[Avionics Today 06-30-2015] The Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) Deployment Manager (SDM), an alliance of 11 European Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs), 25 airports and four airlines, has delivered the SESAR Deployment Program to the European Commission’s Directorate General for Mobility and Transport, Marizio Castelletti. The SESAR deployment manager’s team sees the delivery of the deployment program as a significant milestone that will guide the transition from research and development to the implementation of the Single European Sky initiative through 2025.
Maurizio Castelletti, Head of the Single European Sky Unit in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Transport, left, accepts the SESAR Deployment Program from Massimo Garbini, managing director of the SESAR Deployment Manager. Photo: SESAR Deployment Manager.
Through the Deployment Program Version 1 (DP V1), SDM identified specific projects that the government-industry team responsible for delivering the Single European Sky must perform to comply with the Pilot Common Project (PCP) regulation approved by the European Commission in June 2014. The PCP identifies
six specific Air Traffic Management (ATM) initiatives that will be implemented through 2025 to modernize the European-wide air traffic system and help Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) address projected future increases in air traffic volume.
These six specific elements include:
-Air traffic synchronization to improve aircraft arrival and departure management; improving airport integration and throughput by fully integrating airports into the ATM network;
-A shift from airspace to 4D trajectory management, giving all air and ground stakeholders a common view of an aircraft’s course;
-Network collaborative management, where all ATM stakeholders progressively share more precise data to build a common air traffic picture or Network Operations Plan (NOP);
-Conflict management and automation to reduce controller workload per flight;
– System Wide Information Management (SWIM) to enable the exchange of ATM information via interoperable services.
Moving forward, the deployment alliance will await approval of DP v1 by the European Commission prior to actually deploying new air and ground infrastructure to support ATM modernization.
“After the European Commissions’ approval, [Innovation and Networks Executive Agency] INEA will turn it into the technical specification for the next [Connecting Europe Facility] CEF Transport Calls for Proposals on ATM,” Massimo Garbini, managing director of the SESAR deployment manager told Avionics Magazine.
“Therefore, it has direct influence on investment decisions by the stakeholders required to invest in order to implement PCP and European Union’s decisions to award CEF grants to support those stakeholders that contribute to Europe’s ATM modernization in accordance with the Deployment Program. By connecting planning and investments towards a common European wide objective, the Deployment Program aims to optimize private and public investments in ATM and bring the best value for money,” he said.
According to the SDM, DP V1 supports more than $2 billion in government and industry investment. DP V1 includes 110 projects selected out of 143 candidate proposals that the deployment alliance had been analyzing since its inception in December 2014. Among them are the use of time-based separation for final approach, free route airspace, the use of electronic flight strips and other initiatives relative to the six primary ATM modernization goals of the PCP.