When I arrived in Paris in 1983 as a freshly hired ICAO Technical Officer RAC/SAR, the relationship between EUROCONTROL and ICAO was tense to say the least. ICAO, this all-important world-wide body, a specialized organization of the UN, was becoming ever more cumbersome and a thorn in the eye of some European states who back… Continue reading European Commission Signs Memorandum of Cooperation with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
Category: Shop floor talk
News from all quarters of the industry
Incredible story – or is it?
Imagine an American opening his daily paper and finding an article about Boeing Commercial Airplanes that ran something like this. “It was announced to-day that Boeing’s VP for Customers was leaving the company even before its CEO and COO are to swap places later this year as called for by the agreement between the State… Continue reading Incredible story – or is it?
Chinese airlines – corruption to the rescue
That high speed train lines are a direct threat to air services between city pairs within an hour from each other is no big news and a good example is the almost total disappearance of air connections between Paris and Brussels for example. The biggest assault on air services by high speed trains has been… Continue reading Chinese airlines – corruption to the rescue
Airbus now also an air traffic management company
Several years ago, Boeing was so worried about the sad state of air traffic management in the US and Europe that they actually thought it would adversely impact their customers to the point where they would end up buying fewer aircraft… This was the stated reason for the establishment of Boeing ATM, a new division… Continue reading Airbus now also an air traffic management company
Incentives for Early Airborne CPDLC Equipage
The LINK 2000+ programme has been working on the definition of incentives schemes for early airborne equipage since 2005. Various creative schemes were explored with stakeholders, such as reduced route charges for those that equip early. However, it proved impossible to get stakeholders to commit to such schemes even though the principles of the route… Continue reading Incentives for Early Airborne CPDLC Equipage
Air/ground digital link and CPDLC – Airworhtiness and compliance
Stakeholders have expressed some uncertainty about how to comply with EC 29/2009, the Data Link Services Implementing Rule. In partnership with the European Commission and EASA the EUROCONTROL LINK Programme has been working to address those concerns. A stakeholder workshop was held in March 2010 to address the issues and a brochure is now available… Continue reading Air/ground digital link and CPDLC – Airworhtiness and compliance
Progress in the Russian skies
The former Soviet Union was known for many things but in aviation circles it became notorious for two things: their insistence on using metres standard instead of flight levels and the radio failure procedures applicable to aircraft heading into Soviet airspace. While the ICAO rules said that an aircraft unable to communicate should proceed to… Continue reading Progress in the Russian skies