environment. What can other ANSPs learn from the approach taken in the North Atlantic? Rudy Kellar – Collaborating with your customers and neighbouring ANSPs is the best way of ensuring that you provide, as far as possible, a seamless, quality service. Martin Rolfe – For NATS, the biggest challenge of any new technology is getting the safety approval to use it. This requires significant amounts of modelling, testing and demonstrating to prove its resilience. Interested ANSPs should start engaging their own regulators early to determine what they will need to do to start their own safety case. Aireon has a number of committed partners and customers in the North Atlantic, and if we can get the UK regulators, the Canadian regulators and the US regulators on board then I think we will have a very good test case for the future of the technology.
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What should States and ICAO do to expedite the benefits to airlines? Rudy Kellar – ICAO and individual states have been supportive of this issue and are listening to ANSPs’ desire to transform the way we provide service. They are working thoroughly and with appropriate haste on the regulatory changes necessary to enable use of this important technology when it becomes available, expected in late 2017. Martin Rolfe – Regulatory changes and compliance are absolutely the answer here. It is critical that safety regulators be aligned around the world to expedite the benefits that space-based ADS-B can provide. I hope to see regulatory bodies co-ordinating on a single way of evaluating safety cases, ensuring that ANSPs can adopt the technology under consistent data standards and operational requirements across the industry. What will a flight over the North Atlantic look like when Aireon is fully operational compared with today? Rudy Kellar – Together with our partner ANSPs involved in the North Atlantic, we have developed a phased implementation plan. Initially, we will apply reduced separation of 15
nautical miles longitudinally on the core organised track system (OTS) tracks in the same direction only. Over time, and in phases, that will be expanded to aircraft operating off the North Atlantic OTS, to opposing direction aircraft, and, eventually to 15 nautical mile lateral separation. The analysis shows that air carriers will experience benefits of $127 million in fuel savings annually after fully implementing Phase one. From then on it just keeps getting better. Martin Rolfe – The benefits and efficiencies of space-based ADS-B are undeniable. Once the system is deployed, tested and fully operational, a flight over the North Atlantic will look a lot more like a flight over domestic airspace. It allows airlines to be far more particular about the route they are specifying rather than having to follow a rigid track structure, thus saving considerable fuel. In addition, the increased positional accuracy would remove many of the constraints around capacity. Could we double the capacity in this airspace in the long run? I think the answer is probably yes. That is a huge win, especially for the busiest oceanic airspace in the world.
www.worldatmcongress.org
See You Next Year. 10-12 March 2015 Madrid, Spain IFEMA, Feria de Madrid
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COMMENT
Letter from America Safer and smarter
Teri Bristol, Chief Operating Officer of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Air Traffic Organization, reports on two key campaigns to improve safety.
One of the FAA’s strategic priorities is to make aviation safer and smarter. As part of this effort, we’re committed to proactively identifying and mitigating safety risk. We do this by collecting safety data, conducting sophisticated risk analysis and developing prioritised corrective actions. These corrections often mean making changes in policy, procedures, training, and even our workplace culture. Through targeted safety campaigns, the ATO is strengthening our safety culture as we address two key operational safety hazards: distractions and fatigue.
Professional standards Last year, the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), launched the Turn Off, Tune In safety campaign to make air traffic controllers and managers more aware and knowledgeable about the safety impact of distractions, particularly electronic distractions. For the past two years, the US National Transportation Safety Board has identified distractions on their Most Wanted List of safety risks affecting transportation. Also, the ATO has identified distractions on our 2014 Top 5 Hazard list. A key part of the Turn Off, Tune In campaign includes making our workforce
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aware of scientific findings about the powerful, negative impact that distractions can have. Research shows that distractions from cell phones lead to delayed reaction time and cut in half our ability to see information in our environment. Also, distractions from electronic devices cause a 10-point drop in IQ, which is equal to losing a night of sleep and more than twice the effect of drugs or alcohol.
Controllers and supervisors must have their phones in the “off” position when they are inside the operating area at FAA facilities. But rules and policies are only part of the solution. Given today’s prevalence of smartphones, Turn Off, Tune In focuses on creating a culture of integrity and responsibility where colleagues help each other to eliminate distractions. Ultimately, each individual must choose not to succumb to a desire to look at texts, emails and photos, check sports scores or use social media. Simply put, each individual must adhere to the highest level of professionalism. Several air traffic facilities have found creative ways to eliminate distractions. At Tucson TRACON in Arizona, for instance, veteran controllers are mentoring younger controllers about the need to steadfastly guard against distractions in the control room. And at Charlotte Tower and TRACON in North Carolina, they’ve created stations outside the control room where employees can charge their cell phones. These stations provide a subtle reminder that there’s no room for distractions in the operational area. The campaign includes many other specific efforts, including conducting pre-emptive briefings at the FAA Academy for new controllers that stress professionalism and the dangers associated with distraction.
