EUROCONTROL - Articles and news items

Egis selected by EUROCONTROL to provide support to CASCADE safety-related activities

Airport news / 4 October 2010 /

The EUROCONTROL CASCADE programme is aimed at planning and co-ordinating the European implementation of ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast). This technique relies on aircraft automatically broadcasting their identity, position and other aircraft information to enhance flight safety and efficiency.

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Improving efficiency while helping the environment

Issue 5 2010 / 1 October 2010 /

The latest developments in Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) and Continuous Descent Approaches (CDA)

If you work at a large airport, the chances are that you will be affected by at least one, if not both, of these initiatives. Implementation is rolling out across Europe. For CDA we are well on the way to 100 airports by 2013, while for A-CDM we expect eight airports by the end of next year. (more…)

COMSOFT: ARTAS Goes to Italy

Airport news / 29 September 2010 /

The Italian Air Navigation Service Provider ENAV has decided to join the ever growing circle of ARTAS users to be well prepared for future European programmes.

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Joint Industry CDA implementation win-win-win: saving fuel, cutting emissions, reducing noise

Airport news / 16 September 2010 /

Aviation organisations across Europe today announced further progress in reducing emissions and noise from aircraft, as part of the industry’s commitment to a sustainable future.

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Egis studies the impact of solar activities on GNSS-based aviation applications over Europe

Airport news / 30 June 2010 /

GNSS operations from the En-route to the Approach and Landing are going to be widely implemented over Europe in the coming years. Taking into account upcoming high solar activity, there is a need for EUROCONTROL – the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation – to study ionosphere effects on global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) applications in order to plan mitigation measures in the context of future GNSS-based aviation applications.

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CANSO CEOs Discuss Volcanic Ash – Call for Stronger European Safety Regulator

Airport news / 15 June 2010 /

CANSO, the Global Voice of ATM, has held a discussion on the fallout from the volcanic ash situation in Europe. This was the first time the CEOs of ANSPs from across the globe have been gathered together to discuss this issue.

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Dieter Kaden remains Chairman and CEO of DFS until the end of 2012

Airport news / 4 May 2010 /

On Monday, the Supervisory Board of DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH appointed Dieter Kaden as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors for a further two years.

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Volcanic ash aviation crisis to be addressed by EUROCONTROL and KPMG in online panel discussion

Airport news / 21 April 2010 /

Whilst flights may no longer be grounded, the European ash crisis continues to impact airlines, passengers and cargo around the world. UBM will be holding an interactive, online discussion at 15:00 BST this Friday, 23 April, to address the situation, examine what happened, and identify what needs to be done next.

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Integrating Airports into the future Air Traffic Management System

Issue 2 2010 / 5 April 2010 /

Aviation has been especially badly hit by the economic crisis. Airlines worldwide lost €7.9 billion in 2009 and a further €4 billion loss is forecast for 2010. Traffic in Europe declined by 6.6% in 2009 – the biggest fall on record and one which has had a severe impact on all in air transport. Although key hubs such as Frankfurt and London Heathrow fared slightly better than average, traffic at many European airports declined by double digit figures.

Before the current debate about aviation and climate change, which has seen the aviation sector rise to the top of the global environmental agenda, questions about the sector’s impact focused on the environmental impact on regions surrounding airports. As entry and exit points to the aviation system, airports have long had to deal with questions about noise and air quality in their vicinity.

This issue is still a pressing one and recent Air Traffic Management (ATM) programmes are making strides in not only lessening aviation’s overall environmental impact, but also in reducing the impact airports have on their localities. While the short-term economic outlook may force airports to tighten their belts and cut costs, there are strong arguments as to why they need to keep investing now for the future. (more…)

Reducing the environmental impacts of ground operations and departing aircraft

Issue 2 2010 / 5 April 2010 /

Following on from the successful “Arrivals Code of Practice”, UK aerospace industry experts from the airlines, airports, air traffic controllers, CAA and DfT chaired by A|D|S, have been working towards a similar Code of Practice for Ground Operations and Departing Aircraft.

