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Edition 19 December 15, 2008
SESAR introduces collaborative approach to ATM
The inauguration of the SESAR Joint Undertaking at the start of December 2008 marks a radical departure for the ATM community. The unique public-private partnership introduces a new approach to investment decisions, based on collective agreement and carefully managed research funding. Fifteen companies are participating in the EUR2.1 billion programme which aims to build an airspace system that will triple capacity, halve costs, and increase safety by a factor of ten. The programme also seeks to reduce by 10 per cent the environmental impact per flight.
The SESAR Joint Undertaking was launched at a ceremony hosted by Dominique Bussereau, French Minister for Transport, representing the Council of the European Union, Antonio Tajani, Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Transport, and David McMillan, Director General of Eurocontrol, in the presence of 300 representatives of the European air transport community on December 8, 2008.
The JU was founded jointly by the EC and Eurocontrol six months ago, and has expanded its management board to include navigation service providers, equipment and aircraft manufacturers, airports, and avionics suppliers. There are also non-European representative companies from the US and Norway.
Patrick Ky, Executive Director of the SESAR Joint Undertaking, said: “The SESAR team is very enthusiastic about accompanying our fifteen new enterprises in the development phase. There are challenging projects, such as building an intranet for air traffic management (SWIM), which will for instance allow airlines to better manage their fleets and to gain time and money thanks to forward-looking and reliable information on the exact positioning of their aircraft and their precise arrival times. Furthermore, controllers and pilots will be assisted by new automated functions which will facilitate their handling of complex decision-making processes.”
So the JU is not only tasked with a new collective approach to development, but also with new operational concepts. It has five years in which to introduce these activities through research and development projects, and evaluate their use in a modern airspace. Bringing JU members together to achieve this common goal is one of Ky’s main challenges.
Key to the SESAR concept is the “business trajectory principle” according to which the users and controllers of the airspace together define, through a collaborative process, the optimal flight path. “Compared with today’s way of managing aircraft, SESAR represents a paradigm shift, to be achieved in clear steps. We will change the way we manage air traffic: no more skyways, just the most efficient trajectory – saving fuel and time,” explained Eurocontrol’s McMillan.
The SESAR concept introduces trajectory-based operations; a rolling network operation plan; an air traffic management intranet; integration of airport and ATM processes; and increased automation. The JU plans to start introducing these new ideas when it launches the “SESAR label” towards the end of 2009. The SESAR label will demonstrate that air transport industry operators have taken on responsibility and are already contributing to the improvement of their operations.
Nigeria’s NAMA takes first steps to commercialization
The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has appointed two ICAO consultants to study commercialization of NAMA following a request by the Transport Minister Diezani Allison-Madueke. NAMA chief executive Captain Ado Sanusi said the exercise: “is not privatization, but commercialization aimed at making NAMA an efficient agency, to cut down waste and make it viable". Trevor Paine and Glen McDougall will look at ways for NAMA to operate as a business entity to provide quality service for the airlines.
GLONASS approaches to Russian airports expanded
According to an ITAR-TASS news agency report from December 18, GLONASS will help pilots land aircraft at Koltsovo airport, Ekaterinburg. The airport will initiate a new procedure for landing aircraft equipped with GLONASS/GPS receivers — the third airport in Russia, after Domodedovo and Kurumoch.
Long term capacity challenges remain - Eurocontrol
By 2030, climate change and a lack of airport capacity will mean that one flight in two will risk delays or cancellation at highly-congested airports, according to the Eurocontrol study Challenges of Growth released in November. Airports will not have capacity to cope with a doubling of traffic volume to over 20 million flights predicted by 2030. Some 12 per cent of flights will not be accommodated. David Marsh, Manager of Forecasting and Statistics said: “As a result, airports are going to run out of space - and with half of each day's flights going through one of the saturated airports, a small delay at one airport could rapidly escalate to infect the whole European air network.” Eurocontrol also warns of bouts of extreme weather, caused by climate change, will bring further disruption.
In contrast to the long term forecast, Eurocontrol’s November traffic results revealed a seven percent drop in flights compared to the same month last year. Even the low-cost carriers, which for years have been the biggest contributor to growth in Europe, had fewer flights in November than in November 2007. This is the first such decline for the low-cost carrier grouping in 15 years. November is the first full month of operation of the airlines' Winter schedules, for which many airlines had announced cut-backs. Recession, fuel costs and high ticket prices are blamed for the sharp fall. Less affected are Eastern European and Russian flights.
UK aviation emissions “will be at 2000 levels in 2050”
The UK environmental body Sustainable Aviation believes CO2 emissions from air traffic will fall back to 2000 levels by 2050 despite continued growth in number of flights. A report released on 12 December concludes that CO2 from all UK civil aviation can return to 2000 levels by 2050, after having reached a peak around 2020, against a background of threefold growth in passenger numbers. The assessment takes into account the UK air transport market maturity and efficiencies that are expected from new airframe and engine technology, air traffic management and operations, as well as the development of sustainable fuels. In making this assessment no allowance is made for the additional contribution to CO2 reductions that will be achieved through airlines’ participation in international emissions cap and trade schemes, the details of which have yet to be fully defined. Visit: www.sustainableaviation.co.uk
FAA plans NextGen research centre at Atlantic City
The FAA is supporting the construction of an Aviation Research and Technology Park on a 55-acre area adjacent to the Technical Center near Atlantic City under an agreement with the South Jersey Economic Development District. The aviation facility will be used for research, development and testing by FAA partners involved in development of NextGen technology. It will support the FAA’s mission and build on the role of the Technical Center and will lead the test and prototype development of NextGen systems. The first building will be about 44,500 square feet, and cost nearly USD10 million. Initial infrastructure costs for the park development are estimated at USD8 million. Construction is due to start in April 2009 for completion in 2011. The FAA believes the park will accommodate private sector use of laboratory research facilities and private firms may enter into agreements with the FAA to engage in a broad spectrum of research projects, potentially saving time and expense in bringing new products to market and reducing the time to deliver NextGen components. The Aviation Research and Technology Park will complement Florida’s NextGen demonstration capabilities at Daytona International Airport. Advanced NextGen technologies developed and tested at the Technical Center will be demonstrated in an operational environment at Daytona, then returned to the Technical Center for integration with the current NAS and other components of NextGen.