The FAA and NATCA co-ordinate all campaign communication efforts, including website content, news articles and videos and holding joint briefings at air traffic facilities. With labour and management speaking as one voice on this campaign, we’re achieving a much greater level of education and awareness. In fact, since the program started in March 2013, there have been about 32,000 hits on the FAA’s Turn Off, Tune In website. Also, more than 100 controllers have shared stories of how attitudes and behaviour surrounding electronic distractions are changing at their facility. Turn Off, Tune In has received a lot of attention from the international aviation community. We’ve received requests for campaign information from several air navigation service providers, including those from Hong Kong, Kenya, Australia, Germany and the Bahamas. Also, the US Air Pilots Association has sought to use these messages and materials in their trainings and briefings with pilots and ground crew.
Understanding fatigue Turn Off, Tune In has been used as a collaborative model for a new safety campaign, called Fully Charged, which targets the risk of fatigue. Fully Chargedis a joint effort between the FAA, NATCA and the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, (PASS), the union representing technicians and flight inspectors. By using de-identified data gathered from voluntary safety reports submitted by controllers, operational event data, and a fatigue study conducted by NASA, we’re gaining a more scientific understanding of the hazards and contributing factors of fatigue. Research shows that people who are
fatigued exhibit slower reaction times, difficulties in problem solving, hesitancy in decision making, and a greater likelihood of making errors, all of which can increase the risk of an aviation incident or accident. Research has also directed us to four main factors that impact human fatigue: 1. The amount of time a person has been awake 2. The amount and quality of sleep a person has had in the past 24 hours 3. A person’s circadian rhythms 4. Having too much or too little workload. These factors are an inherent part of a workplace that requires shift work to maintain a 24/7 air traffic operation. On this note, our research has shown us that the risk of fatigue is greater when working certain shifts, such as
consecutive midnight shifts, 10-hour midnight shifts, and early day shifts that precede a midnight shift. To mitigate these hazards, the ATO has made several policy and procedural changes, including the way that aircraft handoffs are made between facilities during single staffed midnight operations. The receiving controller working alone must positively acknowledge the handoff either manually or through automation by keystroke entry. This change ensures that the receiving controller is alert and ready to receive the aircraft. We’ve also placed greater limits on the scheduling of midnight shifts, including limiting the number of consecutive midnight shifts per week and the number of hours on midnight shifts. Addressing fatigue is a shared responsibility. Operational supervisors, managers and facility union representatives should work together to structure work shifts and manage schedules and recuperative breaks in a way that address concerns about fatigue. And on an individual level, each employee must ensure that they give themselves the proper amount of sleep, exercise and nutrition, all of which play a crucial role in maintaining alertness. Fully Charged and Turn Off, Tune In are two important efforts the ATO is making to drive down safety risk. We’re leveraging air traffic safety data and scientific research on safety, and we’re evolving our policies, procedures, training and culture as necessary. In doing so, we’re making aviation safer and smarter.
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regulation
The end result A focus on performance outcomes could loosen the shackles of prescriptive regulation and boost safety and efficiency in airspace. Many of the efforts to achieve a safe, efficient and harmonised airspace can only go so far before they come up against a wall of political, regulatory and governance constraints that only States can address.
building initiatives that are both innovative and effective.”
“The industry is often faced with prescriptive, inefficient and conflicting regulations that add cost and undermine the ability to innovate and perform effectively,” says Jeff Poole, CANSO Director General. “We need a harmonised and consistent approach to regulation in ATM globally.”
Proportionate: Regulators should only intervene when necessary. Remedies should be appropriate to the risk posed, and costs identified and minimised
The answer, believes Poole, is performance-based regulation (PBR). PBR is a regulatory approach that emphasises what must actually be achieved. The approach would focus on agreed, measurable outcomes and place the responsibility and accountability for meeting performance requirements squarely on the shoulders of the service provider.
Consistent: Government rules and standards must be consistent and coordinated and implemented fairly
Poole accepts that there is no ‘one-sizefits-all’ solution for ATM regulation as no two States are the same in terms of oversight capability, maturity and culture.
CANSO is proposing a working paper on the subject that would set out clear guidelines and principles for better regulation to be considered at the next ICAO Assembly in 2016.
