Sep. 30, 2017

The SESAR Joint Undertaking has signed several contracts with the airspace user community*, covering expert support in the context of SESAR 2020. Through these contracts, all categories of airspace users are represented, namely the European scheduled airlines, global airlines, business aviation, rotorcraft and general aviation*.

Within the contractual framework, airspace users will assist the SESAR JU in its monitoring of SESAR 2020 project activities and deliverables to ensure they reflect the business needs of the stakeholder community. They will also provide documented advice or proposals to the SESAR JU, allowing it to take informed decisions regarding the programme’s content. Specifically, their support will cover priority and gap analyses, technical or impact analyses, and participation in workshop and events.

“We are very pleased to have the airspace user community on board in SESAR 2020,” said Florian Guillermet, Executive Director of the SESAR Joint Undertaking. “Their engagement in the programme will be critical to the delivery of SESAR Solutions that can bring tangible benefits to airspace users, not to mention the passengers and businesses that make use of their services.”

“Within SESAR 2020, general aviation and rotorcraft are keen to help the SESAR JU clearly define SESAR Solutions that benefit the distinct operational and technical needs of this community,” said Dr Michael Erb, Managing Director AOPA Germany. ”Developing solutions targeted at our community means that we can contribute to meet the performance goals of the European ATM Master Plan. It also means that solutions can be delivered to increase access to airspace and airspace integration for all,”

"ATM operations have to evolve with increased pace in order to accommodate the continuing traffic growth while reducing the overall aviation footprint. The ATM business model has to change in order to bring greater cost effective and improved services to the customers. The future ATM systems will have to be highly automated, innovative, pioneering, with greater integration between air and ground and based on digitalisation,” said Laurent Renou, Air France, Head of ATM/CNS /SESAR Programme. “Air France, British Airways, easyJet, Lufthansa group and Ryanair have a common interest in ATM modernization and decided to join their expertise and experience to provide it to the SESAR Joint Undertaking with a resolute expectation that tangible and measurable operational performance improvements will become a reality through a pragmatic step approach."

“Thanks to SESAR 2020, IATA strongly believes the EU can play an influential role globally -and particularly in the context of the ICAO and EASA harmonisation activities - by achieving the right interoperability between NextGen and SESAR, based on the cooperative activities between the U.S. and the EU,” said Manfred Mohr Assistant Director RSFO (Regional Safety and Flight Operations) SESAR 2020. “Harmonisation work will advance in air navigation systems worldwide whilst supporting cooperation, clear communication, seamless operations, and optimally safe practices in the Single European Sky.”

“SESAR aims to enable modernisation and harmonisation of ATM systems in Europe. Pragmatic solutions gradually worked on during SESAR 1 enabled positive outcomes for Business Aviation: initial RNP to LPV has been demonstrated in regional airports, EFB solutions have been developed that can help operators without Flight Operation Centres, the ‘Augmented Approaches to Land’ Large Scale Demonstration promoting RNP to xLS operations, Enhanced Flight Vision Systems (EFVS) and Synthetic Flight Vision Systems (SVGS). SBAS is also part of SESAR 2020 and EBAA expects the programme to cover even more SBAS-based activities (e.g regarding ADS-B, LPV). The EBAA Consortium will continue to offer its services in providing better insights into Business Aviation operations. The aim is to make sure that SESAR develops solutions fitting the operational needs of all airspace users, serving the entire network, both large and small aerodromes,” Vanessa Rullier-Francaud, Senior European Affairs Manager.

*Contracts were signed with the following airspace user bodies: