User Requirements for Air Traffic Services – IATA booklet

Publisher: IATA
IATA has put together a very useful booklet offering a better understanding of international airlines’ requirements and capabilities for communications, navigation, surveillance and air traffic management.
Gunther Matschnigg, IATA Senior Vice President, Safety, Operations and Infrastructure, has this to say in his introduction to the booklet:
“There are times when airlines are taken by surprise from announcements of new equipment for air traffic control being purchased that, as far as airlines are concerned, holds little promise of benefit. In most of these cases, airlines and other airspace users were not consulted during the planning process and the technology was bound to disappoint.
Such misadventures are costly to everyone and are a waste of scarce funding. Regrettably, such undesirable situations continue to occur today, when waste can be ill afforded by the air transport industry.
On the other hand, successful procurement projects are invariably associated with a planning and consultation process that draws upon input from representatives of the airspace users, as well as equipment manufacturers and neighboring States. Such planning also helps airlines schedule their own investments in aircraft technology to work in synch with new air navigation services equipment, leading to clear operational benefits.
Based on a thorough understanding of airspace user requirements and capabilities, these projects are far more successful in providing much-needed benefits to airspace users in terms of increased safety, on-schedule operations and cost efficiency.”
The booklet aims to help ensuring that ATM projects of all kinds are based on the real requirements of the airspace users and not guesses or technologies for technologies’ sake.
Download the booklet here.