“So we prefer to see an incremental approach,” says the CANSO DG. “For States with a well-established regulatory regime, we encourage the move to performance-based regulation and the adoption of better regulation principles. For States that need to improve their oversight capabilities, we should first support the implementation of capacity-
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CANSO is asking States to adopt five key principles of better regulation. Regulations should be:
Accountable: Regulators must be able to justify decisions, and be subject to public scrutiny
Transparent: Regulators should be open, and keep regulations simple and userfriendly Targeted: Regulation should be focused on the problem, and minimise side effects
corporatised, privatised or part-privatised, ANSPs should be allowed to operate as normal businesses with a focus on the customer and on performance. PBR would facilitate this desirable outcome. “Rather than relying too heavily on regulatory mechanisms, policy makers should consider the various elements of good governance that drive ANSP performance, including the separation of regulation from service provision,” says Poole. “States should set the requirements and performance targets, focusing on outputs rather than prescriptive requirements to encourage the necessary changes based on normal commercial judgements rather than stifle changes through micromanagement,” he continues. “A further advantage of removing the barriers to business-like approaches in ATM is that investments would need to be supported by solid business cases so funding could be obtained from the private sector rather than from States.”
Assessing risks
If States were to adopt these progressive ideas, it could fundamentally alter the business models of a majority of ANSPs.
One organisation that is already embracing PBR is the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). For Mark Swan, Director of the Safety and Airspace Regulation Group at the UK CAA, PBR is all about risk assessment. If resources are allocated according to risk then both safety and performance will be enhanced.
Most ANSPs are still owned by States, but whether they are State-owned,
The UK CAA’s journey started several years ago with a very broad desire to
Changing business models
The UK CAA is an early mover in PBR. © Gatwick
move to PBR. “The industry had been calling for it for a long time but nobody had defined it,” says Swan. “We started studying the concept and, about a year ago, a programme to move towards PBR started in earnest. We increased the team looking at this by some 17 people so we have some real power going into this two-year programme. We won’t have complete PBR at the end of it but we will be on the cusp. We will still be on a journey but it is the right journey. We will know exactly where we need to go to achieve our aims. ” Swan has already identified data as a key component of the transformation to PBR. Using data intelligently to deliver detailed information is fundamental to resource allocation and risk reduction. The UK CAA has modernised its systems, informs Swan, to help slice risk into finer detail. “And that in turn has allowed us to define the entities involved in any particular area,” notes Swan. “These entities may be a single airline or a complete airport or anywhere in between.”
is seeing the shape of things to come. A recent audit of a UK airfield is a case in point. Usually, it is a straightforward process of following a checklist and ticking the boxes one by one. “But this time we had a conversation about risk,” says Swan. “That is very different from the usual process and we had excellent feedback. The management team at the airfield told us they are thinking about risk in a new way and our input has helped them become more efficient. It was a constructive process that benefitted both parties as we also gained some crucial insight about how the approach needs to change.”
benefit to optimising resources, the real driver is reducing risk. Greater resources in the key risk areas will clearly help do that. A final misconception is that PBR entails rewriting the rulebook and, as such, is unlikely to ever see the light of day given the complex work such an activity would entail. PBR does deal with risk in a different way but it doesn’t ignore it. As noted above, compliance and oversight will continue to provide a safety net. They are the foundation of regulatory and safety efforts.
PBR misconceptions
Organisational support
There are several misconceptions about PBR that should be addressed. The first is that oversight diminishes with the move to PBR. But Swan stresses that the audit of the UK airfield still went ahead as planned. There was no let-up in ensuring all boxes were indeed ticked.
While some organisations like the UK CAA and EASA – led by the efforts of Patrick Ky – have been pursuing PBR and are supportive of efforts to embrace the concept, international standards will be crucial to success. And ICAO is the correct forum for the setting of these standards.
“We have collaborated with the industry on this – from airlines through to national aviation authorities,” he continues. “It’s been important to collaborate because we are not the owners of best practice. It’s been great to see our partners sharing information, even though some of it is sensitive. There is a real desire to promote PBR.”
“We will certainly not lose compliance or oversight by moving to PBR,” says Swan. “They will remain vital and will be more important to the less mature states where greater oversight may still be appropriate. But in Europe, the United States and other parts of the world, PBR is the next step in promoting safety and efficiency. So this is a scalable activity, which increases its attractiveness.”
Despite being relatively early in the PBR changeover process, the UK CAA
Another fallacy is that PBR is a costsaving exercise. While there is a cost
And while PBR principles are increasingly being embraced by the standard-setting and policy-making work being carried out in ICAO, Poole has called for ICAO to take a wider leadership role on this issue with States. It must do what it can to ensure regulation is timely, responsive to the needs of the industry and performancebased. An even safer and more efficient airspace awaits.
