Press release

iTEC members and EUROCONTROL continue to grow their partnership in the joint development of interoperability capabilities essential for the Single European Sky

Madrid, Spain – EUROCONTROL and the members of the iTEC Collaboration, which includes Air Navigation Service Providers from across Europe, today signed a Collaboration Agreement which meets the growing demand for air travel in Europe in a safe and efficient way.

The agreement enables the sharing of essential data which assists in the delivery of the SESAR concept of operations, outlined in the European ATM Master Plan, being deployed by iTEC members.

The signing of the collaboration agreement sees the joint development of the Flight Object Manager (FOM) and the System Wide Information (SWIM) Node which underpins the future exchange of flight trajectory data, having significant enhancements of consistency across system boundaries.

Today recognises the next stage in the ever growing partnership between the iTEC collaboration members and EUROCONTROL. This collaboration agreement will enable the joint definition of operational concepts, common requirements and shared development of the Flight Object Manager and SWIM services. It demonstrates the commitment of iTEC and EUROCONTROL Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre with the development of SESAR IOP and European interoperability infrastructure.

Sharing flight trajectories between Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) and EUROCONTROL’s Network Manager is one of the key functionalities required by the European Commission’s Pilot Common Project legislation. The joint development of the FOM and SWIM components enables this to happen.

The SESAR IOP operational concepts are being validated in SESAR projects thanks to the collaboration between European ANSPs and industry.

Robert Schickling, Chair of the iTEC Board/Steering Group and Managing Director Operations DFS concluded: “With Flight Object Interoperability, the iTEC partners are working together on technologies that are decisive for the future of the Single European Sky. All the air navigation service providers involved in guiding an aircraft from A to B will share all the information needed for this flight.

This will mean they can jointly – in coordination with the Network Manager – make decisions at an early stage to enable the optimal route. The trajectory-based technology is the foundation for the enhanced performance of the ATM system in Europe. The iTEC partners are looking forward to working together with EUROCONTROL on this project.

John Santurbano, Director of EUROCONTROL’s Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre concluded: “This agreement is a significant milestone that strengthens the collaboration between iTEC and EUROCONTROL and a first step towards the deployment of a Flight Object Interoperability in an operational environment. We look forward to implementing the Flight Object at the earliest possible opportunity and roll out the latest technologies that will take us to enhanced ATM services.

For any individual media enquiries please contact the following:

DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung
Andrea Schäfer
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 0049 6103 707 4112

NATS
Luke Law
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 00 44 7919 626 789

AVINOR Air Navigation Services
Erik Lødding
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0047 930 07 689

PANSA
Agnieszka Byrt
E-mail: [email protected] 
Phone: 00 32 471 57 10 92

EUROCONTROL
Mireille Roman
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 00 31 43 3661352

ORO NAVIGACIJA
Julija ČIŽIENĖ
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 00 370 706 94 736

LVNL
Loek Houtepen
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 00 31 6 2000 7061

ENAIRE
Begoña Andres Martin
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 00 34 912 967 501

Note to editors

The Founding Members of the iTEC Alliance are DFS of Germany, Enaire of Spain and NATS of the UK. Other members of the iTEC Alliance are Avinor of Norway, LVNL of the Netherlands, PANSA of Poland and Oro Navigacjia of Lithuania.

EUROCONTROL is an intergovernmental organisation with 41 Member States. Operated by EUROCONTROL on behalf of four States, EUROCONTROL’s Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) provides cross-border air traffic control for the upper airspace of Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and north-west Germany. Some 1.9 million flights pass through MUAC’s area of responsibility each year, making it the third busiest air traffic control facility in Europe in terms of traffic volume. During the summer, peak days see close to 5,700 flights.

Latest highlights

Adam Tisza, Marco Vismara, Sevastian Zakora & Humberto Carvalho
Article

LORD adds speed and flexibility to decisions by Maastricht controllers

World ATM Congress 2020 branding
News

“Europe for Aviation” team up for Airspace World 2024

Press release

Greater efficiency in European airspace: aircraft can now fly thousands of additional direct routes in the core area of Europe

Contrails conference
News

EUROCONTROL-CANSO Sustainable Skies Conference: reducing contrails and their non-CO₂ effects on global warming through operational mitigation

ATCO Days 2019
News

Happy International ATCO Day!

John Santurbano
Article

Airlines back MUAC’s new greener route plan