Dare to be Different

It was an honour to host a panel discussion focused on the technology elements of the Asia Pacific ATM Modernisation White Paper published earlier this year. I was joined by some of the most esteemed industry experts, including representatives from State Key Laboratory of Air Traffic Management System China, Indra, Aerospace Solutions Department NEC, Thales, Aireon and Frequentis.

The White Paper was a collaboration by CANSO, Think Research, regional States and ANSPs. It sets out a series of recommendations for essential ATM modernisation in APAC to accommodate the forecasted 5% year-on-year traffic growth to 2043 - the largest growth forecast of all global regions. For Asia Pacific’s ATM network to support this growth will require a holistic and collaborative approach to ensure optimum benefit realisation, and to avoid constraints or bottlenecks being transferred from State to State like the swinging spheres of a Newton’s cradle.

Overcoming the complex challenges that lie ahead will require innovative thinking by governments and the full breadth of industry stakeholders, all of which will need to be brave enough to do things differently. For decades, the backbone of the aviation industry has been built around bespoke air traffic management systems, ensuring the safety and functionality of airspace, and supporting the economic growth of nations. However, this approach has not been without its challenges, including substantial costs, programme delays, and the ongoing financial burden of maintaining complex infrastructure. As the White Paper makes clear though, a one size solution doesn’t fit all and that is not unique to Asia Pacific.

Overcoming the complex challenges that lie ahead will require innovative thinking by governments and the full breadth of industry stakeholders, all of which will need to be brave enough to do things differently.

The panel explored several key areas such as embracing a service-based operating model, creating alliances to enable cost-effective and scalable technology acquisitions, introducing a common operating information system (OIS) to foster resilience, and embracing virtualisation as an organisational solution to enhance services. The benefits of which are easily found, however extracting recommendations from a document and creating a harmonised and collaborative approach towards implementation is not so easy.

Discussing key topics at the Conference

Much of the work put in place by institutions like ICAO are aimed at a network enabled future for ATM, requiring a paradigm shift in the way that Air Navigation Service Providers operate – and cooperate through alliances. For example, the dawn of the jet age created a need for civil/military co-operation across borders in Europe, so countries came together to create and jointly an alliance, now known as EUROCONTROL. Since its inception back in the 1960s, EUROCONTROL has grown to provide key functions that support its members and the smooth running of the ATM network across the continent.

The stunning Anshun Bridge in Chengdu

Multi-Nodal Air Traffic Flow Management is a great example of how collaborative alliances across a number of key ANSPs in Asia Pacific have combined forces to develop a solution to achieve a common goal for the region, pioneering an innovative approach to flow management that is now potentially planned to be replicated across the Middle East and elsewhere.

But what is stopping this approach being adopted by all APAC ANSPs? Being in Chengdu with leaders from Asia Pacific’s ANSPs, technology providers, and industry & research institutes, provided the ideal opportunity to debate these big issues and understand how to really make a difference, and like the famous Chinese Philosopher, Confucius once said “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps”.

There was amazing participation from the region with a realisation that change is required rapidly and at a truly regional scale. Moreover, there was a great sense of harmony across states and a greater focus on collaboration, such as CANSO’s Path Finder Project looking towards regional implementation of Trajectory Based Operations and Free Route Airspace.

There was amazing participation from the region with a realisation that change is required rapidly and at a truly regional scale.

Sticking with the theme of how technology can enhance operational performance, I was also pleased to join Indra at their event workshop where I discussed the deployment capability of Intelligent Approach onto the Indra ManagAir Platform. The workshop was well attended by CANSO members and was an excellent opportunity to provide an insight on the world’s only time-based separation tool and its proven ability to enable enhancements to runway capacity and operational resilience. This performance enhancement capability will be critical for airports in region which are either currently or due to reach capacity constraints given the significant regional forecasted growth.

The conference not only demonstrated the essential need for regional collaboration and adoption of new practices in ATM, but with 40,000 drone movements currently operating per day in Mainland China, it was also clear that the embracement of New Airspace User technology is becoming front and centre for the region. I am sure that this will likely to be even more of a focus point at the next CANSO APAC Event, hosted in Hong Kong.

An eVTOL on display at the conference