Meanwhile in early December, The FAA began construction of a new command centre near Warrenton, VA, due completion in 2011 when the lease on the existing centre near Washington Dulles expires. The centre will shares its site with the FAA’s Potomac TRACON, a consolidated approach and departure control facility serving Washington, Baltimore and Richmond-area airports. The new center will manage the entire airspace system, deal with weather and other potential disruptions to air traffic, and monitor navaids, with some 300 staff members. Equipment costs are estimated at USD46 million, and construction costs USD22 million.
CANSO seminar agrees safety metrics
CANSO, the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation, marked its sixth annual Safety Seminar in November with the agreement of two global standards to raise ATM safety performance. The Seminar agreed a CANSO standard for safety management systems, and a CANSO standard for safety metrics. This is the first time such standards have been agreed by the world’s ANSPs, and it marks a step-change for ATM safety by encouraging progressive improvement in safety. One of the other key decisions of the SSC was the acceptance of the Safety Culture Working Group plan which included the CANSO definition of safety culture.
Europe tackles call sign similarity
Eurocontrol launched a Call Sign Similarity User Group in December to support the design of the first steps of European-wide de-confliction solutions. The launch followed the Call Sign Similarity Information Session and User Group Meeting. The use of similar call signs by aircraft operating in the same area on the same radio frequency can sometimes give rise to potential and actual flight safety incidents. The consequences can be more severe than other ATC related safety occurrences and lead to increased in workload for controllers and pilots. Research has shown that over 80 percent of call sign similarities could be resolved by the creation of a central management service. This would de-conflict call sign similarities during the flight planning phases with the aid of a dedicated software application. This approach offers real savings compared to the current situation where individual airlines are managing their own de-confliction programmes. The payback period is estimated at approximately two years.
Industry
Turkey selects HITT ground movement control systems
Dutch manufacturer HITT has won an order worth EUR8 million to equip three airports in Turkey with ground movement control systems. HITT will supply Ankara, Istanbul and Antalya airports with A-SMGCS systems to track aircraft and vehicles on the airport under all weather conditions. The systems will be delivered mid-2010. HITT A-SMGCS systems already operate in the China, Germany, India, Korea, Netherlands, and Scandinavia.
Comsoft completes communications gateways
Comsoft reports completion of modernization of the AFTN/CIDIN system in the Cairo Navigation Centre for the National Air Navigation Services Company (NANSC) of Egypt to provide a fully integrated AMHS switch. The company also reports completion of a two-phased project in Bratislava in late November when the Slovak Republic LPS commissioned the AFTN/CIDIN/AMHS system at the airport. Phase one was completed in April 2008, when national and international AFTN/CIDIN connections were made to Comsoft’s AIDA-NG system, followed by completion of interoperability tests with Austrocontrol's AMHS in Vienna. Further interoperability tests with other international AMHS partners in the area planned.
NASA selects Sensis simulation data
Sensis Corporation announced that its Seagull Technology Center has won a NASA Research Announcement (NRA) project, “Integration of Weather Data into Airspace and Traffic Operations Simulation (ATOS) for Trajectory-Based Operations Research.” The project will integrate weather forecast information and weather phenomena into the ATOS air traffic management simulator to ensure future concepts meet critical safety and efficiency targets. ATOS is a multi-aircraft air traffic management simulator located at NASA Langley Research Center. As NASA’s experiments for NextGen ATM solutions evolve, there is a need to integrate real-world weather data into the tests. Sensis will be providing recorded real-world and simulated weather data that will be integrated into ATOS along with associated software tools to manage the data and create appropriate scenarios.
Rockwell supports WAAS LPV approaches
The FAA has granted certification for Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) Localizer Performance with Vertical guidance (LPV) functionality on the Bombardier Challenger 604 aircraft equipped with Rockwell Collins' upgraded Flight Management System (FMS) and GPS-4000S global positioning system WAAS receiver. "Our work with the FAA to certify a WAAS LPV solution featuring our enhanced FMS and GPS-4000S marks an important step forward in helping more aircraft operators equip their aircraft for near-precision approaches at airports not equipped with ILS,", said Greg Irmen, vice president and general manager, Business and Regional Systems for Rockwell Collins.
WAAS improves the availability and integrity of GPS navigation, enabling suitably equipped FMS to provide horizontal and vertical navigation to category I equivalent minimums for all users at all locations within the service area, without requiring airport-based transmitters or other supporting functionality. Additionally, WAAS provides service for all classes of aircraft in all flight operations in its coverage, including en-route navigation, airport departures and airport arrivals. This includes CAT I equivalent approaches with minimums as low as 200 feet at locations throughout the US National Airspace System.
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