Weekly review #180 - 21st December

ANSP news

• ENAIRE improves operations at the Reus Airport with new satellite-based navigation - ENAIRE improves operations at the Reus Airport with new satellite-based navigation instrument approach procedures.
• NAVBLUE and Eurocontrol collaborate to improve accuracy and efficiency with N-Flight Planning - With the support of the EUROCONTROL Network Manager, NAVBLUE's N-Flight Planning (N-FP) has integrated new EUROCONTROL B2B services, providing a step-change in optimizing European routes for efficiency and compliance while also decreasing dispatcher workload using automation.
• Danish navigation service provider Naviair operations department to assume responsibility for drone infrastructure development - Unmanned airspace - Danish air navigation service provider service Naviair is reorganising the company’s drone-related activities. From 1 April 2023, the company’s Operations Department will handle all tasks in the area of ​​drones. The Operations Department is Naviair’s main department for general air traffic services, flight management and developments concerning traffic in the entire Danish airspace.
• Avinor’s digital Remote Tower Centre is one step closer to multiple towers operations | The Avinor Group - The Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) recently approved Advanced sequential operations at the world’s largest digital Remote Towers Centre operated by Avinor in Bodø, Norway. This is an important step towards multiple towers operations in 2024.
• Safety and efficiency boosts expected from enhanced airport surface management tool - The safety and efficiency of airport surface operations are to get an expected boost thanks to new SESAR solutions introduced to the advanced surface movement guidance and control (A-SMGCS) system. The solutions were successfully tested in October by SESAR founding member, Leonardo, and BULATSA, the Bulgarian air navigation service provider (ANSP), within the context of the SESAR 2020 Airside, Airport and Runway Throughput (AART) project.

Airports news

• Brisbane New Parallel Runway Flight Paths Post Implementation Review Final Report available to view - Airservices - Airservices Australia has today published its Brisbane New Parallel Runway Flight Paths Post Implementation Review (PIR) Final Report. This is the next stage of Airservices’ review of Brisbane New Parallel Runway flight paths, which commenced in July 2021. This report builds on extensive community consultation, including face-to-face community engagement sessions, attended by residents from 88 suburbs, as well as a four-week public comment period on the Draft Report.
• Traffic continues to rise at Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport – Airport World - Jordan’s Queen Alia International Airport is on target to handle around eight million passengers in 2022 after reporting that it handled 7.1 million travellers passed through its facilities in the first 11 months of the year.

Market news

• Berlin Brandenburg Airport Upgrades Bird Radar To Next Generation MAX - A new radar system to prevent bird strikes on aircraft has been installed at Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport. “MAX” was supplied by the Dutch company Robin Radar Systems. This marks the first time that the technology has been deployed at a German airport.
• Naviair and Copenhagen Airports go live with Insero AviCast (ATIS/D-ATIS/VOLMET) system - Insero Air Traffic Solutions - Naviair, the Danish Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP), has replaced their ATIS/VOLMET system with the new AviCast solution from Insero Air Traffic Solutions, with only eight months from the contract award to being fully operational. Naviair sought a modern and flexible ATIS/VOLMET system, including a trusted partner that could rapidly and seamlessly integrate this new solution into the existing system environment at Copenhagen and Roskilde Airports. This partly due to requirements from ICAO, who mandated the implementation of the Global Reporting Format (GRF) for runway surface conditions into all ATIS/VOLMET solutions.
• FREQUENTIS provides Austro Control with IT-based voice communication system for Schwechat Tower, Vienna - Frequentis is equipping 12 air traffic controller workstations in the tower at Vienna Airport with the latest Frequentis technology, enabling location-independent data centre operation. The delivery of the new voice communication system for the Vienna Airport tower is the continuation of a joint implementation path. Austro Control had previously commissioned Frequentis to renew its Area Control Centre voice communication systems in a Virtual Centre environment, including two data centres. The latest implementation for the Schwechat Tower, one of Europe’s busiest airports, is now following suit.
• Eight African nations upgrade aviation message handling with Frequentis - In this project, ASECNA, the Agency for Aerial Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar, takes over the central procurement of the AMHS infrastructure for its member countries, including the delivery of eight complete and independent systems

