Weekly review #20 – 11th of October 2019

This weeks marks the 20th issue of our weekly review and the release of our exclusive report on Artificial Intelligence in Air Traffic Control. We get a lot positive feedback and the FoxATM Market Radar keeps growing. Thank you to all our early adopters and supporters. Expect more from us in the coming weeks and spread the word, it really helps.

Market news

• US Air Force buys 6 deployable ILS from Thales - These ILSs can be rapidly installed at tactical airfield and airfields where the existing ILS are damaged
• ADB Safegate launches OneControl MLAT - This is one more step towards being a single source A-SMGCS supplier
• ERA to extend the MLAT network of ENAIRE at Madrid Barajas airport - The extended system will comprise 46 ground sensors and make mixed used of MLAT and ADS-B
• Kazakhstan appoints CAA UK international to implement UK's regulatory model - ANSPs acting commercially are now common but seeing a civil aviation authority offering its service is still somewhat new

ANSPs news

• Gibraltar airport closed again due to ATC staff shortage - The situation remains tensed at Gibraltar as ATCOs don't want to take overtime and resources are extremely limited
• ACI traffic report for August shows continuous traffic growth - Passengers traffic is up 3.8% but freight is down 4.0%. Sweden is on the negative side, possibly because of the strong flight shaming movement
• Ryanair points a finger to ATC - And it's an angry finger, naming NATS, DFS, DSNA and ENAIRE “the worst ATC providers in September”

Innovation and research

• NLR and ENAV present the results of research on virtual stop bars - This was part of the dissemination event of SESAR's SUMO project
• Egis white paper on the future of ATM - This white paper identifies drivers for change and possible scenarios
• White paper on human factors by EUROCONTROL and DFS - This article released as part of the ENAIRE, DFS and EUROCONTROL conference "Human Factors and Systems Safety Thinking". It details 9 principles of Human Factors in 40 pages

Drones corner

I attended the EUROCONTROL high level workshop on drones detection last week. The presentations are available via the link above, including a feedback from Gatwick Airport on the incident which affected them. The biggest take aways are that there will be no one-size-fits-all solution and that the European Commission, EUROCONTROL, airports and ANSPs work at different paces. Some talk about producing a common concept of operation and discuss the scope while other are already purchasing drone detection systems. One key point of the scope definition is to define if it is ANSP's or airport's role to care for attacks classified as terrorism, using drones not sending any signal and with really bad indentions. Should civil activities be limited to incidents caused by ignorant or imprudent drone operators or also those with bad intentions? The means required are different and have different costs too.

• Poilce report on the Gatwick incident is released - There were 129 credible sightings but no arrests and the police force now stops investigation
• DFS paper on the UTM system - This article discusses the plans, architecture and goals of the UTM system being implemented by the German ANSP
• ATCA's president on the future of ATC - Ahead of ATCA's convention, its president and CEO discusses the future of ATC and this includes drones too

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