First up this week, the Czech Republic has joined SEE FRA. The aircraft operators are now able to plan their flights freely across the airspace of Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Republic of Moldova and Czech Republic 24/7 without the limitations of the geographical boundaries. The inclusion of the airspace of the Czech Republic represents the third expansion of the SEE FRA project (South East Europe Free Route Airspace, successfully implemented on the 7th of November 2019), thus making possible cross border free route operations across the airspace of the 6 states. Therefore, SEE FRA becomes one of the largest free route airspace blocks in Europe.
Next up, Indra has doubled Bahrain’s air traffic management capacity with the implementation of a new state-of-the-art control center that is set to further ensure the safety and fluidity of aircraft movements throughout the Arabian Gulf and on some key routes linking Asia, Europe and Africa. A wide swath of airspace stretching over the international waters of the Arabian Gulf, an essential transit area for a large number of regional and international flights, falls under the responsibility of the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications’ Civil Aviation Affairs.
In other news, CANSO Europe’s EC3 (CEO Committee) met for the first time with the new Director-General of EUROCONTROL, Raúl Medina, at the CANSO Europe office in Brussels. The meeting provided the opportunity to discuss key issues facing the air traffic management (ATM) industry at an important time as traffic levels recover towards pre-COVID levels.
Finally, DFS Aviation Services (DAS) has taken over apron control at Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima. Lima Airport Partners, operator of the airport and part of the Fraport Group, had selected DAS in 2022 as the new service provider for apron control services. After several months of training, local DAS experts have been working collaboratively in a smooth transfer process with the previous apron control provider CORPAC. Its most important tasks include the management of taxiing traffic and the allocation of positions at the airport.
Checking your radars for another episode of our podcast? In the latest edition of Radar Contact, we look back to 100 years of ATC and talk about IFATCA with our guest Marc Baumgartner. We discuss the long history, the factors making ATC what it is today, and how IFATCA participated in that. Click here to listen, or head over to our blog to read the transcript.
ANSP news
- Czech Republic joins SEE FRA - Starting from 23rd of February 2023 the Aircraft Operators are able to plan their flights freely across the airspace of Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Republic of Moldova and Czech Republic 24/7 without the limitations of the geographical boundaries.
- DFS Aviation Services takes over apron control services at Lima Airport - Lima Airport Partners, operator of the airport and part of the Fraport Group, had selected DAS in 2022 as the new service provider for apron control services. After several months of training, local DAS experts have been working collaboratively in a smooth transfer process with the previous apron control provider CORPAC. Its most important tasks include the management of taxiing traffic and the allocation of positions at the airport.
- West Airspace Deployment: Getting ready for implementation - NATS Blog - We’re now less than a month away from West Airspace Deployment (West) and we are busy finalising preparations for implementation.
Market news
- Hong Kong selects AireonFLOW for air traffic flow management - The Civil Aviation Department of Hong Kong will roll out operational use of AireonFLOW for air traffic flow management, enabling unparalleled air traffic visibility and situational awareness to the Hong Kong air navigation service provider’s very busy airspace.
- Indra implements highly advanced air traffic management system for Bahrain - Indra has doubled Bahrain’s air traffic management capacity with the implementation of a new state-of-the-art control center that is set to further ensure the safety and fluidity of aircraft movements throughout the Arabian Gulf and on some key routes linking Asia, Europe and Africa.
- ERA will install a Wide Area ADS-B system covering the airspace of Oman - ERA announced that it had been chosen to deliver an ADS-B system covering the entire airspace of the Sultanate of Oman. ERA will supply a system consisting of several ADS-B stations as well as ADS-B data fusion and a management system by ERA.
Context information
- CANSO Europe CEOs meet new Director-General of EUROCONTROL - CANSO Europe’s EC3 (CEO Committee) met for the first time with the new Director-General of EUROCONTROL, Raúl Medina, at the CANSO Europe office in Brussels. The meeting provided the opportunity to discuss key issues facing the air traffic management industry at an important time as traffic levels recover towards pre-COVID levels.
Reports and data
- Latest tranche of big aviation data available for research - EUROCONTROL - EUROCONTROL has just uploaded a new tranche of aviation data – a complete list of commercial flights for December 2020 – to its Aviation Data Repository for Research, bringing the amount of historical flight data available to researchers to 18 million flights.
- Air Navigation Services Czech Republic - traffic January 2023 - Traffic development in the airspace of the Czech Republic (FIR Prague): Number of movements 2022: 28 969; Number of movements 2023: 34 888 Traffic comparison 2023/2022 : + 20,4 % Traffic development at Prague Airport: Number of movements 2022: 5 441; Number of movements 2023: 6 505; Traffic comparison 2023/2022: 19,5 %
- KIX, ITAMI, KOBE January 2023 Traffic Report - International cargo flights, both ATMs and the volume of international cargo handled were lower than the previous year due to reduced flights and slower cargo movement caused by the Chinese New Year.
Research and innovation
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- Using ChatGPT to code solutions for Data Science problems in aviation - Datascience.aero - In this post, we are going explore ChatGPT applicability for code implementation by presenting some scenarios to ChatGPT that are very common for typical aviation problems.
- Taking air traffic control into low orbit - SESAR JU - ECHOES is a three-year Digital Sky Demonstrator that aims to show how space-based communications navigation and surveillance technologies can help optimise air traffic while reducing the carbon footprint and maintaining safety levels. In this interview, Jose Alberto Gonzalez Pita from STARTICAL, lead partner, outlines the rationale and planned activities of this ambitious Demonstrator.
- How accurately do aircrafts navigate? Analysing Navigational Accuracy - To70 - The implementation of PBN is gaining acceptance worldwide and is seen as a solution to some of the airspace congestion issues that face many countries. In support of a recent project, we challenged our Aviation Consultant Isaac Warsame to find a way to test the navigational accuracy element of flights on the first element of an RNP1 SID, from runway take-off to a fly-over waypoint, ~3NM ahead.
- SESAR partners validate collaborative interface between U-space and ATM - In autumn 2022, French partners in the SESAR U-space AURA project completed a series of tests on a solution aimed at enabling interactions between systems managing drone and conventional air traffic. The partners confirmed that system-wide information management has the potential to provide a standardised interface between U-space and ATM systems.
