Weekly review #109 - 28th July

With Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos going to space, it's a good time to consider what space tourism means for air traffic management.

 

Indeed, there are eight prospective UK spaceports currently in the works. All would need their own segregated airspace to safely manage their launches. You can explore the NATS blog to find out what they think the impact will be on ATM.

 

In other news, there are reports from EUROCONTROL on the steady increase in air traffic as Europe moves through the pandemic. Interestingly, air traffic at London Gatwick is now up 50% compared to 2020. This is exciting to see!

For those interested in new technology in ATM, ENAIRE is installing a data link monitoring system from Skyguide. It's designed to record all CPDLC messages exchanged between pilots and ENAIRE’s air traffic controllers. You can find out more about it here.

 

If you'd like to check out another one of our podcasts, you can use this link. In this podcast, we explore the expertise of consulting companies and how they contribute to the ATM industry. Give it a listen and let us know what you think.

 

 

ANSP news

• ENAIRE and EASA meet to discuss ENAIRE's technological projects and to enhance cooperation between the two organisations - ENAIRE and EASA held a strategic bilateral meeting to discuss ENAIRE's technological and innovation projects, such as the development and implementation in Spain of U-space, the European concept for the automated management of drone operations based on a set of digital services.
• ENAIRE implements CPDLC Cockpit solution by Skyguide - ENAIRE is installing a data link monitoring system from Skyguide to record all CPDLC messages exchanged between pilots and ENAIRE’s air traffic controllers. Developed by Skyguide engineers, the innovative real-time web-based CPDLC cockpit solution consists of pre-configured VDL2 monitoring stations, ASTERIX and CPDLC decoders with powerful Airtel ATN decoding software and customizable dashboards.
• NATS Blog - Building UK airspace back better after covid-19  - Despite the challenges caused by the pandemic, NATS is continuing with plans to modernise higher-level airspace. While we’ve had to rethink and reschedule some of our plans, we’ve also wanted to take advantage of the lower levels of traffic to make some incremental changes that aren’t always possible when it’s really busy.

Market news

• Auterion and NTT e-Drone Technology announce strategic alliance - NTT e-Drone will produce Skynode based Flight controller and Mission computer, a drone control device developed and provided by Auterion, in Japan.
• DFS Aviation Services intensifies its partnerships and activities in Spain and Latin America. - DFS Aviation services is strengthening its activities and partnerships in Spain and Latin America. As a first step, Rafael Alcocer Delicado is joining DAS as the new external regional partner for Spain & LATAM with an office in Madrid.

Context information

• Propelling the application of artificial intelligence in air traffic control - The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has announced £3m of Prosperity Partnership funding to support a five-year research programme between The Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence and NATS.

Reports and data

• COVID-19 Impact on EUROCONTROL Airports - Geneva - The latest in EUROCONTROL’s series of briefings on the impact of COVID-19 on Europe’s top airports focuses on Geneva Airport.
• COVID-19 Impact on EUROCONTROL Airports - London/Gatwick - The latest in EUROCONTROL’s series of briefings on the impact of COVID-19 on Europe’s top airports focuses on London/Gatwick Airport. It includes a specific airport-level traffic composition overview, which shows that traffic is increasing compared to 2020 (+50%) but still well below the 2019 level (-83%).

Research and innovation

• NATS Blog - What does space tourism mean for air traffic management?  - The eight prospective UK vertical and horizontal spaceports, as well as balloon and sea launchers would all require specially segregated airspace to safely manage their launches. The required volume of airspace for each launch is expected to be large to protect other airspace users, even for sub-orbital launches.
• To70 - Research Snippet: Long Range ATFM - Airservices has identified that their Long-Range Air Traffic Flow Management project will be an addition to their domestic air traffic flow management applications. LRATFM from Airservices’ perspective is a “collaborative decision-making project to enhance demand and capacity management through the integration of international flights into Australia’s air traffic flow management system”. The blog post by To70.

UAV and UTM

• Unmanned airspace - URClearED SESAR research project ensures safe separation between manned and unmanned airspace users - The EU-funded URClearED SESAR Project is investigating critical technology to ensure that remotely piloted aerial systems can go about delivery and other type of business safely and securely.