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Holographic radar
Lighting up the skies David Crisp, CEO of Aveillant, explores the latest development in radar technology. Imagine you are in a dark room that has a thousand $1 notes and one $1,000 note swirling around, and you only have a small pencil-light torch to help you find the $1,000 note. If you can find it, you can keep it. Using the pencil light to look at each note as it swirls past, in the vain hope you can land on the big note, is more desperation than hope. Your better plan would be to locate and turn on the main room light and use it to continuously illuminate the entire room. That is the fundamental difference between conventional radar and the new 3D radar technology, which we call Holographic Radar. The new system transmits continuously in all directions and listens out for returns all the time, providing it with a constant stream of information on the target. Conventional radar pings out signals as it rotates, alternating between transmitting and receiving. It gets a simple “hit” on a target, which tells it something is there – but then has to wait several seconds until the radar again sweeps past. With Holographic Radar, beams are transmitted over 360 degrees simultaneously, many times a second, and separate receivers continuously gather the information. They are radars that actually understand what they are seeing, they just do not look like radars as we currently know them (see figure 1).
Analysing data Modern air traffic control depends on radar. Yet conventional radar is old technology. It was invented as tensions were rising before the Second World War and refined during the war. There have been no significant development
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breakthroughs or improvements in radar for at least twenty years. It requires a huge amount of radio spectrum to operate effectively. Nor is it, in these days of raising air traffic and congestion, spectrum pressure and wind farms near airports, an ideal solution. As with so many other things in our modern world, it is all about the data. Currently, primary radars do not know anything about the objects they discover. They cannot tell what it is nor its height. Nor can they recognise multiple objects if they are in the same line of sight, erroneously reporting them as a single contact. Conventional radar limits and restricts the data that it receives and processes. That was understandable in in 1941. Even ten years ago the computer power needed to process the available data would have needed its own building. But now we can fit that power on a small chip. Understanding the data and being
able to process it quickly makes a huge difference to the quality of the information the controllers can access. This matters if there is a wind farm, for example, in range of the radar. There is no way that today’s radar systems can identify what is a wind turbine what is an aircraft flying above it. For new generation Holographic Radar, the information can be analysed and the interference taken off the screen, allowing the controller to focus on the aircraft, even if there is more than one aircraft in range. It is certainly true that with secondary radar, Automatic Dependence Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) and other systems, the aircraft is able to provide significant amounts of data to the controller, making controlling the airspace better informed and more cooperative. But that is the key. Those systems rely on truly co-operative work between the aircraft – which agrees to self-identify – and the ground, to receive the message. Even with increasing reliance on satellitebased communications and surveillance,
Glasgow Prestwick Trials – July-13. Seamless integration with airport PSR
Raw ATC Display with two aircraft obscured by turbine interference
there remains a fundamental need for primary radar as well. Not every aircraft is willing to self-identify. Even with mandated ADS-B equipage, and with the best will in the world, there will be a time-lag in deployment that needs to be addressed. That is before you start to factor in general aviation, low level drones on delivery runs and the many other users of airspace. We need to know exactly what the detection system has discovered as quickly as possible, to be able to make informed decisions about how to proceed. That is not possible with the current radar systems. If events over the last few months have taught us anything, it is that the more information we have the better our decision making can be in what can be very fraught and difficult moments.
Using spectrum efficiently There is also the question of spectrum. Radar was invented before the mobile telephone and thus, by virtue of being there first, was able to claim a lot of spectrum in the S band. The S band is what is known as the ‘sweet spot’. Large amounts of information can be transmitted with little power. It is no wonder that the mobile telephone (data)
Same display, but with Holographic Radar removing the interference within the patch over the wind farm
industry wants the use of more of the sweet spot than it currently has. Not only does it want access to that spectrum, it is willing to pay for that use. That is why the UK government has recently started a process to make the current users of the spectrum pay market rates for their use. The underlying theory is that public sector users of this valuable spectrum, which includes the military, police, safety services and the UK’s ANSPs (including NATS) will be more careful with their stewardship of the spectrum if they are required to pay for it. As an incentive to encourage this thinking, the UK government is also prepared to share the windfall gain arising from any spectrum returned by its current users. Again, Holographic Radar can help. It uses only one frequency, in the much less sought-after L band. Also, unlike traditional radars, multiple Holographic Radars that are within range of each other can operate at the same frequency, saving even more spectrum. The UK Government is currently looking at how Holographic Radar can help with the spectrum release issue in the short term. Currently, this innovative approach to spectrum management is being implemented in the UK and considered
in the US. But, if Holographic Radar has the results expected, it will not be long before other countries also look at similar schemes to find efficiencies in a very spectrum-hungry world. Traditionally, radar has been an expensive part of an ANSP’s operations. The moving parts make it susceptible to failure and the range and spectrum issues make it complex to install and maintain. The new generation Holographic Radar has no moving parts and resolves many of the planning and spectrum issues. Indeed, given the ability of Holographic Radar to distinguish between, for example, wind farms and aircraft, and to analyse more data, it can improve the capacity of existing systems at airports near to wind farms and even increase available airport capacity. For better or for worse, radar will continue to be part of the ATM environment for many more years. With Holographic Radar we have the opportunity to modernise our primary surveillance systems, to improve the quality of the data we receive and to do so in an efficient way.
