Weekly review #14 – 30th of August 2019

The most noticed event this week was the flight of a large UAV - dubbed "air taxi" - in the CTR of Helsinki. This demo was part of the Gulf of Finland U-Space series by the SESAR Joint Undertaking. It involved the whole chain, from an unmanned air taxi vehicle to an air traffic controller in the tower. An "air taxi"-sized UAS, UTM and ATM all working hand in hand in controlled airspace. What is the most impressive part? The number of partners involved, particularly at UTM level. Read more (including the full list of participants) on the "very large" U-Space demonstration. Will the high number of players remain or will there be some consolidation in the near future? Will the boundary between ATM and UTM vanish? Share your comment!

ANSPs and market news

• Leonardo's "auto-triangulation" software starts operation at NATS Distress and Diversion cell - it combines multiple direction finders to automatically locate pilots using the emergency frequency
• Canard Drones successfully validated the PAPI at Edmonton - It is not the first time we post about such results by Canard Drones but the growth of their portfolio of clients is impressive
• DFS' PHOENIX WebInnovation starts operation at Hamburg Airport - this ATC grade radar display runs into a browser and is now available to vehicle drivers at Hamburg airport.
• ENAIRE allocates a 12M€ budget to create a technical monitoring center
• skyguide uses SIEMENS' Polarion to handle compliance reporting and other ANSPs re-use the same tool
• Bangalore airport selects UNISYS to integrate all IT and non-IT systems
• Raytheon and FREQUENTIS USA partner on Remote Virtual Towers. As suppliers of the STARS system used by FAA in terminal airspace, Raytheon is in good position to play a major role in tower modernisation in the US
• EUROCONTROL provides an AIP dataset coding guide to help ANSP make the transition to digital AIS.

Food for thought

• The mechanism we use to define the price of ATM services dates back from the 70's and aims at being simple and covering the costs. It his model now outdated and it is time to change the way ATM is priced? ANS Czech Republic's Director of Strategy Lubos Hilnovsky addresses this hot topic. Shall the ATM price be route specific? This article about the most profitable airline routes also raises interesting questions...
• Silos are still present in the air travel industry. Initiatives like A-CDM helped to partly break them but we are still far away form the Total Airport Management concept. This article by SITA addresses way to bust silos using APIs and by creating a Trust Framework.
• Talking of A-CDM, this article brings us back to the basics and reminds us that airlines play a major role in A-CDM and that there is no such thing as a "fast-track" implementation.

The drones corner

• NUAIR Alliance's CTO pleads for better standards and defines the way to a "fielded" UTM system.
• Learn more about UTM and take a deep dive in the Flight Information Management Systems for drones (long read)

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