Weekly review #169 - 5th October

ANSP news

• Human-in-the-loop simulation takes the integration of large drones a big step further - NLR News - Increasing numbers of large drones will enter civilian airspace in future. To make sure this happens safely and efficiently in real life, this has been simulated by NLR together with General Atomics and ISD during tests that also involved air traffic controllers and pilot.
• ENAIRE improves flight efficiency by making greater use of continuous descent operations - Eurocontrol (the European network manager) confirms that Spanish airports, thanks to ENAIRE's air traffic controllers, are leading the way in continuous descents, thus contributing to savings in aircraft fuel burn and reducing atmospheric emissions from air traffic.

Airports news

• Official re-opening of the Richards Bay airport - CANSO - Air Traffic and Navigation Services joined several aviation stakeholders, public and private trade and tourism companies and major local manufacturing businesses at the official opening of Richards Bay Airport, an event hosted by the uMhlathuze Municipality today.

Market news

• NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen goes live with Digital Tower from Saab - The first digital air traffic control tower is now live and in operation at NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen in Germany. The base is equipped with a state-of-the-art Saab r-TWR system.
• G&D KVM systems for Remote Tower Brunswick - Partnership between DFS Aviation Services GmbH and KVM specialist Guntermann & Drunck GmbH aims to ensure system security and efficiency.

Context information

• Bilateral talks between Qatar and the Dominican Republic in the field of civil aviation - During the meeting, a memorandum of understanding was signed that allows cargo flights between the State of Qatar and the Dominican Republic to operate in the seventh freedom, which will positively affect the overall economic and investment activity and trade exchange between the two countries.
• Minister Attends Signing Qatar-Barbados Air Services Agreement - The two ministers reviewed relations in the fields of transportation and civil aviation, and ways to develop them. Following the meeting, they attended the signing with initials of an air services agreement that allows the national carrier to further expand its network of destinations worldwide.

Research and innovation

• Incentivising Technology Adoption for Accelerating Change in ATM (ITACA) - Itaca might be mistaken for a sunny Greek island, but it is actually the name of a SESAR 2020 exploratory research project, which examined the barriers to and drivers for technology uptake in air traffic management. David Mocholí González, project coordinator, provides a brief overview of the project’s core objectives and findings.
• CS GROUP is proud to be supporting IATA in a feasibility study of potential ecosystem-wide cyber resilience framework to address the cybersecurity challenges in the aviation industry - CS GROUP joined forces with IATA to address cybersecurity challenges in the aviation industry.
• Spanish government authorises 48 million EUR contract to operate air traffic management support systems - CANSO - Specifically, these systems are: the Automated Air Traffic Control Service, the presentation of flight plans, the radar network and voice communications systems.

UAV and UTM

• Answering your questions on Air Taxis and Urban Air Mobility - NATS Blog - A blog post / interview by Elizabeth Chau.
• Rigitech and UpVision complete BVLOS flights in Czech Republic, anticipate larger scale operations - Unmanned airspace - Swiss manufacturer and operator Rigitech recently completed a new BVLOS route in the Czech Republic in partnership with local U-Space provider UpVision. While broadening flight authorisations and operating experience in the region, RigiTech continues to expand, adding to the growing list of European countries where the Swiss technology has been approved for delivery flights according to EASA regulations – including Switzerland, France, Denmark, and Italy.
• Australia outlines new UTM action plan and associated research programmes - Unmanned airspace - Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Airservices Australia and emerging aviation technology are working together to develop an Uncrewed Aircraft System Traffic Management system.
• Australia outlines new UTM action plan and associated research programmes - Unmanned airspace - Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Airservices Australia and emerging aviation technology are working together to develop an UTM system.