For video footage of holographic radar, please contact enquiry@aveillant.com
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ATM in Brazil
A World Cup under control Daniel Marinho explains how the Brazilian ANSP supported the FIFA World Cup with efficient air traffic operations. The World Cup has gone. Thirty-two days of goals, emotions, amazement, expectations, and, above all, intense and harmonious international relationships that only events of this kind can provide. In the end, some cheered, some cried. But when it comes to the organisation of the show itself, the event ended up pleasing everyone, generating a feeling of almost unanimous satisfaction.
Increase in movements Called by some “the Cup of Cups”, the occasion involved all sectors of transport, infrastructure and tourism in Brazil. In a country of continental dimensions such as Brazil (8.5 million km2 of territory, 22 million km2 of airspace under Brazilian control), however, the air transport organisations were the ones especially under the spotlight given the increase in daily domestic flights between the 12 host cities and international flights from all over the world. According to a Ministry of Tourism report, the World Cup attracted more than 1 million foreign tourists, made up of some 203 different nationalities. This was a higher number than initially estimated. At the same time, according to the report, more than three million Brazilians travelled around the country due to the event, mostly using air transport. New records for flight movements were set in several host cities. To get an idea of the impact, the three main airports of Rio de Janeiro reported 1,731 air movements during the day after the World Cup Final. This number was 57% up on a regular day and 115% up on the 807 landings and take-offs reported on the day after the final of the 2010 World Cup. The same day, more than 300 business jets were at the Rio de Janeiro Galeão International Airport. To deal with such a challenge, the Brazilian ANSP (DECEA – Department of Airspace Control) had to anticipate the games, preparing its approach long before the referee’s whistle. The impact on air traffic flow due to the World Cup required strategic planning, training and actions directly aimed at ensuring the safety of airspace during the competition. A group of DECEA’s professionals had monitored the arrangements and efforts in previous major events ever since Brazil was chosen to host the Cup, benchmarking plans against the actions at the World Cup in South Africa, European Football Championship, the American Super Bowl, and the London Olympics.
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Training to succeed
Since 2012, about 2,600 air traffic controllers underwent a rigorous training programme (PROSIMA - Air Movement Simulation Program) at the Airspace Control Institute, in São José dos Campos, São Paulo. This programme was developed exclusively for the characteristics of the expected traffic at the World Cup. The enterprise included simulation of civil and military traffic in terminal areas, routes, approaches and control towers as well as scenarios predicting situations of excess demand and contingency or atypical situations of danger in a virtual 3D ambience. Similarly, about 180 professionals from Aeronautical Information Service (AIS) also had training to prepare for the event, such as flight plans in co-ordinated airports. DECEA could also rely on its own experience, having handled Brazilian ATM during a number of major international events hosted in the country. In 2012, there was the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), also known as Rio+20, a week-long meeting with representatives from more than 190 countries, held in Rio de Janeiro. The following year, there was the FIFA Confederations Cup and, also in 2013, the World Youth Day in Rio, that gathered around 600,000 people, who came to Rio to attend a week of Christian congregations and see Pope Francis. These gatherings ended up helping to consolidate actions and strategies for future events, such as the World Cup. “The success of this event comes as reward for an effort of almost four years of planning,” says the Director General of DECEA, Air Lieutenant Brigadier Rafael Rodrigues Filho. “There were a lot of meetings with government bodies and the commitment of all resulted in what was expected.” The activation of the “Master Room of Command and Control” – a setting that gathered representatives of ATM, Air Defence, governmental agencies, airport administrators, airliners, and so on, 24 hours a day, at the Centre of Air Traffic Management, an organisation subordinate to DECEA, in Rio de Janeiro – was also vital to integrated operations. For the 2014 World Cup, the Master Room was activated from 5 June to 20 July. The site used in past events had its facilities renovated and boosted, typified by the incorporation of Integrated Management System Air Movements software, which enabled accurate data and localisation of flights over 22 million km2. Under the constant demand for information and decisions, professionals acted to harmonise air traffic flow and to
Control Tower of the International Airport of Rio de Janeiro in operation at the World Cup. (Photo: Fabio Maciel)
guarantee the safety of operations. The screens surrounding them detailed timings, weather, air defence, airports terminals, runways, and areas of airspace restrictions during the games in the host cities.
As the Scottish reporter Gary Meenaghan, one of hundreds foreign journalists who travelled throughout Brazil during the World Cup, highlighted on his twitter account, he flew “29 flights in 28 days with no delays at all”.
“The Brazilian Airspace Control System (SISCEAB) could handle resourcefully the amount of traffic and the atypical demand engendered by the Cup,” says Air Brigadier Gustavo Adolfo Camargo de Oliveira, head of the Sub Department of Operations at DECEA. “We have managed to work with an effective body of human resources, the technical staff of SISCEAB and the government agencies’ employees allocated in the Master Room of Command and Control.”
