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Weekly review #178 - 7th December

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Posted December 7 2022 by Vincent Lambercy

First up this week, NAV CANADA has introduced new arrival procedures at Toronto Pearson International Airport that will allow aircraft to shorten their flight paths and flying times, reduce fuel burn, and increase the use of quieter continuous descent operations. Leveraging satellite-based positioning and modern aircraft flight management systems, aircraft are now able to arrive simultaneously on parallel runways on more direct and efficient routes. 

 

Next up, Estonian Air Navigation Services (EANS) and Adacel Technologies Limited (Adacel) have confirmed the aeronautical equipment certificate for REVAL ATC virtual tower located at Kuressaare airport in Estonia. This certificate, awarded by the Estonian Transport Administration to Estonian Air Navigation Services, is a major milestone for both companies as these two organizations, in a close collaborative approach, work on transitioning Kuressaare to fully digital air traffic service operations.

 

In other news, ENAIRE has highlighted its commitment to the aerospace sector by investing over 107 million euros in the development of the Single European Sky. Spain’s air navigation service provider has launched a total of 25 activities to modernise air traffic control and surveillance systems, the digital transformation and information systems, new technologies to manage drones (U-Space), and to evolve communication systems.

 

Finally, EUROCONTROL’s Performance Review Commission (PRC) has published its sixth release of Performance Insight, taking a closer look as to whether a performance-oriented approach for ATM in Europe presents a success story.

At the beginning of this century, the ATM system in Europe began to move to a more performance-orientated approach. This began with a ‘light-touch’ approach established by EUROCONTROL and the Performance Review Commission and then formed the core of the EU Single European Performance Scheme.

 

Looking for a new episode of Radar Contact? This week we spoke to Silja Guðmundsdóttir, the Director Of Business Development at Tern Systems, a company that designs and builds air traffic management (ATM) solutions. We talked about air traffic management in Iceland, the different usages of the Polaris ATM system and more. Click here to listen.

 

ANSP news

Airports news

  • YYC Calgary International Airport begins use of deice metering program - PASSUR Aerospace, Inc. (PASSUR) announced that it has successfully deployed its ARiVA TM Platform (ARiVA) Deice Metering Program for use by YYC Calgary International Airport, to ensure optimal alignment of flight demand and capacity during deice events, when restricted operations can often lead to delays and other disruptions.
  • Hong Kong airport officially puts into operation the third RWY - According to officials, the system with three runways - 3RS - will significantly increase the capacity of the Hong Kong airport for handling passengers and cargo. Thanks to this, Hong Kong will maintain and strengthen its status as a major international aviation hub, and the airport city is already turning into a new showplace.

Market news

Context information

  • ENAIRE highlights its commitment to the aerospace sector - ENAIRE, Spain's air navigation service provider and an agency of MITMA (Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda), took part in a workshop on the Strategic Plan for the Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE) and the Aerospace Sector, as part of the Spanish government's Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR).

Reports and data

Research and innovation

  • Cranfield research collision avoidance algorithm monitors multiple moving vehicles - Unmanned airspace - Researchers at Cranfield University have developed a collision avoidance algorithm for the detection and avoidance capabilities of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The proposed algorithm aims to ensure minimum separation between UAVs and geofencing with multiple no-fly zones, considering the sensor uncertainties. The main idea is to compute the collision probability and to initiate collision avoidance manoeuvres determined by the differential geometry concept, according to a paper published in MDPI Sensors open access journal.
  • Research project assists harmonisation of European regulations and standards - Unmanned airspace - Dutch research agency Royal NLR has developed a methodology to structure and assess the collected technical rules, standards and procedures for drone-related businesses in Europe. The methodology and criteria for standards assessment enables the identification of the technical standards (and supporting rules and procedures) with the highest ranking (best practices), as well as the identification of gaps and bottlenecks to ensure safe drone operations.
  • Deconfliction of uncrewed and crewed aircraft tested at Magdeburg-Cochstedt Airport - After all, conventional air traffic and future uncrewed aircraft must operate smoothly and reliably side by side in a safe manner. Flight tests are essential for designing and testing realistic unmanned aircraft system traffic management (UTM) for uncrewed air transport. To this end, a series of large-scale demonstrations (VLDs) have taken place throughout the year within the framework of the EU project CORUS-XUAM.
  • EU Drone Days: SJU EUR35 million research "to fast-track the uptake of U-space innovations" - Unmanned airspace - Europe’s SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking has started a series of new Digital Sky Demonstrators to facilitate the implementation of U-space at scale within the framework of the SESAR 3 JU research and innovation programme. With a combined budget of EUR15 million from the Connecting Europe Facility/CINEA, the three Demonstrators will take place at test sites in Belgium, France, Italy, Ireland and Spain over the next three years.
  • Air traffic controllers of the future will work at several airports at the same time - In the future, air traffic controllers will no longer sit in the tower, but operate from control centers that are sometimes hundreds of kilometers away. From here, they monitor the traffic from several airports – even at the same time. The “OMNyFlug” project shows how they focus on the right aircraft.
  • En route to greener air traffic management - SESAR JU - A move to alternative fuel sources is undoubtedly where the aviation industry will be able to make the largest and most long-lasting inroad into decarbonising its operations, but it is not the only area where energy efficiencies can be made. Research and innovation is showing how emission savings, albeit smaller, can be made in the shorter term by introducing new technologies and procedures into air traffic management.

UAV and UTM