Weekly review #73- 4th November

ANSP news

• ENAIRE's CEO presents the company's future safety, innovation and sustainability strategy ENAIRE's CEO presents the company's future safety, innovation and sustainability strategy at the Forum of the Club Excelencia en Gestión - ENAIRE's CEO, Ángel Luis Arias, at the 27th Forum of the Club Excelencia en Gestión, discussed the importance of having a single purpose and properly defined and shared values when preparing the future strategies of organisations, as ENAIRE focuses on safety, quality, efficiency, innovation and sustainability.

• PANSA’s Flight Inspection is consistently increasing its foreign activity - Despite the pandemic, the PANSA aviation inspection carried out three orders for control and measurement flights for two European institutions providing air navigation services (Cyprus DCA, MoldATSA in Moldova) and for the airport manager in Chisinau, in record time! This is another foreign mission of our Parrot. 

• Interdependencies within ATM: Time to reconsider the present for a more robust and flexible regulatory system in the future - FABEC - On October 21-23 close to 250 participants from all over Europe attended the online research workshop “Interdependencies within ATM Performance in the Context of a Dynamic Environment”.

• Fully prepared for the opening of Berlin's new airport (BER) - The opening of the new main terminal on 31 October marks the first step in the process of opening Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), the German capital's new main airport. For DFS, the German air navigation service provider, this sees the end of a transition period that lasted more than eight years. 

Airports news

• ADP Ingénierie achieves the Standard 3 upgrade of the BHS at LuxAirport - ADP Ingénierie (ADPI) System teams successfully met the challenge of this project. Indeed, in addition to its complexity, this mission was carried out in a terminal in operation. ADP Ingénierie brought its great expertise in EDS Std3 upgrade, BHS and security procedures.

• Heathrow losing "Europe’s busiest airport" crown signifies deteriorating state of UK airport sector - London Heathrow has lost its crown as ‘Europe’s busiest airport’ as travel demand in the UK continues to be suppressed by the pandemic. Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport has superseded Heathrow as Europe’s busiest with 19.3 million passengers compared to Heathrow’s 19 million (2020 traffic to September).

• Fraport Develops Innovative Data Exchange Platform “FRA-OS” for Cargo Handling at Frankfurt Airport - New digital platform will standardize, simplify and speed up customs and import processes at FRA from 2021 – Project will further strengthen Frankfurt Airport’s position as Europe’s leading cargo hub – Freight operations to become even quicker and more efficient in the future.

Market news

• Azimut JSC successfully completed and defended the deliverables on the research work - Azimut JSC successfully completed and defended the deliverables on the research work «Research and development of the CPDLC procedures using VDL2/ACARS data links in the air traffic control service, the development of scientifically based proposals for the advancement of the regulatory basis governing the implementation and use of VDL2/ACARS air-ground data links».

Context information

• Joint Statement by the European social partners in Civil Aviation on payroll support schemes for aviation in response to the Covid-19 pandemic - In response to the Covid-19 pandemic most Member States implemented sensible payroll support schemes which recognised the severity of the crisis. The social partners in Civil Aviation highlight their concern at the unwinding of some of these support schemes. 

• Q&A with our Micro Nav Director, and military expert, Chris Foster - Micro Nav’s ATM Director, Chris Foster, discusses his experience of the military air traffic management (ATM) industry, and how the BEST simulator is the leading solution for training. Chris recently joined CANSO’s Operational Training Task Force, providing his knowledge and expertise in ATC training and simulation.

Reports and data

• skeyes - Runway Performance Reports - skeyes reports about the use of the runways on the different airports in 2019.

• FRACS - Air Transport Data Bulletin for October 2020

Research and innovation

• What (or who) is behind the drive for ADSPs? - As with many other sectors, Air Traffic Management (ATM) is in the middle of a wider trend of digitalisation and service-oriented design. Many of the old barriers to change, for example the need to own ground assets and base yourself nearby (due to communication limitations), are being swept away. Quality data is now the key asset. Gathering and sharing that data, and using it intelligently by adding value through integration and processing, becomes a key differentiator and opportunity.

• AI powered tool to help monitor network performance - SESAR Joint Undertaking - SESAR JU members develop a network performance-monitoring dashboard to anticipate degraded/critical air traffic situations across Europe’s network and enable timely and improved decision-making. Developed by EUROCONTROL, the dashboard (integrated network performance management and monitoring) visualises up-to-date operational information obtained from stakeholders (Airspace uses, airports, air navigation service providers).

• Is the role of air traffic controllers changing with the rise of artificial intelligence? - New and more digital technologies are slowly making their way into the air traffic management (ATM) sector, which has traditionally been a highly conservative and slow-to-move segment of the aviation industry due to its safety primacy culture. Aviation as whole is in the midst of a digital transformation where a shift in the use of analogue-based legacy technologies to the application of artificial intelligence (AI) is taking place. 

UAV and UTM

• EASA advances definition of noise certification standards and procedures at Spain’s ATLAS experimental flight centre - Unmanned airspace - The ATLAS experimental flight centre, located in Jaén, Spain, hosted a flight test campaign of up to nine drones in order to advance in the definition of noise certification procedures for this type of aircraft in early September. 

• How Scheduled Airspace Opens the Skies for UAS Operations - AirMap - AirMap and skyguide, the Swiss ANSP, recently launched a new capability: scheduled airspace. Using skyguide’s new web and mobile geo-awareness applications, UAS operators in Switzerland can now view activation schedules for specific airspace.

• FAA launches BEYOND research programme to further NAS UAS integration - The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is tackling the remaining challenges of UAS integration through a new program called BEYOND.