FIFA President, Joseph Sepp Blatter, emphasised that the Federation granted Brazil 9.25 out of 10 for organising a World Cup that was really special. Jerome Valcke, FIFA General Secretary, described the World Cup in Brazil as “truly unique” and called on the hosts of future tournaments to take inspiration.
Punctuality assured In the group stage (first phase) of the World Cup, 6.6% of domestic flights departed late, a percentage below the international average and still inside the standard range considered satisfactory (up to 15%). According the Brazilian Civil Aviation Secretariat of the Presidency, the average rate of delays throughout the entire World Cup was 7.46%. The integrated work between air traffic control, airport administrator, governmental agencies and air defence in the World Cup brought about great success in terms of punctuality, despite the extraordinary amount of people and flights. This success was reported on widely by press and social networks.
The effective absorption of high demands of air traffic flows and the punctuality of flights proved that the high level of planning and strategy adopted by DECEA were absolutely crucial to these accomplishments. And the legacy left by the World Cup in terms of air navigation, regarding new technologies, training and infrastructure will certainly be of huge value both for the present and the years to come. Another challenge already awaits the Brazilian ANSP. In 2016, the Olympics, the biggest sporting event in the world, will be held in a country in South America for the first time. Centred on Rio, the event will certainly require a different approach. But the expertise acquired in supporting major sporting events ensures DECEA will be ready. Let the games begin again!
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100 years of aviation
Dawn of the computer age Andrew Charlton looks at ATM development from 1939 until 1990 – a period that saw progress in radio, radar and computers transform the industry. The Second World War saw enormous step-changes in the size and reliability of airframes and of course, the jet propulsion engine. But without the quantum leaps made by air traffic control technology and procedures, modern aviation would look considerably different today. The changes to ATM resulted from huge technological breakthroughs in radio communications and radar technology spurred on by the war effort, but based on technologies developed in the 1930s.
Radio waves By the start of the Second World War, airport controllers were able to talk to approaching aircraft by radio. Approaching aircraft were required to report their location, speed and altitude and were given instructions accordingly. But it was crude, and required the pilot to know the approximate location of the aircraft in the first place – effectively limiting air transport to visual conditions and light beacons. In the United States, a number of airports used radio to control approaching aircraft. Aeronautical Radio, Incorporated (ARINC)
was established by the four major US airlines of the day and was delegated the task of managing the aviation industry’s use of radio waves in 1927. They expanded that role during the 1930s to take responsibility for all ground-based, aeronautical radio stations as well, before being nationalised as part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal. The Civil Aeronautical Bureau was established, setting in place the foundations that would become the FAA as we know it today. ARINC continued to exist, as a member cooperative, officially delegated as holder of the radio allocations until recently. Radio beacons replaced light beacons immediately after the war. Radio beacons, positioned along standard routings, extended airline networks to the limits of the range of these Non Directional Beacons. This, in turn, provided the tools for airspace divisions. The first Flight Information Regions were created in the UK in 1946. Radio Detection and Ranging equipment (radar), on the other hand, was experimental at the start of the war. The technology dates from the end of the previous century. A standard beam, of known velocity, is sent out. If the beam hits a metal object the distance between the source of the beam and the object
Rotating radar with Primary radar on the bottom and an SSR device on the top. Image © Eldis Radar Systems
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An early radar display (right) and a display with the addition of SSR information
is measured by noting the difference in the time before the beam returns. The first radar stations, set up to monitor aircraft movements during the Battle of Britain, needed huge areas of land for the equipment. The information was analysed by a team of three, situated in a hut in the middle of two vast arrays. In 1943, the invention of the magnetron allowed transmitting and receiving from the same equipment. This made the development of the revolving radar unit possible, essentially the unit still in use today. The Chicago Convention – signed in 1944 and continuing to govern civil aviation – agreed a number of principles, two which were especially crucial to ATM development. First, each State is responsible for the regulation of safe civil aviation within its airspace. Secondly, States that undertake to provide radio, meteorological and air navigation facilities should do so, as far as practicably, in accordance with standards and procedures agreed within ICAO. The role ICAO plays in coordinating and regulating ATM standards and procedures is little changed today. Post-war, these new technologies were incorporated into civil aviation. Heathrow, for example, installed ground approach (GCA) radar in 1947. Two fixed radars were used to measure the horizontal and the vertical, creating a ‘cone’ of signal at the end of the runway. The controller used the on-board radio to talk the pilot down the cone to two miles from the runway threshold. For final approach, visual conditions applied. This was replaced in the late 1950s by radio-based Instrument Landing Systems (ILS). ILS provide signals positioning the aircraft relative to the horizontal and vertical path, accurate to a few metres from the runway threshold. It can also be linked to the aircraft’s autopilot.
