Weekly Review #219 - Coordinated air and railway networks in the EU

First up, a new EU SESAR project has kicked off with the purpose of enhancing multimodal transport networks. MultiModX aims to plan and manage a system to coordinate air and rail networks for improved efficiency, predictability, and sustainability of the door-to-door passenger journey.

Next up, more news from SESAR JU with the launch of a three-year project to develop an approach for allocating navigation performance routes in the terminal area. GALAAD, short for 'Green Aviation – Lean Arrivals And Dynamicity' aims to enhance the flexibility and sustainability of arrival operations and involves nine companies from five different countries.

From Saudi Arabia, we're hearing about plans to unveil the Red Sea International Airport by the end of the year. Construction of the six-runway airport is already underway with the aim to initially handle only domestic flights to and from Riyadh and Jeddah. The airport will take on international flights midway through 2024.

And last but not least, there's news from NAV CANADA. The national air navigation service provider has released a proposal to revise customer service charges, effective from 1 January 2024. The proposal calls for decreased charges averaging 5.57% across its service categories.

ANSP news

• Edinburgh Airport team joins ANSL in tower upgrade - Air Navigation Solutions (ANSL) announced that the Edinburgh Airport AOCC have joined forces with ANSL, and we will be working together from the tower at Edinburgh Airport.
• NAV CANADA releases proposal to decrease service charges - NAV CANADA today released for consultation a proposal to revise customer service charges, effective January 1, 2024.

Airports news

• Mumbai airport August air traffic at 108% of pre-pandemic level - The airport witnessed a total of 20,711 domestic flights and 6,960 international air traffic movements last month.
• Signal: Saudi Arabia to unveil Red Sea International Airport by year-end - Airport Technology - The announcement that Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Airport will open by the end of the year has prompted an increase in transport and tourism jobs across the Kingdom. Red Sea Global, the developer behind the ambitious six-runway airport – and numerous other Saudi tourism projects – recently chose Saudia as the first airline to fly in and out of RSI Airport. Construction of the airport is already underway.

Context information

• Air Traffic Management to come under EASA regulations - EASA has welcomed a decision by the European Commission to bring ATM into EASA’s regulatory framework.According to the aviation safety agency, the new set of rules lays the groundwork for a more efficient and uniform approach to operations improvement in support of the Single European Sky initiative.
• Why aviation needs to prioritise cybersecurity – Airport World - After major data breaches hit American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and the Scandinavian airline SAS this year, it’s become evident that the cyber security threat to aviation is very real. As a result, in the US in March of this year, the Transport Security Association issued an emergency amendment to the security programmes of numerous airports and airlines.

Reports and data

• NAV CANADA reports August 2023 traffic figures - In August 2023 weighted charging units were higher on average by 9.1 percent compared to the same month in 2022. As compared to the same month in fiscal 2019, August 2023 weighted charging units were lower on average by 4.0 percent.
• ENAIRE oversaw the most flights in Spain’s aviation history this summer, with almost 7,200 daily operations - If July was the best month in Spain’s aviation history, August’s records confirm that we are witnessing a record summer in terms of the number of flights operated.
• Traffic figures for August – more people traveling abroad - There were 66,288 commercial aircraft movements in August. This is 3 per cent less than in August of last year. Compared to August 2019, there has been a drop in the number of aircraft movements of 5 per cent.

Research and innovation

• New EU SESAR project, MultiModX, kicks off to enhance multimodal transport networks - The vision of MultiModX is that of a multimodal European transport system in which air and rail networks are planned and managed in a coordinated manner to maximise the efficiency, predictability, environmental sustainability and resilience of the door-to-door passenger journey.
• Integrating new airspace users: Delivering access to all - NATS Blog - The aviation landscape is on the verge of a huge transformation, with the emergence of new airspace users set to reshape the way we fly, the way we order goods and the way we receive healthcare services.
• Engage 2: fostering knowledge transfer in air traffic management research and innovation - SESAR JU - In June, Engage 2, the SESAR 3 JU’s Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) officially kicked off. Over the next four years, the network will organise an array of activities aimed at fostering closer ties between academia and industry in the field of ATM research and innovation.
• GALAAD: moving towards greener and flexible aviation - SESAR JU - GALAAD, short for “Green Aviation – Lean Arrivals And Dynamicity”, is a new three-year project which aims to develop and validate a concept for dynamically allocating required navigation performance (RNP) routes in the terminal area. This approach aims to enhance flexibility and the sustainability of arrival operations. GALAAD is a collaborative effort involving a consortium of nine companies from five different countries, all highly specialised in aviation.

UAV and UTM

• Leveraging Copernicus data to enhance drone operations planning for European operators - Unmanned airspace - Swiss aerial logistics company Rigitech is leveraging both Galileo and Copernicus to create fully-integrated drone delivery solutions – including those capable of quickly delivering critical medical supplies.
• SESAR SPATIO project gets off the ground with workshop on tactical conflict resolution - Unmanned airspace - The SESAR 3 project addressing U-space separation management brought together research partners under the leadership of ENAIRE and CRIDA at its first workshop in September 2023. The workshop focused on Solution 2: Tactical Conflict Resolution and integration with strategic resolution. The event covered technical challenges and solution management surrounding this topic.
• Eurocontrol paper simulates safety and efficiency impacts of airspace constraints in U-space airspace - Unmanned airspace - A paper published by Eurocontrol, written by experts from Eurocontrol and Airbus, demonstrates the use of simulation to quantify the safety and efficiency implications of airspace restrictions on Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) operations in U-space airspace.
• SESAR OperA project to demonstrate piloted and unmanned operations in controlled airspace - Unmanned airspace - Latvian air navigation service providers Latvijas Gaisa Satiksme (LGS) is participating in real-life demonstrations to validate complex Innovative Air Mobility (IAM) operations as part of the SESAR OperA project.