In the coming years, European citizens will live in smart cities, travelling door-to-door using green autonomous vehicles and communicating using smart devices. Aviation is very much part of this intelligent transport system and will rely on technological advances to transform its services and enable seamless travel and transport for all.

To get there, SESAR is acting now by preparing a new ecosystem for aviation, and more specifically, modernising the underlying air traffic management infrastructure.

This ecosystem is built on safe and secure solutions characterised by:

• Higher levels of autonomy and connectivity of all air vehicles coupled with a smarter, more automated management of the traffic, and enabled by an “intranet of flight”.
• Mobile, terrestrial and satellite-based communications, which are used to provide real-time vehicle trajectory information, shared between vehicles and with the ground infrastructure.
• Digital and automated tools provided on board the air vehicle itself, or as part of the ground-based infrastructure.
• Virtual technologies to decouple the physical infrastructure such as sensors, communication or navigation devices from the services that are provided to manage the airspace.
• High-tech video, synthetic and enhanced sensor technologies to operate air traffic services for airports or to enable aircraft to land in low-visibility conditions.
• Big data analytics and open source data usage to encourage the creation of new services and to allow for better flight planning, airport operations and increased predictability of the overall traffic.
• System modularity to allow for scalable and easier upgrades and greater interoperability.
• System flexibility to handle increasing number of air vehicles, such as drones.

With these first solutions, SESAR has set in motion the digital transformation of aviation and its infrastructure. New SESAR smart innovations will continue to be delivered, accelerating the pace of change towards this new era in aviation.