A ‘Departures and Ground Operations Code of Practice’ has been developed by experts in the UK from airports, airlines, the UK air navigation service provider (NATS), CAA, DfT as well as the aerospace manufacturer’s trade organisation, A|D|S, who took on the running of this project. The aim of this exercise was to try to define what current ‘best practice’ looked like and then attempt to promote this across the whole industry. One positive aspect has been that, along the way, the group has helped to dispel some myths and misconceptions, both at the UK and at the international level via ICAO.

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The continuing rise of continuous descents

Issue 6 2009, Past issues / 11 December 2009 /

Continuous Descent Approaches (CDA) are on the rise: March 2009 marked the launch of the European Joint Industry CDA Action Plan, backed by IATA, CANSO, ACI-EUROPE and EUROCONTROL₁. Since then, according to EUROCONTROL’s CDA Implementation Support Team, implementation progress has been non-stop. Why are CDAs gathering this momentum?

Continuous Descent Approaches are an aircraft operating technique which reduces the amount of level flight in an arriving aircraft’s descent; this reduces fuel burn and also has benefits in reducing noise. In fact, it has been calculated that in the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) area, CDA has the potential to save over 150,000 tonnes of fuel per year, the equivalent of almost 500,000 tonnes of CO2. That’s not to mention an estimated one to five decibel reduction in noise impact on the ground per flight₂.

The European Joint Industry CDA Action Plan supports the SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research Programme) requirement for CDA to be in widespread practice by 2013. SESAR aims to deliver greater safety, capacity and environmental sustainability. With such a target, the support of all industry partners is essential in its implementation. (more…)

Prevention of Runway Incursions at Joint Use Aerodromes

Issue 4 2009, Past issues / 16 July 2009 /

Runway Safety is a vital component of aviation safety as a whole. The predicted growth in air traffic implies that the actual numbers of incidents may rise, unless held in check by preventive actions such as those recommended in the European Action Plan for the Prevention of Runway Incursions (EAPPRI). Over recent years, there have been a number of runway incursions in the European region, which resulted in three actual collisions, with a significant loss of life. The actual EAPPRI was approved by EUROCONTROL’s Provisional Council in April 2003.

Airports are key nodes of the aviation network, and airport capacity is a main challenge to future air traffic growth1. The number of slot-controlled airports has grown constantly over the last 10 years. Airport capacity is indeed becoming the limiting factor in overall system performance.

Central to the EAPPRI recommendations is the uniform and consistent application of ICAO provisions. The recommendations are generic, and it is for the national organisation responsible to decide upon specific implementation where joint-use aerodrome operations take place. The current EAPPRI recommendations are applicable where military aircraft operate as general air traffic. (more…)

EUROCONTROL’s Challenges of Growth 2008 Report

Issue 6 2008, Past issues / 3 December 2008 /

EUROCONTROL publishes a series of studies aimed at providing decision makers with up-to-date assessments of the challenges presented by the increasing demand for air transport. The latest, ‘Challenges of Growth 2008’₁, is the third in the series and looks at those long-term challenges needing long-term solutions. (more…)

Change and challenge in European Air Traffic Management

Issue 3 2008, Past issues / 30 May 2008 /

It might be a truism, but change is gradually changing. This can be seen in the accelerating rate that new inventions are adopted wide-scale. The World Bank recently conducted a study into this and found that in the past, it took a long time before new technology was adopted.

It took 120 years for trains and open-hearth steel furnaces to be widely used; even the telephone took over a century to really catch on. Aviation and radio, invented in the early 20th century, were accepted a degree faster in some 60 years, but the rate of acceptance of new technology is growing rapidly. In 20 years, personal computers and CAT scans were embraced and mobile phones took only 16 years to achieve more than 80% of country coverage.

Change and new technology feature strongly in the field of Air Traffic Management; here in Europe, we find ourselves on the brink of a new era. The SESAR programme (Single European Sky ATM Research Programme) will see the development and implementation of radically new equipment, approaches and procedures. (more…)

Mitigating aviation’s impact on the environment

Issue 3 2007, Past issues / 7 June 2007 /

Aviation faces a truly major challenge: growth. In the past 50 years, it has grown by a factor of 20 and annual growth of around 3-7% is expected in the next 20 years – which means that 1995 traffic will have doubled by 2020. The question is: how can this growth be made sustainable?

It is undeniable that people want to travel more and more. It has never been so easy or so cheap to fly. But concerned air travellers do not want their flights to have a negative effect. (more…)