Will public funds be available to help SESAR along?

If nothing else, the recent wholesale grounding of aviation in Europe will have been an eye opener even to the most recalcitrant and aircraft hating citizens and politicians of the old continent. Some people still tend to regard aviation as a toy of the rich and transport for holidaymakers which damages the environment and should… Continue reading Will public funds be available to help SESAR along?

EUROCONTROL reorganizing – is this good for you?

Visiting EUROCONTROL these days is a bit like entering a five star hotel during off-season in a bad year. Empty offices at every turn and talk in the corridors that tends to focus more on individual futures than on trajectory based operations and other exotic ideas. Yes, EUROCONTROL is reorganizing (again…) but they are also… Continue reading EUROCONTROL reorganizing – is this good for you?

Flying AIRE – the pilot's view

AIRE (Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions) is a joint initiative between the European Commission and the FAA. It is the green component of the SESAR programme. In 2009, 1,152 flight trials in operational conditions were carried out on the European side. Claude Godel was the Pilot in Command of the first complete green transatlantic… Continue reading Flying AIRE – the pilot's view

Blogs, aviation and the rest of the social media

When we started Roger-Wilco, a lot of people questioned the format. For some, a blog was not the right format for dealing with the serious questions of air traffic management. I could see the point in as much as a lot of blogs are indeed little more than a place for certain individuals to air… Continue reading Blogs, aviation and the rest of the social media

Who is in charge here?

Those of us who have served the airline industry know full well that what may appear as a monolithic industry (all airlines fly aircraft after all, do they not?), is in fact a multitude of differing business models, interests, attitudes, readiness to invest in new things, inertia, vision and what have you. Even within the… Continue reading Who is in charge here?

Staff associations officially involved in SESAR – essential but…

As made known by SESAR News 2, five major staff associations representing a wide range of professional operational and technical skills across the ATM domains (e.g. pilots, air traffic controllers and assistants, handling staff, flight and air traffic safety electronics engineers etc.) are currently signing framework contracts with the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) through EUROCONTROL… Continue reading Staff associations officially involved in SESAR – essential but…

Standing all together… separately?

Reading the upbeat communication from the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) announcing the arrival of the airspace users on board the project, it may be worthwhile to take a look at the composition of the new arrivals and start worrying… just a tad mind you but still. There are individual airlines, both big and small and associations… Continue reading Standing all together… separately?

Banging on an open door?

The SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) has just announced that they are launching a specific initiative on flight tracking in oceanic and remote areas. The call for tender (OPTIMI) is meant to select contractor(s) for the performance of a study and flight demonstrations – co-funded for a maximum amount of € 360.000 -aimed at demonstrating the feasibility to implement oceanic tracking… Continue reading Banging on an open door?