Weekly Review #192 - Istanbul airport to service 200m passengers - 22nd March

First up this week, we have news from Istanbul with its Grand Airport set to accommodate nearly 200 million passengers a year when completed in 2028. The new airport is located approximately 35km outside of Istanbul, between the residential areas of Yenikoy and Akpınar, along the Black Sea coast. And it's already operational, due to the construction being carried out in four stages, with the ability to service up to 90 million passengers a year. 

Next up, we're seeing advancements in AI at Toronto Pearson Airport. The airport has partnered with Assaia to track every aspect of aircraft turnaround performance. By monitoring what is happening around the aircraft in real time, they can use the data to highlight and address inefficiencies, increase gate availability, improve on-time performance and be more transparent with passengers.

In other news, there are exciting developments in Antartica. Osprey is providing critical Instrument flight procedures to enable planes to take off and land safely on the Wolf’s Fang Runway—even in challenging weather conditions and without traditional air traffic control. 

And last but certainly not least, we have a new episode of our podcast, Radar Contact. Tune in to hear us chat with Claude Levacher from SkySoft-ATM about building ATM software.

ANSP news

• Saudi Air Navigation Services and NATS sign Memorandum of Understanding - Saudi Air Navigation Services and NATS have signed a Memorandum of Understanding signalling their intent to collaborate on initiatives and projects that will help safely manage and efficiently deliver increased capacity over the coming years.
• Cooperation Agreement Signed with University of Split - Crocontrol - Prof. Dragan Ljutić, PhD, Rector of the University of Split and Vlado Bagarić, Director General of Croatia Control signed a Cooperation Agreement on March 16, 2023, which will enable the cooperation of these institutions on research, development, and educational projects in the field of work of UNIST, and which could make a significant contribution to the success rate of CCL’s development plans.

Airports news

• Frankfurt International Airport Expansion Project, Frankfurt, Germany - Airport Technology - Frankfurt International Airport is Germany’s main airport hub. It is owned and operated by the public body Fraport. Deutsche Flugsicherung is the authority responsible for the facility’s traffic control.
• Istanbul New Airport, Black Sea Coast - Istanbul New Airport, also referred to as Istanbul Grand Airport, is expected to accommodate nearly 200 million passenger a year when fully completed.
• Toronto Pearson deploys Assaia’s artificial intelligence to optimize operations - Assaia provides an artificial intelligence solution to track every aspect of aircraft turnaround performance—physically preparing an aircraft when it lands until it takes off again for a new flight.

Market news

• Ensuring safer air travel in the coldest place on earth - Osprey is helping to ensure safer air travel for high end and responsible tourism into Antarctica. Providing critical Instrument Flight Procedures, Osprey is enabling planes to take off and land safely on the Wolf’s Fang Runway, even in challenging weather conditions and without traditional navAids or air traffic control.
• Indra to equip the new M’Banza Congo airport in Angola with all the digital solutions and technologies required to operate it - Indra has won a contract worth 12.5 million euros to equip the new M’Banza Congo airport in Angola with the ground and air systems required to operate it.

Context information

• How Aviation Communications Can Inspire Stronger Organizational Communication - The importance of communication between aircraft and air traffic control cannot be overstated. With variable weather conditions and modern concerns like increasing traffic, the ability to request and relay information is as integral to aviation now as the principles that cause lift.

Reports and data

• Fraport Traffic Figures – February 2023: Passenger Growth Remains Strong - FRA’s aircraft movements climbed by 21.7 percent year-on-year to 27,182 takeoffs and landings in the reporting month.
• Nearly 1.4 million passengers at Brussels Airport in February, up 65% on 2022 - The total number of flight movements grew by 27% in February 2023 compared to 2022. The number of passenger flights increased by 44% compared to 2022, averaging 136 passengers per flight. The number of cargo flights decreased by 5% compared to February 2022, mainly due to the stoppage of cargo-only passenger flights in July 2022.

Research and innovation

• AI in the aircraft: technology to identify fatigue in pilots - Airport Technology - Technology company Blueskeye AI is aiming to improve safety on board aircraft through facial analysing technology which can identify fatigue in pilots.
• Tern Systems and NG Aviation Shape Future ATM Systems - Tern Systems and NG Aviation’s cooperation aims to deliver smart solutions for Air Traffic Control that will support safety and automation, removing unnecessary data manipulation and enhancing the capabilities of ATM systems significantly.
• Cirium launches the first airline routes tool based on satellite-based flight tracking - Cirium launches the first airline routes tool based on satellite-based flight tracking. Businesses can identify the aircraft flown by route.

UAV and UTM

• AMU-LED completes research into urban UTM Conops and airspace integration - Unmanned airspace - The AMUL-LED project, launched over two years ago to demonstrate the capabilities of U-space to enable Urban Air Mobility (UAM), has published its research results.
• Drone flying rules to become simpler - EANS - Starting from March 2nd 2023, the obligation for operators of unmanned aircrafts to coordinate their flights with the Estonian Transport Administration will be gone, but they will have to follow restrictions in certain areas, which can be seen in the new map application on the Estonian Air Navigation Services website.
• White House aeronautics priorities: advanced air mobility and airspace integration - Unmanned airspace - The US White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has released the Biden-Harris Administration’s priorities to advance a vision “for America’s continued global leadership in aeronautics,” according to a White House press release.