European Aviation Safety Seminar (EASS) – March 1-3, 2011, Istanbul

The Flight Safety Foundation European Aviation Safety Seminar (EASS), is held annually at various locations in Europe, and focuses on aviation safety challenges of interest to Europe. The EASS is co-presented by the European Regions Airline Association (ERA) and EUROCONTROL. EASS 2011 will be held in Istanbul, 1-3 March 2011. SKYbrary, EUROCONTROL’s single point reference… Continue reading European Aviation Safety Seminar (EASS) – March 1-3, 2011, Istanbul

Encouraging news from the SWIM front

System Wide Information Management (SWIM) is one of the mainstays of both SESAR and NextGen. It has been known for some time now that a lot of the shortcomings in air traffic management (ATM) are directly or indirectly related to poor management and limited or non-existent sharing of the sea of information actually available at… Continue reading Encouraging news from the SWIM front

ATC Global 2011 – Amsterdam RAI, 8-10 March 2011

Although ATC Global claims to eclipse all other industry events, this yearly jamboree of the ATC “industry” is not judged equally useful by those involved. Through clever marketing and a bit of luck, ATC Global has grown into an event which many feel must be attended (or rather, they feel you cannot afford not to… Continue reading ATC Global 2011 – Amsterdam RAI, 8-10 March 2011

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

A-CDM project launched in Vienna – about time too!

If you read my rants and raves (here and here) about how collaborative decision making (CDM) was not really working in Vienna, you will be surprised to hear that there is in fact a CDM team there, imaginatively called CDM@VIE and they had a kick-off event with 60 or so participants on 6 September this year.… Continue reading A-CDM project launched in Vienna – about time too!

EASA and SESAR to cooperate closely in future

On 10 November 2010, the Executive Directors of the SESAR Joint Undertaking and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), Patrick Ky and Patrick Goudou, signed cooperation and working arrangements to secure EASA’s support regarding the implementation of the SESAR work programme. EASA’s expertise is sought in different domains, including impact analysis of new concepts on… Continue reading EASA and SESAR to cooperate closely in future

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

CANSO joins ACI-Europe and EUROCONTROL to accelerate A-CDM roll-out

The threat of climate change, the global economic crisis and the resulting changes in the structure of the European aviation market have led to a renewed focus on efficiency and performance for Europe’s airports. In October 2008, ACI EUROPE and EUROCONTROL signed a collaboration to increase operational efficiencies at European airports. This collaboration revolves around… Continue reading CANSO joins ACI-Europe and EUROCONTROL to accelerate A-CDM roll-out

European Parliament vote endorses new rules for investigation and prevention of aviation accidents

Like so many things in united but still fragmented Europe, the investigation of aviation accidents has long been an area where differing State legislations rules the day and often prevented vital information from being shared to improve future safety or, conversely, the abuse of information by judiciary authorities to allocate blame rather than to learn… Continue reading European Parliament vote endorses new rules for investigation and prevention of aviation accidents

Paul the octopus

What is the connection between an octopus and flight plan adherence? Daily across Europe, regulations are put in place to protect ATC from receiving more traffic than the controller can handle safely. However, it regularly happens that more aircraft than planned enter these protected sectors, exceeding their capacities by more than 10%, which is regarded… Continue reading Paul the octopus