Weekly Review #220 - A new passenger record for New York

First up, from the US we're hearing about a record number of travelers in New York and New Jersey airports. During August of this year, 13.3 million passengers passed through Newark Liberty International, John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia, and New York Stewart International airports. This number surpasses the previous record set in August 2019.

Next up, there's news of a change of venue for Airspace World. The CANSO Executive Committee decided that from 2025 it will be held in Lisbon, Portugal. The decision was finalised by the Airspace World team after ranking a shortlist of five venues against wide-ranging criteria including inbound tariffs and shipping costs.

There's more news from Canso with word that its ATM training partner Infina has launched seven more microlearning courses for Air Traffic Controllers, their managers, and supervisors. The new courses will add to the ICAO Refresher Training Topics that keep ANSP workforces focused on safety. 

And last but not least, we have a new episode of our podcast Radar Contact. This week, we sit down with Kate Arlouskaya and Serge Miranovich of ANSART and discuss the benefits of being an SME-size company in the ATM industry.

ANSP news

• Cocesna receives an important visit from the Cuban Air Navigation Company and the Institute of Civil Aeronautics of Cuba - The objective of said meeting was to review/update the Operational Agreement between the Air Traffic units, establishing the operational procedures for the coordination, routing of air traffic and communications, as well as contingency actions applicable to traffic that operates in the common limits of the FIR/UIR CENAMER and the FIR/UIR/UTA HABANA.

Airports news

• Gatwick restricts flight numbers for week amid air traffic control problems - Thousands of passengers flying to and from Gatwick this week will have their flights cancelled after the airport announced a cap on movements because of a shortage of staff in air traffic control.
• August was busiest ever month for New York’s airport system – Airport World - The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey today announced that its airports saw more passengers during August 2023 than during any previous month in history.

Market news

• Indra positions Dubai Air Navigation Services at the forefront of the global deployment of SWIM, the air traffic information management system of the future - SWIM is key to enhancing interoperability between air navigation service providers worldwide and facilitating more efficient traffic management. Indra will also renew the Aeronautical Information Management (AIM) system currently in operation and prepare it to handle Digital NOTAM, the new digital format for pilot alerts that’s set to be adopted in the future.
• EANS selects Insero FMTP Gateway solution in competitive bid process - Estonian Air Navigation Services has in a competitive bid process selected the FMTP Gateway solution from Insero Air Traffic Solutions as the winning bid in support of their FMTP gateway needs.

Context information

• Lisbon named future home of Airspace World from 2025 onwards - The CANSO Executive Committee has decided that, from 2025, Airspace World will be held in Lisbon, Portugal. This means that the 2024 edition of Airspace World will be our last in Geneva.
• Single European Sky: European Commission advised to prioritise environmental performance when setting performance targets for air navigation services - The European Commission has received the Performance Review Body’s proposed EU-wide target ranges for the fourth reference period (RP4, 2025-2029) of the Single European Sky performance and charging scheme. The indicative targets will be put to stakeholders in a targeted consultation.
• Infina launches seven new courses in partnership with CANSO - As part of its ongoing partnership with CANSO, ATM training provider Infina has launched seven more microlearning courses for Air Traffic Controllers, their managers and supervisors, on its ANSP Learning Portal (ALP).

Research and innovation

• EASA requests feedback to roadmap proposed for Higher Airspace Operations - Unmanned airspace - The EASA has published a roadmap for Higher Airspace Operations. The EASA HAO roadmap was delivered to the European Commission on in March 2023. EASA request feedback from the industry to inform the EASA HAO team.
• Taking a step forward in hotspot prediction with ASTRA - SESAR JU - ASTRA, acronym for “AI-enabled tactical FMP hotspot prediction and resolution”, officially started in September 2023 under the SESAR Joint Undertaking initiative. The project aims to bridge the gap between the flow management position and the planner controller working position thanks to an innovative AI-based tool which can predict traffic congestion earlier than today. T
• EUROCONTROL’s LARA airspace management tool notches up two major triumphs - September 2023 saw EUROCONTROL's LARA – short for ‘Local And sub-Regional Airspace Management Support System’ – tool achieve two major milestones.

UAV and UTM

• Carbonix partners with Skyports to scale up long-range drone operations in Australia - Unmanned airspace - Carbonix has partnered with global drone operator, Skyports Drone Services, to scale beyond visual line of sight operations across the country using its long-range vertical take-off and landing aircraft .