This session turned attention to the consumers of ATM services, the airlines and the airports.  Alain-Hervé Bernard, Chief Operating Officer of Air France and Jost Lammers, the CEO of Munich Airport and President of ACI Europe, joined Florian Guillermet the Executive Director of the SESAR JU to discuss the issues of most concern and what ATM innovation could do for them. 

What is stopping us rethinking ATM?

The crisis in aviation is being felt equally by all parts of the ecosystem.  For airports and airlines the drop in traffic has been catastrophic, but it does offer a chance to focus on the issues that will matter most going forward.  That includes continuing to focus on sustainability and on increased efficiency, as well as improved predictability.  Finally, passenger confidence needs to be restored.  That will include needing to assure passengers that the end-to-end process is coordinated and safe.

What might a rethought industry ecosystem look like?

Sustainability and predictability both start en-route.  There is an increasingly urgent need to finish the SES2+ process.  On the ground, there must be more integration of airside/landside processes; between stakeholders at different airports; and between the airports and the air traffic network, making use of existing solutions such as the SESAR airport operations centre (APOC)  This will enable more reliable decision making, better planning and more precise execution.

Within each airport data needs to be available in a coordinated way involving all stakeholders.  There is a clear role for the airport to become the coordination point for these processes.  Airports have an opportunity to evolve from an infrastructure provider into one controlling and steering the airport processes both airside and landside, including operations taking place within the terminal maneuvering area (TMA).

Specific proposals include:

• Developing standards and moving forward with the implementation of APOCs for efficient airport stakeholder communications;
• Focusing on making passenger flows manageable.

How do we get there?

There is a clear need for collaboration and innovation.  That will call for sensible and focused investment, which in an environment of reduced liquidity will call for hard-nosed prioritisation and strong cooperation between stakeholders.  Understanding that there is a clear role for ATM in airport processes and in airline airport processes will be a good start.

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