Maintaining separation Rotating antennae radar was introduced in the late 1940s. It allows for monitoring of flights within range. The display, on a radio-scope, is of the echoes of each aircraft the transmitting beam detects. Again, to get a true position and the identity of each aircraft the pilot communicated by radio. The controller had to remember the details. By 1951, these terminal radars had a range of 60-80 nautical miles. Approach as a standalone unit within an ATC centre came into being.
A GCA operator
As the volume of air traffic increased, ICAO realised that it needed to establish standards such as separation minima to keep the airspace safe and efficiently managed. In 1955, it established 1,000 feet vertical, 120 nautical mile lateral and 30 minute longitudinal minima for trans-Atlantic flights. In the absence of fixed radio beacons and given the limited range of radar these international standards were vital for safe aviation. The introduction of VHH omini-directional radar range (VOR) and distance measuring equipment (DME) equipment in the late 1950s, coupled with a shift to higher frequency radio, increased range and accuracy, allowing further improvements in ATM and reduced separations, necessary as the volume of traffic increased further. The next big technological leap was Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR), allowing for the aircraft to identify itself and its altitude. It was introduced in the 1960s. This increased the amount of information the controllers had available. Coupled with the need to transfer traffic information, write paper strips and calculate speeds, distances and times, the industry was ready for the introduction of computers. The first basic software allowed clear printing and the calculation and distribution of paper strips to the appropriate sectors. As the 1970s and 1980s progressed, computers became standard. Software took care of linking the radio transmissions and ground messages between the various sectors of control. Soon the need to expand radar coverage to larger area control centres introduced multi-radar coverage. Computers were necessary to combine the echoes received from multiple radar sites. By the 1990s, computers had changed the tools available to controllers yet again. Paper strips were replaced by electronic flight information displays. The sole SSR code number on the screens has been replaced with the full flight number and the Short Term Conflict Alert introduced. Given the growth in air traffic, without these innovations, modern aviation would have been impossible. At the same time, without significant further innovation and change, the industry would not be ready to face the future.
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ATM NEWS MH17: CANSO WELCOMES EFFORTS TO IMPROVE SHARING OF INFORMATION AND INTELLIGENCE Following the downing of Flight MH17, CANSO called on States to share information and intelligence so that airlines can make informed decisions about the safest routes to fly. CANSO welcomed the establishment of a high-level Task Force that will urgently address the overall safety of aircraft over conflict zones. The Task Force is exploring fail-safe channels through which essential information is made available to civil aviation authorities and industry. CANSO and its Members are participating in the Task Force, with ICAO, States and industry partners.
ICAO Task Force Sets Out Immediate Actions Responding to Conflict Zone Risks The Task Force on Risks to Civil Aviation arising from Conflict Zones (TF RCZ) has established a work programme and two immediate projects. The first pilot project will explore how the Notice to Airmen system already in place between States and operators could be better used to share urgent and critical conflict zone risk information. The second project will be piloted by key ICAO partners on a new centralised system to be established for the prompt sharing of conflict zone risk information. The next TF RCZ meeting is in December but ICAO will deliver its preliminary findings to the ICAO Council in October 2014.
NextGen Technology Transferred from NASA to FAA NextGen software technology that will allow air traffic controllers to maximise the benefits of performancebased navigation (PBN) procedures on the approach to the runway was transferred to the FAA from NASA in an official ceremony at FAA headquarters. Coupled with the precision of PBN, the technology, called Terminal Sequence and Spacing, provides predictability, allowing controllers to safely reduce excess spacing between approaching aircraft, saving time and fuel while reducing emissions. The technology uses timebased metering to improve the safety and efficiency of Area Navigation (RNAV) and Required Navigation Performance (RNP) approach procedures in terminal airspace. With the new technology, controllers see circles –
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called slot markers – on their display screens that indicate where an aircraft should be to fly a RNAV or RNP route through the forecasted wind field, meet all speed and altitude restrictions and land on time. This software enables the use of PBN procedures to become more routine, requiring less vectoring, fewer leveloffs of aircraft and less communication between controllers and pilots. FAA is expected to make a full investment decision by the end of the year.
World ATM Congress Wins Best Congress in 2013 World ATM Congress’s first edition in 2013 won the top prize at the Eventoplus Awards. Out of 159 submissions, World ATM was awarded gold as the Best Congress overall. It is highly unusual for a firsttime event to receive such accolades. As subsequent editions continue to grow,
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ATM Industry Embraces the Future at CANSO Annual Meetings Over 250 CANSO Members met in Dublin for the CANSO Global ATM Summit and 18th Annual General Meeting, as well as regional and committee meetings. The theme of the Summit was “Embracing the Future” and speakers included Ireland’s Transport Minister, Leo Varadkar; Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary; futurist Rohit Talwar; and distinguished speakers from both within and outside the air transport industry. Following the launch last year of CANSO’s first strategic plan for the ATM industry, Vision 2020, the aim of the Summit was to look at the mid to long-term future; analyse economic, societal as well as air transport trends; identify emerging and game-changing technologies and data management developments that might further improve the safety, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of air transport; and explore how best the industry could manage future cyber security threats. Read CANSO Director General Jeff Poole’s speech at the CANSO Global ATM Summit 2014 on the CANSO website.
