Bringing key actors together to tackle the challenges of CNS

The floor was mainly given to the participants and this was widely appreciated by the participants. There were over 300 of them. 36% were from the aeronautical industry: 29% from ANSPs; 8% were from airlines/airspace users; 5% from universities. Most participants are based in Europe and the Middle East but some came from North America.

The five plenary sessions were mainly multilateral discussions, oriented on the perspective of customers: airspace users, ANSPs, CNS service providers, institutions and industry. The brainstorming sessions, moderated by stakeholders and EUROCONTROL experts, came up with a wide range of creative and constructive ideas.

Not before time. Communications, navigation and surveillance today can be inefficient and wasteful. Legacy systems are expensive to maintain and will, for the most part, no longer be entirely fit for purpose once SESAR solutions have been widely deployed.

The thinking these days is that CNS should not be split into its component parts but become a single domain. Service provision is ramping up.

Legacy equipment can be rationalised – so helping with cost-savings – and a Minimum Operational Network put in place. Of course, safety being foremost, robust back-up will need to be there.

The aim of the symposium was to create a common vision for CNS and to identify workable ideas. It took a careful look at emerging services and worked out how to cater for new entrants on the scene. Particular emphasis was given on how to guarantee global interoperability for manned and unmanned craft; for civil and military airspace users.

Ideas for modernisation and rationalisation were elaborated; recommendations on a potential CNS framework to support the future evolution of CNS were outlined. There was also a wide consensus on the need to have a strong leadership at European level and to continue to work with all the stakeholders to prepare the future.

Having had this rich exchange of views and collected a sizeable number of workable ideas, we now need to focus on having industry deliver the next-generation of CNS equipment.

EUROCONTROL and ANSPs have to concentrate on service definition and monitoring.

We at EUROCONTROL believe that we can play a role in facilitating all this work by providing a neutral, unbiased platform for exploration, discussion, trials.  This symposium teaches us that we can bring people together to work together - without being overly prescriptive.