First up this week, EUROCONTROL and Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH (DFS) have signed an agreement to further harmonise air navigation services in the upper airspace of Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The agreement will see a further harmonisation of operational and technical concepts between the two centres over several steps. This harmonisation of processes, procedures and technology will lead to a seamless user experience, and an improvement in capacity, safety and environment.
Next, Minister of Transport H.E. Jassim Saif Ahmed Al-Sulaiti toured the air navigation facilities and inspected Qatar Civil aviation Authority’s preparations for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. The minister inspected work at Hamad International Airport’s Control Tower - a facility highly equipped with advanced air navigation technologies that keep pace with universal standards. HIA is poised for excellent services during the tournament as aircraft movement is expected to exceed 1400 a day.
In other news, following a safety requirement from the Italian aviation regulator (ENAC), the national Air Navigation Service Provider (ENAV) asked SITTI to implement a radio override feature between the Malpensa airport and the Linate ACC. The safety requirement applies to airports with two parallel runways. It states that parallel operations can be carried out, provided a higher level management entity (the ACC) is possibly capable (e.g. in case of emergency) of taking control of the radios used at the airport.
Finally, ENAIRE recovered 99% of flights in October compared to the record levels of 2019. The trend in air traffic puts the number of flights managed by ENAIRE throughout Spain at practically the same level as before the pandemic. ENAIRE managed over 190,000 flights (190,810) in October, which is just 0.7% below the average for the entire network for the same month in 2019, a record year for traffic before the effects of COVID took hold in 2020.
Ready for a new episode of Radar Contact? This week we spoke to Josef Anschau, Chief Operating Officer at PVS aero. We talked about his professional background, procedure validation, and more. Click here to listen.
ANSP news
- Upper Class E Airspace Traffic Management ConOps - FAA - Upper Class E airspace operations occur over 60,000 feet above sea level in the NAS. These operations have historically been limited due to the challenges that traditional, fixed-wing aircraft face in the reduced atmospheric density of the upper stratosphere. However, advances in propulsion and aerodynamics have led to the introduction of sophisticated aircraft operating at very high altitudes, resulting in increased demand to satisfy research objectives and service demands.
- EUROCONTROL and DFS sign agreement to further harmonise air navigation services in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands - EUROCONTROL and DFS today signed a cooperation agreement which will bring direct benefits for the wider aviation community in Europe. Under the agreement, MUAC and the DFS Karlsruhe Upper Area Control Centre will further harmonise the provision of air navigation services by means of technical and operational convergence.
- Minister Views World Cup Preparations at Air Navigation Facilities - Minister of Transport H.E. Jassim Saif Ahmed Al-Sulaiti toured air navigation facilities and inspected Qatar Civil Aviation Authority’s preparations for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
- FAB CE - Czech Republic to join SEE FRA in 2023 – reducing routes lengths and emissions - Following the update of concept-of-operations documents and a comprehensive safety analysis, the Czech Republic is on course to join the South East Europe Free Route Airspace (SEE FRA) area in the first quarter of 2023.
Market news
- FTEJerez Air Traffic Control department strengthens ties with Dubai Air Navigation Services - Recently our head of ATC training, Miguel Caparrós, had the opportunity to receive a warm welcome while visiting the headquarters of Dubai Air Navigation Services, DANS. These meetings serve to strengthen current agreements and fruitful relationships to come.
Context information
- ATCA GLOBAL - Next Generation ATM for Europe - Patrick Ky, Executive Director of EASA presented the closing keynote for day two of the ATCA Global event.
- EUROCONTROL Sustainability Briefing - Interview with Reynir Sigurdsson - Eurocontrol spoke to Borealis Alliance Executive Director Reynir Sigurdsson about how the Alliance transforms the way airlines fly through Northern Europe, achieving more efficient and more sustainable air traffic operations.
- EASA and FAA join forces to present new roadmap for air-ground connectivity - Unmanned airspace - EASA and the FAA have launched a joint cooperation initiative to rethink aviation connectivity, publishing a White Paper proposal for the modernisation and harmonisation of the aviation data communication landscape by 2035.
Reports and data
- ENAV Board of Directors: first nine months of 2022 results approved - En-route traffic and terminal traffic increased respectively by 86.6% and 86.1% in terms of service units compared to the first nine months of 2021
- NAV CANADA reports September traffic figures - n September 2022 weighted charging units were higher on average by 38.5 percent compared to the same month in 2021. As compared to the same month in fiscal 2019, September 2022 weighted charging units were lower on average by 10.1 percent.
- ENAIRE recovered 99% of flights in October compared to the record levels of 2019 - The trend in air traffic puts the number of flights managed by ENAIRE throughout Spain at practically the same level as before the pandemic. ENAIRE managed 190,810 flights in October, which is just 0.7% below the average for the entire network for the same month in 2019, a record year for traffic before the effects of COVID took hold in 2020.
- NAV CANADA reports October traffic figures - In October 2022 weighted charging units were higher on average by 32.3 percent compared to the same month in 2021. As compared to the same month in fiscal 2019, October 2022 weighted charging units were lower on average by 8.2 percent.
Research and innovation
- Project validates dynamic airspace management tool for U-space and ATM - SESAR JU - From 7 to 14 October, Spanish partner, CRIDA conducted a set of real-time simulations as part of the ENAIRE activities within the AURA project (PJ.34) to test a tool allowing the dynamic management of drones and conventional air traffic.
- This is how Lektor method rocks modern ATC Training - Lektor is a new-school Air Traffic Control Training academy which embraces modern times and moves away from dusty books, stuffy classrooms, and boring teacher-focused learning. We design training for modern learners to make sure that they succeed and become the ATC professionals they dream of being.
- How automatic speech recognition can improve controller workload - Click time of air traffic controllers reduced from 12,800 seconds down to 405 seconds by using the automatic speech recognition and understanding (ASRU) architecture developed by the SESAR HAAWAII project.
UAV and UTM
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- Droniq supports AIFER drone survey with monitoring, tracking and visualisation tools - Unmanned airspace - The German-Austrian joint project Artificial Intelligence for the Analysis and Fusion of Earth Observation and Internet Data for Decision Support in Disaster Management carried out a drone survey of the Ahr valley at the end of October. The AIFER project is led by the security research centre Bayerisches Rotes Kreuz and DLR.
- HADO project launched to create UTM system for London Heathrow - Unmanned airspace - The HADO® (high-intensity autonomous drone operations) two-year project is underway to deploy and operate a highly-automated 24/7 beyond visual line of sight drone operation at London’s Heathrow Airport.
- AirShare joins NZ Airspace Integration Trials Programme - AirShare, the provider of airspace intelligence & management for uncrewed traffic, is the latest industry partner to join New Zealand’s Airspace Integration Trials Programme.
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