NATS and Avinor announce plans for a shared AIM system

NATS and Avinor, the UK and Norwegian air navigation service providers (ANSPs), have signed a ground breaking deal for a single common Aeronautical Information Management system.

In what will be a first for Europe, NATS and Avinor – as part of the Borealis alliance of ANSPs – will share a single platform to provide vital airspace and procedural information to airlines and airports.

Designed by Indra subsidiary Avitech GmbH, the system will allow both organisations to make significant cost savings, while the option for other ANSPs to easily join or adopt the technology offers significant potential economies of scale across Europe in support of a Single European Sky.

The system will be remotely hosted, with access provided via a SWIM compliant secure web portal. It will provide a common set of tools, applications and workflows that support all of the core AIS functions, thereby providing much more than just a common database.

“Our joint procurement has already saved both Avinor and NATS, as members of the Borealis Alliance, considerable resource and capital investment. It clearly signals the desire for ANSPs to collaborate as partners– motivated by business drivers – and achieve the aims of the European Single Sky.” said Andrew Sage, Head of NATS Information.

“From the beginnings of this project, we have been determined to secure a solution that can be readily expanded to meet the needs of other service providers as co-investors or customers. Having achieved that, we therefore welcome other ANSPs – from both within the Borealis Alliance and beyond – to join with us and benefit from this low risk, low cost route towards achieving compliance with ADQ regulations and deliver further economies of scale across Europe.”

Torunn Carlsson, Head of Technical and Aeronautical Information Management at Avinor, added: “The new system will help us improve efficiency in the IAIP production chain, and give us the opportunity to provide more and better value added Information Management services. The Aurora project will enable further cross-border cooperation and also help us to get ready for a future with more efficient information publication cycles.”

“By working together with NATS in this procurement with Avitech and by welcoming other ANSPs to use the same solution in a partnership approach, our intention is to ensure stable and robust AIM-services for many years to come.”

Aeronautical Information Management systems are at the heart of air traffic management, providing vital information which enables the safe and efficient management of aircraft in a given airspace.