Skyway No.54 - Winter 2010 By EUROCONTROL
This issue draws upon the expertise of not only EUROCONTROL, but also some of our key stakeholders – the European Commission, ESA, ICAO, the SESAR Joint Undertaking and, of course, industry partners. It focuses on a very technical subject which lies at the very heart of the future ATM system instead of communications, navigation and surveillance (CNS).
Future operations, based on the SESAR three core principles of time, trajectory and performance, will transition aviation into a new frontier where efficiency, cost-effectiveness, safety and capacity are all enhanced. However, this vision can only be achieved through improved and interoperable CNS systems arrived at through common standards and specifications applied throughout Europe and eventually worldwide. This is a huge task involving all players within the aviation community and beyond.
EUROCONTROL, sitting as it does at the centre of this community in Europe, will naturally play a pivotal role in helping to set validated standards and ensure they are implemented in a harmonious fashion. Furthermore, our status as a founding member of the SESAR Joint Undertaking will enable the Agency to ensure full consistency and continuity between the numerous technological developments arising from the programme, particularly with regard to CNS systems.
To prepare ourselves for this role, the Agency has recently emerged from a radical and fundamental reorganisation – one that enables us to focus our efforts on helping to implement the Single European Sky. We have separated our regulatory support tasks from our service provision and created an organisation based on three main directorates. In September, the EUROCONTROL Performance Review Commission was designated as the Performance Review Body, and, with the setting of the applicable performance targets, we are now ready to enter the first reference period which will run from 2012 to 2014. Next year will see EUROCONTROL refine and strengthen our ability to manage network operational activities as a means to help deliver the performance targets.