Weekly review #190 - 8th March

Picture of Vincent Lambercy
Posted by Vincent Lambercy

First up this week, the board of directors of ENAIRE approved a file in open procedure (according to Royal Decree-Law 3/2020) for the transfer and supplies of the automated air control systems (SACTA) and integrated digital voice (COMETA), in the new technical building of the Air Control Center of Madrid, for an estimated bid value (taxes excluded) of €9,512,814.00. This action is included in the Technological Modernization Plan of the entity's strategic plan.

Next, CANSO has announced a major revision to the Standard of Excellence (SoE) in Safety Management Systems (SMS) for Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs), in partnership with EURCONTROL. The SoE is a gold standard for ANSPs to help them continuously improve their SMS. The CANSO Safety Standing Committee (SSC) oversees CANSO’s Safety Programme aims to continually improve safety management and culture among CANSO members and provide global leadership on safety management issues. CANSO’s Safety Programme helps ANSPs improve safety by offering guidance on safety management systems, best practices, and benchmarking.

In other news, the planning application for the expansion of Luton Airport has been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate. Luton Rising, Luton Council’s company that owns the airport, submitted the development consent order (DCO) application yesterday. The DCO application for a second terminal at the airport was originally due to be submitted by the end of 2022, but this was pushed back to 2023.

Finally, the Dutch Air Navigation Service Provider, Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL), has successfully deployed Intelligent Approach – the world’s only time-based arrival spacing (TBS) tool – at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Developed by NATS and Leidos UK, Intelligent Approach dynamically calculates the optimum time interval between arrivals based on live weather data and the aircraft type. This is then translated into a graphical marker on a controller’s radar screen. This helps improve an airport’s runway throughput in all weather conditions, but is especially effective during strong headwinds when separating aircraft by traditional fixed distances results in a reduced landing rate and knock-on delays.

ANSP news

Airports news

Market news

Context information

Research and innovation

  • UK Civil Aviation Authority launches funding to help deliver airspace modernisation - The UK Civil Aviation Authority has today launched its next round of funding to help support airspace modernisation projects across the United Kingdom.
  • DataBeacon announces a market-ready data platform for ATM operations - Leveraging years of work data science research projects, machine learning and data engineering experience in the field of aviation, DataBeacon announces a release-candidate for its market-ready data platform for air traffic management operations, named Victor5.
  • DLR’s Digital Controller - Aviation is required to find measures against the climate change, rising traffic volumes and shortages of professional staff. Great potential for solutions and counteractions lies within high levels of automation. DLR’s research in the field of air traffic control aims to reveal and evaluate these potentials.