In June 2009, as a consequence of the tragic loss in the Atlantic Ocean of Air France Flight 447, the European Commission requested the SESAR Joint Undertaking to take an action on the improvement of monitoring of air traffic in oceanic and remote low density airspace. Consequently, the SESAR Joint Undertaking launched OPTIMI (Oceanic Position Tracking Improvement and Monitoring Initiative) as a collaborative project with air navigation service providers, airlines, manufacturers, SATCOM providers and other entities involved in the aviation sector at the European Atlantic airspace.

The members of the CEDAR consortium were selected to undertake the OPTIMI study on behalf of the SESAR Joint Undertaking. The consortium addressed the issues raised about the tracking of oceanic air transport.

In addressing the study scope set by the SESAR Joint Undertaking, the CEDAR consortium identified a range of short and medium term solutions that would lead to a significant improvement in flight tracking, requiring, in some cases, only minor, inexpensive modifications to existing systems. Indeed, for some ANSPs providing oceanic services, these changes are now in place. The additional cost of such messages represents only a small fraction of the total costs of communications for any transatlantic flight; nevertheless, some room for optimisation still exist. ADS-C allows an aircraft to report its position and any level or lateral position deviations automatically without the pilot having to interact with, or make voice reports to, ATC.