FF-ICE – Flight and Flow Information for a Collaborative Environment

A great document from unexpected quarters Before anyone misunderstands, I would like to stress that receiving a great document from the Air Traffic Management and Performance Panel (ATMRPP) is not what is unexpected. It is more the scope of the document that was surprising, given its relatively humble beginnings. That the document is also visionary… Continue reading FF-ICE – Flight and Flow Information for a Collaborative Environment

SESAR and SWIM – things are slowly becoming reality

Good news at long last Not so long ago, I was asked to make a presentation about System Wide Information Management (SWIM) to the participants of a project we are involved in. While most of the audience noted what I said and asked a few relevant questions, there was also a small minority who expressed… Continue reading SESAR and SWIM – things are slowly becoming reality

THALES setting up ATM research center in Australia

The Australian arm of THALES is busy setting up a brand new research and development center in Melbourne, Australia to work on advanced air traffic management systems. The new center called CASIA (Centre for Advanced Studies in ATM) will concentrate the firm’s work on new air traffic management systems for Australia as well as the… Continue reading THALES setting up ATM research center in Australia

Air Traffic Management déjà vu

Reading Henning’s article and with my up-close-and-intimate involvement in the SESAR definition phase (and the 20 or so years leading up to it) I could not escape a terrible feeling of déjà vu. This was only strengthened when I read the news about ANSP CEOs rumbling that the performance targets of the EU’s Single Sky… Continue reading Air Traffic Management déjà vu

Is SESAR doing what the airlines intended?

Exclusive interview with Dr. Henning Hartmann Today we bring you an exclusive interview with Dr. Henning Hartmann, who was, during the SESAR Definition Phase with Lufthansa German Airlines and representing the Airspace Users, he was also the person responsible for the development of the SESAR Concept of Operations (ConOps). He will give us his views… Continue reading Is SESAR doing what the airlines intended?

Air-ground voice communications – the vital and often weakest link. New guide from EUROCONTROL for GA pilots

It is a curious fact of life in air traffic management that it is impossible to do ATC without proper communications yet the air-ground voice communications system as we know it to-day is both a hindrance to increasing capacity and a potential source of serious incidents. The former is due to the fact that a… Continue reading Air-ground voice communications – the vital and often weakest link. New guide from EUROCONTROL for GA pilots

Why lower delays are a problem for developments in air traffic management – a diabolical reality

Aviation is a cyclical business and it is only recently that airlines are managing, to a certain extent, to smooth the worst of the boom and bust swings. In the past, aircraft were ordered at a prodigious rate when business was booming only to see the additional capacity materialize exactly when business started to go… Continue reading Why lower delays are a problem for developments in air traffic management – a diabolical reality

Are ATM operational concepts the cause of failure?

I have known Jean-Marc Garot, the former director of EUROCONTROL’s Experimental Centre in Paris for a long time. A forward thinker and in many ways a visionary, he retired from EUROCONTROL in 2005. He has now published an interesting article in The Controller magazine with the title “What is an ATM concept?” I think everyone… Continue reading Are ATM operational concepts the cause of failure?

Three short questions on the SESAR Concept of Operations answered

Over the past year we have published several posts dealing with SESAR in general and the SESAR concept of operations in particular. Some of those posts voiced concerns and uncertainties. In an exclusive interview with Michael Standar, SJU Chief Air Traffic Management, published here in May 2010, we attempted to answer the concerns… to some extent… Continue reading Three short questions on the SESAR Concept of Operations answered