EUROCONTROL celebrates two decades of ARTAS success

At a ceremony which took place on 8 November, EUROCONTROL celebrated 10 years of the ARTAS service and 20 years since the launch of the ARTAS concept.

Launched in 1991, ARTAS, the ATM surveillance Tracker And Server, was developed at the request of Member States who were aiming to build up EUROCONTROL’s central role in technical coordination and its expertise in communication and surveillance. It is one of the most advanced surveillance data processing systems in the world, and is the backbone of safety and efficiency in the ATM network.

ARTAS is a system designed to establish an accurate picture of all traffic over a well-defined geographical area and to distribute the relevant surveillance information to a community of user systems. ARTAS has guaranteed high-quality surveillance data for European aviation and supported interoperability by constantly promoting worldwide standards for surveillance data exchange. It is currently used by 15 ECAC states at 27 civil and military Air Traffic Control Centres while at least 13 additional States are planning to put it in operations.

“ARTAS is a good example of the importance of the Network – a network that is becoming ever more important as traffic grows and as a single event can cause ripples of disturbance right across Europe”, said David McMillan, Director General of EUROCONTROL. “It is an excellent example of how a united approach can bring real benefits, reducing fragmentation and improving integration”, he added.

“ARTAS now has 1.3 million operating hours and has demonstrated a remarkable level of reliability. This is vital for an activity which is central to the safety of aircraft and their passengers”, said Jacques Dopagne, Director Network Management. “We need reliability that is measured not in failures per year but rather the number of decades between failure”, he concluded.