In exciting research news, Thales, a global technology leader, is advancing air traffic surveillance and safety in Chile with a revolutionary new radar station 100% powered by sustainable solar energy. Located in Calama, in the Atacama Desert, the radar system is the very first of its kind and utilises 330 solar panels to create energy.
Next up this week, CANSO's Global Benchmarking has been collecting data from ANSPs for years to measure performance. Recently, they've looked at the 2020 data to examine how providers were affected by the pandemic, how key performance metrics evolved and what that means for resiliency and ANSP's ability to mitigate the effect of similar challenges in the future.
Thirdly, ENAIRE is set to implement a free route concept in Spain. Free route is an operational concept in which aircraft operators can formulate flight plans that contain user-defined segments that are planned as direct segments between points in a certain volume of airspace even if said points are not connected by an airway.
Finally, in UAV and UTM news, the Dutch High Tech Campus Eindhoven (HTCE) in the Netherlands started the first demonstrations of autonomous drone services in March 2022. HTCE is one of the consortium partners of the EU-funded FF2020 project that is developing a state-of-the-art geospatial UAM ecosystem by incorporating UAM within the geospatial data infrastructure of cities.
ANSP news
- What does the data say about ANSPs’ resilience through the pandemic? - CANSO - CANSO’s Global Benchmarking Workgroup has, for over a decade, collected data from ANSPs to measure performance. This article looks at 2020 data to examine how our providers were affected by the pandemic, how key performance metrics evolved and what that means for resiliency and ANSPs ability to mitigate the effect of similar challenges in the future.
- FABEC Performance Review 2021 demonstrates resilient services and strong environmental results - FABEC Performance Report for 2021 reveals strong flight safety and efficiency results by all seven members in the core area of Europe, despite a second consecutive year of unprecedented low passenger demand due to Covid-19.
- ENAIRE updating its control system to transition toward a flexible airspace - CANSO - ENAIRE’s Automated ATC system, SACTA, in terms of airspace reservations, was fed data from the AIP, ENAIRE’s reference publication on aeronautical information, and NOTAM aviation notices, which were integrated into air control displays. Now, the latest update will add information on airspace use plans in anticipation of rolling out free route air navigation, which relies on a flexible airspace.
- ENAIRE beings to implement free route concept in Spain - CANSO - ENAIRE has begun implementing the free route operational concept in Spain.
- Claus Baunkjær appointed new CEO of Naviair - CANSO - Claus Baunkjær will take over as CEO of Naviair on 1 August 2022, replacing Carsten Fich. Claus Baunkjær is currently CEO of A/S Øresund and has previously been CEO of Femern A/S (Sund & Bælt).
Airports news
- FAA Contract Tower Competitive Grant Program - British Aviation Group - The FAA has opened the application process for Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to modernize air traffic control towers at many small town and municipal airports. The FAA will fund projects that sustain, construct, repair, improve, modernize, replace, or relocate airport-owned towers and install communications equipment.
- Expansion of the DFS Remote Tower Control Centre: DFS controls traffic at Erfurt Airport from Leipzig - Starting this morning, air traffic at Erfurt Weimar Airport in the east of Germany is being controlled from Leipzig, around 100 kilometres to the southwest as the crow flies. Leipzig is the site of the Remote Tower Control Centre of DFS. From here, DFS already successfully monitors air traffic at Saarbrücken Airport, hundreds of kilometres to the west near the French border.
- AAI signs JV Agreement with State Government for development of a Greenfield airport in Nagchala, near Mandi in Himachal Pradesh - Airports Authority of India signed a Joint Venture Agreement with Government of Himachal Pradesh for development of a Greenfield airport in Nagchala, near Mandi District.
- Airports Authority of India successfully conducted flight trials using GAGAN based LPV Approach Procedure at Kishangarh Airport - Airports Authority of India is pleased to announce today that Flight trial using GAGAN (GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation) based LPV Approach Procedures was successfully conducted at Kishangarh Airport, Rajasthan.
Market news
Reports and data
- Kansai, Itami, Kobe March 2022 - Traffic Report - International cargo traffic remained strong, with aircraft movements and cargo volumes continuously exceeding the 2021 levels. Total aircraft movements at the three airports were 207,381 (+28% vs 2020, -43% vs 2019), of which domestic aircraft movements were 171,382 (+31% vs 2020, -22% vs 2019).
Research and innovation
- Delivering an integrated communication, navigation and surveillance system for Europe - In this Q&A, Simona Pierattelli, coordinator of I-CNSS (Leonardo), a SESAR research and innovation project explains how CNS technologies can support to make air and ground operations, including airports, more efficient, while also ensuring global interoperability from an avionics and satellite systems perspective.
- Thales to deploy the world’s first fully sustainable, solar-powered Air Traffic Control radar station - Thales is advancing air traffic surveillance and safety in Chile with a revolutionary new radar station 100% powered by sustainable solar energy. Located in Calama, in the Atacama Desert, the first of its kind radar system leverages 330 solar panels to take full advantage of the high levels of sunshine in the region.
- SESAR partners propose solution to optimise traffic in busy airspace - Earlier this year, SESAR research partners fine-tuned a tool to optimise arrivals and departures in high density and complex airspace. The tool works in near real time to calculate periods of peak demand on particular routes and proposes solutions to share out the traffic and improve the environmental efficiency through optimised climb and descent profiles.
UAV and UTM
