Weekly review #136 - 9th February

First up, there's news of incoming changes to UK airspace. Following the new Free Route Airspace in Scotland, NATS is now collaborating with London Luton Airport to create new arrival routes. These routes are set to come into play very soon and should be live later this month.

There's exciting progress in Melbourne, Australia, as plans to build a third runway are now in formal public exhibition. The proposed new runway will enhance airport capacity by allowing for simultaneous arrivals and departures.

It's always great to see companies working to boost sustainability and efficiency in air travel. Recently, DSNA, ENAIRE, ENAV and Skyguide cooperated with EUROCONTROL in trials for dynamic flight planning restrictions. The goal is to reduce restrictions for flight planning to create more direct and sustainable flights. Sounds good to us!

Finally, in news from the world of drone aviation, Bell Trexton reported a successful demonstration of ground-based detect and avoid technology. Interestingly, the demonstration was part of a wider project with NASA called the NASA Systems Integration and Operationalisation Project.

ANSP news

• More UK Airspace Change on the Way After NATS Implements the Biggest Ever Change in Scotland - British Aviation Group - Fresh from introducing Free Route Airspace in Scotland – the biggest ever geographical airspace change in the UK – NATS is working with London Luton Airport on new arrivals routes to be introduced next month.

Airports news

• Melbourne Airport’s proposed third runway on public exhibition - Melbourne Airport’s plan to build a third runway will go on formal public exhibition tomorrow, with the community invited to provide feedback through until mid-May. The new 3000-metre runway will run parallel to the existing north-south runway and will increase the airport’s capacity by allowing for simultaneous arrivals and departures.

Market news

• Indra ensures ground safety at South Korea’s two largest airports - Indra has strengthened its position in the Republic of Korea’s air traffic management environment through implementing a ground surveillance system at Jeju International Airport, the destination of the world’s busiest airline route. Air traffic controllers of the Korean Airport Corporation will benefit from a precise overview and control of the ground traffic, enhanced by advanced safety alerts to further improve their situational awareness.

Reports and data

• EUROCONTROL Data Snapshot #25 on how aviation markets vary - Our 25th EUROCONTROL Data Snapshot is here, focusing on how second-largest airports very rarely exceed 20% share of flights, but provide a window onto a country’s aviation market.
• Air traffic recovery at German regional airports - DFS Aviation Services - In 2021, a total of 229,344 flights were registered at German airports controlled by DFS Aviation Services GmbH. This is about 7 per cent more than in the previous year. Air traffic thus showed a slight upward trend. Compared to the pre-crisis level, however, this is still a decline of around 14 per cent.

Research and innovation

• Trials for dynamic flight planning restrictions aim to make flights more direct, and more sustainable - EUROCONTROL - The EUROCONTROL Network Manager in close cooperation with air navigation service providers DSNA, ENAIRE, ENAV and Skyguide and supported by airspace users, has finished a first set of trials to dynamically reduce restrictions for flight planning to ensure more direct, more sustainable flights.
• North Atlantic tracks at Flight Level 330 and below to be abolished - NATS Blog - I think it’s safe to say the last three years has been the most transformational in the history of North Atlantic air traffic operations. That’s been down to two things. The introduction of Aireon’s near real-time satellite-based surveillance in 2019 has been a total game changer. We’ve gone from a largely procedural environment where we would plot aircraft positions every 14 minutes to one where our controllers see an update every 7-8 seconds. Secondly, and less positively, has been the impact of Covid on international air traffic.

UAV and UTM

• Vertiports – Initial thoughts on their design - To70 - Whilst there have been announcements heralding the age of city-centre to city-centre transfers, there has been less attention given to exactly where such flights will start and end. There has been even less attention to the shape of the protected airspace that will be needed.
• Bell and partners demonstrate ground-based detect and avoid technology at AllianceTexas flight test centre - Unmanned airspace - Bell Textron reports successful demonstration of ground-based Detect and Avoid technology in association with Autonomous Pod Transport unmanned aircraft. The demonstration was part of the NASA Systems Integration and Operationalization project.
• Demand for drone operations increases by 370% - ENAIRE - Since the launch in July 2020 of ENAIRE Planea, the platform specifically designed by ENAIRE to make it easier to apply for and coordinate operations with drones, manned aircraft and other airspace uses, the number of registered users has risen exponentially to 8,700, an increase of 50%.