Weekly review #147 - 27th April

Picture of Vincent Lambercy
Posted by Vincent Lambercy

First up, the management teams of BULATSA and ROMATSA held their eighteenth meeting of the DANUBE FAB ANSP Board with updates to projects. The agenda included the expansion of SEE FRA to include the Republic of Moldova, while cross-border FRA operations also commenced with BALTIC FRA, meaning the airspace from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea is now open for free route operations.

 

In other news, Austro Control and FREQUENTIS launched a traffic management system for drones, another milestone in their decade-long cooperation. The system will be operational by 2023 and is designed to deal with the increasing amount of drone traffic in Austrian airspace.

 

Next up, over in Hong Kong, the Third Runway at Hong Kong International Airport is ready for commencing operation, marking a milestone of readiness preparation. Airport Authority Hong Kong and Civil Aviation Department are working closely together on other preparation work, including statutory procedures, drills and exercises for the commissioning of the Third Runway.

 

Finally, Europe’s air traffic management airspace modernisation research arm, SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking, has released a multiannual work programme from 2022-2031. According to the document, the ATM of the future needs to evolve, by exploiting existing technologies as much as possible, and developing new ones in order to increase global ATM performance in terms of capacity, operational efficiency and accommodation of new and/or more autonomous air vehicles.

 

How can the air traffic management industry contribute to making aviation more sustainable? In the latest episode of Radar Contact, Vincent Lambercy explores the subject. This episode is also a test for a new format: no guest but a 360° exploration of a topic - in this case, sustainability.

Do you like this type of episode or do you prefer episodes with guests? Let me know in comments!

 

ANSP news

  • Eighteenth Meeting of the DANUBE FAB Governing Bodies - The management teams of BULATSA and ROMATSA held their eighteenth meeting of the DANUBE FAB ANSP Board with updates to projects. Most notable was the expansion of SEE FRA to include the Republic of Moldova, while cross-border FRA operations also commenced with BALTIC FRA, meaning the airspace from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea is now open for free route operations. Members were informed of DANUBE FAB’s intended participation in the SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking programme, with both BULATSA and ROMATSA investigating areas of common interest in order to bid for funding in the rounds which opened on 7th April 2022.
  • Austro Control and FREQUENTIS launch traffic management system for drones - Austro Control and Frequentis are setting another milestone in their decade-long cooperation by launching a drone management solution to enable their safe integration into Austrian airspace. The system will be operational by early 2023.

Airports news

Market news

  • Iceland's Isavia ANS Now Operational Airspace-Wide with Aireon Data - Isavia ANS, Iceland’s ANSP, has achieved new levels of operational efficiency with expanded use of space-based ADSB data from Aireon.
  • SITTI VOIP VCSs to the Turkish State Airports Administration - DHMI, the Turkish State Airports Administration is currently upgrading their VCSs and network infrastructure to comply with the latest air management standards, especially concerning the world famous EUROCAE ED-137 standard, which details the way VoIP – Voice over IP – has to be used in the ATC field.
  • ACAMS I-TWR solutions to Greenland - ACAMS signs contract to supply 2 Integrated Tower Solutions to Greenland with options for a third system
  • Site acceptance of SITTI systems in India - Airport Authority of India awarded SITTI a major contract for the delivery of a large number of Voice Communication and Voice Recording Systems to serve the whole Nation.
  • SITTI in the South of China - For the improvement and expansion of the local airport, SITTI has been awarded the supply of a brand new MULTIFONO® M800IP® Voice Communication Solution, through the very good work and capabilities of our local representative, Beijing XiDi Communication Technology Co., Ltd.

Reports and data

  • Airport Authority Hong Kong Releases Air Traffic Figures for March - The traffic figures of Hong Kong International Airport for March 2022 were released. During the month, cargo throughput and flight movements recorded during the month were 352,000 tonnes and 9,870, respectively, representing year-on-year decreases of 11.4% and 7.3%, respectively.
  • A Shaky Summer - Airport Coordination Limited - Airport Capacity Analyst, Christakis Christodoulou, explores how the current Summer 2022 season compares with Summer 2019’s pre-pandemic schedule and what this says about schedule volatility and aviation’s hopes of recovery.

Research and innovation

UAV and UTM