All matters environmental are sensitive and aviation has been in the cross-hairs of the environmental lobby for a long time. Somehow the substantial improvements already made and those in the pipeline have not generated the level of interest they deserve. The fact that the still hopelessly inefficient air traffic management system in places like Europe… Continue reading The EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) – why the fuss?
Tag: EC
TITAN Kicks-off its “Integration in the Air Transport System” and Holds Fourth Progress Meeting
The EC 7th Framework Program project TITAN is slowly approaching the final leg of its exciting three year circuit looking at improving the aircraft turnaround process. The TITAN partners gathered in Madrid, Spain, on 14-15 December to review progress and to kick-off WP6. I will come back on the significance of this work-package in moment.… Continue reading TITAN Kicks-off its “Integration in the Air Transport System” and Holds Fourth Progress Meeting
Are Airspace Users Really the Centre of ANSP Attention?
More than a decade ago I was in the thick of a war raging between airspace users and air navigation service providers. At stake was the forced implementation of Mode S Enhanced Surveillance (ES), something some ANSPs considered to be vital while the airspace users in general considered to be an expensive folly. The business… Continue reading Are Airspace Users Really the Centre of ANSP Attention?
Old habits that refuse to die
Things like the Single European Sky (SES), SESAR, even the FABs were supposed to bring a fresh air to European ATM, dispensing once and for all with bad habits and procedures that kept making life for airspace users unnecessarily hard and expensive. Among those old habits, the persistent mismatch between mandates to equip aircraft and… Continue reading Old habits that refuse to die
Commission Report Puts the Lie to Claims that ATM is in Great Shape
Regular readers of Roger-Wilco know that we have been sounding alarm bells over the European ATM situation and the even brighter future that some reports would make us believe is just around the corner. We did not make many friends with this kind of reporting… of course. It is much nicer to believe that all… Continue reading Commission Report Puts the Lie to Claims that ATM is in Great Shape
EU to invest 32 billion Euros to improve European transport – SESAR is one of the beneficiaries!
The European Commission has adopted a proposal to transform the existing patchwork of European roads, railways, airports and canals into a unified transport network (TEN-T). The new core network will remove bottlenecks, upgrade infrastructure and streamline cross border transport operations for passengers and businesses throughout the EU. It will improve connections between different modes of transport… Continue reading EU to invest 32 billion Euros to improve European transport – SESAR is one of the beneficiaries!
The advantages of not being American
Remember how we used to say to anyone willing to listen just how wonderful the FAA was and how happy they should be in the US for having just one big ATM organization to contend with? This was of course before NextGen and the current reshuffle of the FAA to make it better suited to… Continue reading The advantages of not being American
The significance of services in TITAN
As you may have heard, TITAN is an EU 7Th Framework project working on improving the predictability and efficiency of the aircraft turnaround. Its name says it all: turnaround integration in trajectory and network. Building on the baseline to be provided by Airport CDM (A-CDM), TITAN will make the details of the turnaround process more… Continue reading The significance of services in TITAN
When Titans speak
Mid-March Aviation Week published a double interview in which Canso director general Graham Lake and Air Traffic Control Association president/CEO Peter F. Dumont spoke their minds about air traffic management developments on both sides of the Atlantic. The interviews were refreshing and revealing. They both spoke about the prospects of SESAR and NextGen frankly and… Continue reading When Titans speak
Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB) – The best thing since sliced bread!
It is definitive now, FABs are the greatest invention since sliced bread! I mean, what other construct would give European Air Navigation Service Providers the chance to boast about doing things now that they should have done decades ago but failed to because of parochial thinking? It is hard to understand why they were so… Continue reading Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB) – The best thing since sliced bread!