Weekly review #33 - 24th of January 2020

Air traffic decreases in Europe. Really? For at least the last 20 years, traffic forecasts stick to plus 5% a year. Even after September 11th, traffic numbers recovered rapidly. Lately, news regularly reports a reduction and this comes from official sources like NATS, EUROCONTROL, DFS and the BBC. The latter refers to numbers in Sweden and relate to the "flight shaming" movement.

Is there a real trend here? Some reports refer to one month only, other to the full year 2019. The results of NATS and DFS are also impacted by industrial actions in France and Germany. Are those significant enough to explain these numbers? Or does flight shaming really have an impact at European level? It is hard to say at this time but we will follow this topic. In an industry where revenues directly depend of the number of flights or of passengers, this could cause real trouble.

ANSP news

• Light traffic decrease in EUROCONTROL area - The EUROCONTROL network operation report for December 2019 shows a light decrease in traffic. This could be due to industrial actions but also to flight shaming.
• 0.4% traffic decrease in German airspace - As EUROCONTROL, the German ANSP DFS reports a slight decrease of traffic in 2019

Market news

• ACAMS first I-TWR delivered to India - The I-TWR integrates data from various sources (excluding surveillance and flight plans) and presents them in an integrated way to the ATCOs. The FAT is completed and the deployment will take place in the coming weeks.
• Cambridge Pixel adds ADS-B to their display products
• UFA delivered its AT Voice capability to DFS - The German ANSP will use the voice recognition driven simulator in the context of SESAR projects
• Rohde and Schwarz to provide new VCS to finnish ATC
• Leidos selects Rohde and Schwarz for the FAA flight services VCS
• EUROCONTROL coming iNM call for tender - The iNM project, planned for 10 years, will modernise the Network Manager and introduce new technologies. This short video by Iacopo Prissinotti, Director Network Management, highlights the key points of the coming programme.

Context information

• skeyes history in a eBook - The book covers the history of the Belgian ANSP, from the Régies des Voies Aériennes in the 40's to today and unveils plans for the future.
• Sam Chui video on LVNL operations - Sam Chui is a well known aviation blogger. He recently visited the LVNL operations and the resulting video is a nice introduction to how ATC works there.
• Virtual tower for ramp control operated by airlines in the US - ANSPs are not the only organisations using towers. In the US, airlines provide ATC for their own ramps and they also start using remote towers.
• European Plan for Aviation Safety 2020-2024 published - The new version includes drones and also integrates environmental aspects
• EUROCONTROL support to member states - Besides NM and route charges, EUROCONTROL suports member states in key projects. This is a look back at what happened in this context in 2019.

Reports and data

• EUROCONTROL ATM performance 2019 - The data is now available under https://ansperformance.eu/

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