Madrid provides the perfect backdrop to showcase the industry’s best practices, brands and talent. The event was such a success that Congress officials extended the Madrid contract for three additional years. The next World ATM Congress will take place 10-12 March 2015.
New ADS-B Ground Stations to Enhance Surveillance Airservices will install 13 new Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) ground stations in 2015 to enhance its coverage
World Record for NATS Controllers at Gatwick Airport Air traffic controllers at Gatwick Airport handled a total of 906 movements on 29 August, breaking their own world record for air traffic movements in a day from a single runway. The 906 movements equates to a take off or landing every 63 seconds, and means everything needs to be working in perfect synchronisation – from the order of arriving and departing flights to the arrival spacing. NATS is the only air traffic services operator in the world to have achieved more than 900 aircraft movements in a single day from one runway. It set the previous record of 895 in 2008. of satellite-based air traffic surveillance in Australia’s airspace, especially in remote areas where there is no conventional radar coverage. This will bring Airservices national ADS-B network to 74 ground stations. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has mandated the implementation of ADS-B equipment in all Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) aircraft flying in Australia’s airspace, at all altitudes, by 2 February 2017. Currently, 13% of IFR aircraft and 11% of IFR helicopters registered in Australia are fitted with ADS-B.
Airways Supports Mongolia to Safely Reduce ATC Separation Mongolian air traffic control separation standards reduced from 90 to 30 kilometres in September 2014 following an Airways New Zealand review of the Mongolian CAA (MCAA) safety assessment requirements. Since the installation in 2012 of radar sites across the region, radar control in the area has been introduced gradually, and currently relies on a 90 kilometre separation between aircraft. Airservices has worked closely with MCAA to assess reducing radar separation standards to more closely align with the ICAO standard of five nautical miles (10 kilometres), which would allow MCAA to more rapidly increase their air traffic flows, with economic benefits across the country and the region.
Airbus Prosky and Avianca Complete Successful PBN Flight from El Salvador International Airport Avianca’s successful two-hour demonstration flight showcased the implementation of Required Navigation Performance (RNP) arrivals and approaches at Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport. The flight marks the finalisation of the operational implementation of the new PBN airspace in San Salvador. This achievement is part of a larger programme to improve airport access and safety as well as reduce CO2 emissions in Central America. Avianca plans to deploy a network of RNP-AR (AuthorizationRequired) airports, including Guatemala and San José International airports.
Sustainable Aviation Launches Continuous Descent Operations Campaign UK aviation coalition, Sustainable Aviation, has launched a Continuous Descent Operations (CDO) campaign, in an effort to achieve a 5% increase in CDOs across the UK. This will deliver over 30,000 individual
© Gatwick Airport
quieter arrivals and save around 10,000 tonnes of CO2, which will also save on fuel costs. For the first time, CDOs from higher altitudes will be monitored, from cruise to ground. Previously, only Continuous Descent Approaches below 6,000 feet had been monitored.
Aviators Join ATNS in Celebrating 21 Years of Excellence in Air Traffic Services Provision Aviators from the African and European continents have celebrated Air Traffic and Navigation Services’ (ATNS) 21 years’ of excellence in air traffic services provision. Global aviation associations and organisations, such as IATA and CANSO, African ANSPs and CAAs were represented at the event in Johannesburg. In his speech, ATNS CEO, Thabani Mthiyane,
said the company had made definitive progress in the areas of aeronautical innovation and ATM. He also announced that ATNS will host the CANSO AGM in June 2015 in Durban, South Africa.
FAB CE and BLUE MED FAB SIGN AGREEMENT The ANSPs of FAB Central Europe and the BLUE MED FAB have signed a co-operation agreement to implement safer, more cost-efficient and sustainable air navigation services with an increased emphasis on performance. The two blocks will exchange information on strategic and technical developments as well as in operational matters. The agreement will facilitate the developments envisaged in the Single European Sky programme. This encourages collaboration to ensure optimum use of European airspace.
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civil air navigation services organisation
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In association with
MITRE
civil air navigation services organisation
Comprehensive and Integrated Training
Aviation System Block Upgrade (ASBU) Methodology and Best Practices for ASBU Implementation
More Information and Registrations at http://mai.mitrecaasd.org AIRSPACE
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Optimising controller workloads?