EUROCONTROL recognised twice in prestigious Jane’s Awards

On 5 March 2012, at a ceremony taking place the night before ATC Global 2012, EUROCONTROL received two of the prestigious Jane’s ATC Awards.

EUROCONTROL won in the category “Contribution to European Air Traffic Management” for the European ATS Route Network project.

The EUROCONTROL Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) together with Airbus and Noracon also won in the category “Enabling Technology” for their work on Initial four-dimensional (I-4D) trajectory management.

The ARN Version-7 project is the product of a coordinated, integrated partnership of states, their civil and military experts, air navigation service providers and international organisations. It will improve flight efficiency by at least 10% from 2011 to 2014: flying distances will be reduced by approximately 12 million nautical miles – a saving of 72,000 tons of fuel, a decrease of 240,000 tons of emissions and financial savings of €60 million.

“The main idea of a Single European Sky is to have an airspace route network that is based on traffic flows and not national boundaries and this project is helping to achieve this. To date, more than 6 million nautical miles have been eliminated through ARN Version-7,” said Razvan Bucuroiu, Head of EUROCONTROL’s Operations Planning Unit.

Initial 4D trajectory management is a joint project between EUROCONTROL’s MUAC, Airbus and Noracon. On 10 February 2012, the Airbus A320 test aircraft flew from Toulouse to Stockholm using for the first time an I-4D flight profile. This world’s first four dimensional flight marked an important step towards SESAR’s goal of more efficient, environmental friendly and predictable flights.

The 4D trajectory concept introduces time to the classical three dimensional trajectory. “Greater certainty about the position of every aircraft in the sky at any given moment will improve safety, efficiency and flight predictability as well as reduce fuel burn and emissions. The more efficient resource planning which this allows will in turn enable a greater carrying capacity for both airports and the European sky in general,” said Herman Baret, MUAC’s Head of ATM/CNS Strategy and Development.

For more information on I-4D, visit: http://www.eurocontrol.int/articles/i-4d

Access the European ATS Route Network (ARN – version 7) report