Leading airspace users, airports, air navigation service providers and the EUROCONTROL Network Manager outline plans to drive the modernisation and digitalisation of European ATM

24 November 2020 – An innovative Partnership of leading airspace users, airports, air navigation service providers (ANSP) and the EUROCONTROL Network Manager (NM), jointly released a set of high-level principles to drive and effectively coordinate the modernisation of the European air traffic management (ATM) system over the coming years.

HungaroControl as a member of the SESAR Deployment Alliance (SDA) signed this high level principle with the intention to support this new partnership with its innovative solutions and world-class R&D activities. The Hungarian ANSP has been actively involved in SESAR projects from exploratory research to deployment, covering the whole innovation lifecycle.

The Partnership is perfectly placed to provide decisive and clear added value to ATM stakeholders and the European aviation system. Its members possess a wealth of operational and institutional expertise as well as large-scale programme management experience, bringing under one roof AIRLINES, ANSPs, ACI EUROPE representing Europe’s airports and the EUROCONTROL NM as Consortium Coordinator.

Together, the Partners have defined the following high-level principles to:

  • build and make use of an unprecedented pool of civil and military ATM expertise, know-how and skills
  • simplify the processes to perform the required tasks, better focusing resources and efforts
  • expand perspectives beyond EU boundaries to support stakeholders across the whole European network
  • combine a performance-based and passenger-centric approach with the Network perspective
  • focus resolutely on the environmental performance of ATM to support the European ‘Green Deal’
  • deliver the highest level of buy-in from all involved stakeholders thanks to inclusive stakeholder consultation mechanisms
  • widen the scope to all major deployment and infrastructure initiatives requiring synchronisation at pan-European level
  • establish a closer link between the technology innovation cycle and ATM operations addressing the most urgent priorities and operational needs
  • defragment deployment and coordinate investments through a reinforced programme management approach
  • create a “virtuous cycle” to link and de-risk all phases of the ATM lifecycle through close cooperation with the SESAR Joint Undertaking.

The Partnership intends to build on the achievements of the SESAR Deployment Manager (SDM) and SESAR Deployment Alliance (SDA), and is ready for the future steps in deployment activities in view of the forthcoming call for proposals by the European Commission, covering the term mid-2021 until at least 2027.