NATS's article - Airport digitisation is the true ‘digital tower’ revolution - explores how digitisation control towers, converting visual data from analogue to digital, offers potential for significant improvements in airport operations and performance. It highlights the benefits of digital towers, including the use of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.Pablo Hernández’s article - Information overload: why sometimes less is more and How Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help - discusses the impact of information overload and how AI solutions can mitigate this issue. It highlights the use of data analytics, visualization, predictive and prescriptive models to enhance safety and efficiency, while reducing errors in air traffic management.
New technology requires new skills and the British Aviation Group has prepared a report on skills and training standards in the aviation sector, to see how they can adapt to new technologies. To do this, the researchers engaged with the aviation industry to assess the sector’s future skills needs.
Lastly, in our latest podcast David Perez, the CEO of DataBeacon and MD of Innaxis, talks about Data Beacon and AI applications in ATM. He shares his views about the data analytics industry in the US and in Europe, certification of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) tools for ATC and his ideas about how ATM will evolve in future.
ANSP news
- Director of Ukraeroruh Andriy Yarmak signed the Memorandum of Cooperation with ROMATSA - The memorandum expands our opportunities to restore air navigation service services in the airspace of Ukraine by conducting additional training for Ukrainian air traffic controllers, coordination between air navigation service providers at the operational level, and establishing regional cooperation in the area of defining common strategic goals.
- ENAIRE improves airspace manoeuvres at the Tenerife South Airport by implementing the NIVARIA Project - In October, ENAIRE implemented a restructuring of airspace manoeuvres in the Tenerife South Airport (NIVARIA project) that has improved the operability of all flights at this airport and its approach sectors, as well as its connections with other airports in the Canaries.
- Airport digitisation is the true ‘digital tower’ revolution - NATS Blog - about 70% of an airport controller’s job is visual and by that, I mean it literally involves looking at aircraft out of windows. Barring some added support tools, that’s been the case since the very first control tower was built at Croydon airport in 1920. If you visit Heathrow or most other airports around the world today, the controllers are still largely reliant on being able to see planes through big panes of glass. That’s why, when that’s not possible due to low visibility, the operation has to slow right down.
- Airservices Australia releases international review of air traffic flow management reporting framework - Building on our efforts to increase transparency and foster industry understanding of the network performance, we recently engaged the International Air Transport Association to review Airservices’ air traffic flow management reporting framework.
Airports news
- An International Procurement for the Construction of the New Riga Airport Terminal has been Announced - Riga Airport has announced the first stage of construction procurement – the qualification of applicants for the construction of the Airport’s new terminal. The purpose of the procurement is to choose a builder who will construct the new building of the passenger terminal of Riga Airport, the baggage handling and sorting complex, new access roads, a multi-storey car park and the connection of the Airport with the Rail Baltica station.
Market news
- RAC and ADB SAFEGATE Sign MoU to Develop Aviation Technology Solutions - Riyadh Airports Company, which manages and operates King Khalid International Airport, has signed a memorandum of understanding with ADB SAFEGATE, a leader in smart airport solutions, to facilitate collaboration, discussions, and trials of advanced technological solutions.
- Egypt boosts critical airspace communication with FREQUENTIS - Frequentis’ fastest end-to-end voice over IP communication system will be installed at several important air traffic management facilities. VoIP and fully redundant VCS to seamlessly integrate with upcoming digital radio connections.
Context information
- Future aviation skills strategy research - British Aviation Group - The report considers current skills and training standards in the aviation sector, to see how they can adapt to new technologies. To do this, the researchers engaged with the aviation industry to establish the current roles, skills, and entry-routes in or into the aviation sector and to assess the sector’s future skills needs.
- CANSO meets with China's Aviation Authorities - Simon Hocquard, Director General of CANSO travelled to Beijing this week for a far-reaching conversation with Ma Bing, Deputy Administrator of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, and separately with Wen Xuezheng, Acting Director General of the Air Traffic Management Bureau, where they discussed the challenges being faced by air traffic management in the Asia Pacific region.
- Singapore supports global progress on air navigation priorities - ICAO’s Air Navigation World – ATM Procedures for Today event, which was hosted by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, has facilitated global implementation of mature air traffic management procedures through focused knowledge sharing.
Reports and data
- Aviation Leaders Integrate Global Surveillance Data at the Dubai Airshow - Metron Aviation - Metron Aviation will showcase its Post-Operations Evaluation Tool (P.O.E.T.)—an advanced analytical tool used by the aviation community to view and analyze ATM operations and airspace system performance.
- Fraport Traffic Figures – October 2023: Passenger Numbers and Aircraft Movements Still Climbing - Aircraft movements climbed by 14.3 percent year-on-year to 40,720 takeoffs and landings – the highest value for a single month since October 2019.
- Traffic figures for October – nearly level with last year - The Avinor Group - There were 56,535 commercial flight movements in October. That is 3 percent fewer than in October last year. Compared to October 2019, there were 9 percent fewer flight movements in October 2023.
Research and innovation
- Information overload: why sometimes less is more and How Artificial Intelligence can help - Digitalisation in aviation is transforming the way the industry operates, and one area where it has made a particularly significant impact is in air traffic management. With the proliferation of data and technology, it’s crucial for ATM systems to be able to process and utilise this information effectively in order to improve efficiency and safety.
- What does your future flight roadmap look like? - NATS Blog - The last four years have been a fast, furious R&D journey which started when a project called Future Flight Challenge dropped onto my desk, a £125m UK Research and Innovation government initiative to stimulate the development and application of new aviation technologies... Blog post by NATS
UAV and UTM
- CASA expands unmanned airspace trial areas around Sydney Airport and Sydney harbour - Unmanned airspace - The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and Airservices Australia have announced new airspace, around Sydney Airport and Sydney Harbour, will be added in the automated airspace authorisations trial for certified commercial drone operators from mid-November 2023.