Weekly review #170 - 12th October

This week, there's big news for Gatwick Airport. They've reappointed NATS as their air traffic service provider. The transition from the previous provider occurred overnight on 8-9 October, with all the existing controllers and engineers transferring across to NATS. It means the air traffic service at all five major London airports is being delivered by NATS for the first time since 2016.

Next up, Airways New Zealand has been recognised as a world leader in aviation safety reporting and improvement. An innovative safety performance indicator (SPI) programme developed by the air navigation service provider (ANSP) has been recognised by the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) as global best practice for aviation safety management systems (SMS).

In other news, India has plans for 80 new airports over the next five years. The new airfields are expected to fuel the country's growing aviation sector. India's aviation regulator has stated that the country could add nearly 80 new airports in the next four to five years. India's annual aviation sector growth rate currently sits at around 9% but is likely to reach double digits in the coming years.

Finally, Neurobotx has announced a paid partnership with leading aerospace company Urban Aeronautics, through their Neurobotx EVTOL Partnership Program.

Neurobotx is a Boeing-backed company led by neuroscientist Dr. Diana Deca, aimed at building the cognitive metaverse for air taxi and EVTOL companies. 

If you're looking for more Radar Contact, you can find the latest episode here. This time, we spoke to Lyne Moreau, the VP and Chief Strategy Officer of NAV CANADA about the 'new' strategic direction, how NAV CANADA is regulated, and more.

ANSP news

• CANSO Director General outlines recovery challenges for European ANSPs - Simon Hocquard, Director General, CANSO, has laid bare the challenges facing European ANSPs in the post-pandemic world, saying that the impact of COVID-19 has led to navigation charge losses for ANSPs in Europe of more than US$7bn in 2020 and $13bn globally.
• Remote tower of Brindisi: the Deep Blue and Anacna course for ATCOs (IT) - ENAV inaugurated the first Remote and Digital Control Tower in Brindisi. This is an epochal transition, outlined in the 2022-24 industrial plan and which foresees, over a period of 8 years, that more than half of the 45 Italian airports will be managed remotely.
• Airways New Zealand recognised as safety leader - An innovative safety performance indicator programme developed by the ANSP has been recognised by CANSO as global best practice for aviation safety management systems.

Airports news

• India Plans 80 New Airports In 5 Years - British Aviation Group - India's aviation regulator has stated that the country could add nearly 80 new airports in the next four to five years. India's annual aviation sector growth rate currently sits at around 9% but is likely to reach double digits in the coming years.
• Lithuanian Airports: in September aviation traffic continued to grow, with double-digit growth in charter passenger numbers - Aviation growth has continued unabated at the start of autumn, with traffic and passenger numbers close to pre-pandemic rates. In September, Lithuanian airports handled just over 4.7 thousand flights. In the same period in 2019, 5.7 thousand flights were handled.

Market news

• SITTI technical assistance to Aeronautica Militare - The technical, system, functional maintenance contract between the Italian military air force and SITTI has been renewed. The renewal will be covering the next three years, thus guaranteeing the customer a complete assistance service covering a long observation time, with operative continuity with the current ongoing similar service.
• Urban Aeronautics and Neurobotx partner for training in the metaverse - Neurobotx is a Boeing-backed company led by neuroscientist Dr. Diana Deca, aimed at building the cognitive metaverse for air taxi and EVTOL companies. The company collaborates with different aviation companies to combine state-of-the-art simulation, haptics, digital marketing, PR, business development, synthetic data and deep learning to help expedite and optimize go-to-market and investment opportunities for their EVTOL clients.
• Gatwick Airport reappoints NATS as air traffic service provider - After a break of six years, NATS is back as the air traffic service provider at Gatwick Airport.

Context information

• How a love of gaming helped set up a career in air traffic control - NATS Blog - The blog post by NATS
• As Hong Kong emerges, operational volatility is now the biggest challenge - NATS Blog - In an industry where change is constant, the ability to adapt confidently to change has never been so important, especially as we take tentative steps back to normality. Traditionally, at an operational level, we tend to cope with change and volatility; each day going into battle to maintain performance in the face of disruptive forces. In reality, change is often in control of operations.
• EASA & Clean Aviation enhance cooperation on research and innovation in Aviation - The European Union Aviation Safety Agency and the Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking are enhancing their cooperation to make it more strategic, effective and efficient.

Research and innovation

• BLOG: A new way to forecast the weather – Airport World - The FAA handles over 45,000 flights a day in the US alone, with international flight traffic increasing 150.6% from July 2021 to July 2022, according to IATA.
• Now is the time to tackle the non-CO2 climate effects of aviation - NATS Blog - The blog post by NATS about options for how a contrail avoidance trial could be safely managed over the North East Atlantic.

UAV and UTM

• GOF 2.0 drone test flights in Austria - The SESAR 3 JU project GOF 2.0 Integrated Urban Airspace VLD is developing solutions for the safe and sustainable integration of unmanned aerial vehicles and air taxi operations in urban airspace. In September, an important series of tests took place in Austria, the findings of which mark a milestone for further development.
• Beyond VFR and IFR – NASA researchers propose Digital Flight Rules for uncrewed operations - Unmanned airspace - In a new white paper published as part of the NASA scientific and technical information programme, researchers have proposed a new operating mode: Digital Flight.