Context information

• New ANS Collaboration Opportunities for the Asia Pacific Region - Think Research - A few weeks ago we attended the CANSO Asia Pacific Conference 2022 in Goa, to learn more about the new ANS collaboration opportunities in the region.
• Can anyone be trained as an Air Traffic Controller? - The requirement of high standards for ATCO work means that the training has to prepare the students for a multitude of challenging work situations. However, what if it takes too long for a student and they cannot proceed or finish the course in time? Does this mean that he or she cannot become an Air Traffic Controller at all?
• SESAR 3 JU and EUROCONTROL reinforce collaboration | EUROCONTROL - On 15 December 2022, the SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking and EUROCONTROL, as one of the SJU’s founding members, signed an administrative agreement setting out EUROCONTROL’s renewed role in and commitment to the partnership and the Digital European Sky research and innovation programme.
• EUROCONTROL predicts growth in aviation traffic over next 8 months - The latest EUROCONTROL Traffic Scenarios for the period December 2022 to August 2023 predict steady growth, reaching 95% of 2019 traffic by August in our Base Scenario

Research and innovation

• MovingDot supports Schiphol-sector with sustainable taxiing - Schiphol and partners have started conducting follow-up sustainable taxiing trials. On 6 December 2022, an aircraft taxied from Schiphol-Centre to a platform near the Zwanenburgbaan, without the aircraft engines running. This was made possible by using a TaxiBot, which is a semi-robotic taxiing system. The objective of this way of taxiing is to reduce fuel consumption and therefore CO2, nitrogen and ultrafine particle emissions.
• First flight supported by pre-flight 4D-trajectory data exchange performed by Lufthansa in the European Network | EUROCONTROL - Today, 15 December 2022, the first flight ever supported by pre-flight 4D-trajectory data exchange took place in Europe flying from Munich to Hamburg.
• Increasing Human Performance - CANSO - The Human Performance Management Workgroup (HPM WG), part of CANSO’s Safety Programme, has been hard at work in 2022 getting back to the business of enhancing, promoting, and supporting human performance and human factors work around the world.
• SESAR Innovation Days 2022 - Datascience.aero - he 12th SESAR Innovation Days took place this past December 5-8 in Budapest. After two years of being remote, the central conference for ATM research in Europe finally shifted to being in-person, hosted by Air Navigation Service Provider HungaroControl. Connecting research, from different maturity levels, with end users and operational experience has always been an objective of the SESAR Innovation Days and this collaboration succeeded in achieving these goals, similar to the Digital Sky Challenge hackathon in 2019.

UAV and UTM

• Matternet launches 5km BVLOS drone medical delivery route above Zurich - Unmanned airspace - Drone operator Matternet has begun test operations on a five-kilometer BVLOS (beyond-visual-line-of-sight) route over the city of Zurich, Switzerland. Matternet says this route is the world’s longest drone delivery route over a major city and will be used to transport diagnostic samples between the Triemli and Waid Hospitals – both a part of Stadspital Zürich, a municipal central hospital owned by the city of Zurich.
• SESAR AURA research Open Day to address the interface between ATM and U-space - Unmanned airspace - The SESAR research project PJ34 AURA virtual Open Day organised by AT-One, Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR) and German Aerospace Centre (DLR) will take place on 20 December from 13.30 to 15.30 CET. The event will address the impact of UAS contingencies on ATC operations in ATM-U-space shared airspace, and requirements for an interface between ATM controlled airspace and U-space.
• AirShare integrates with AVCRM software to support compliance process - Airways - AirShare, the unmanned aircraft traffic management (UTM) system and New Zealand’s drone user hub, has integrated with aviation software organisation AVCRM to support a more streamlined compliance process for pilots.