Together with partners, Frequentis is committed and involved in the development of future SESAR-compliant ATM solutions. Collaboration will remain key.

What has your role been in developing SESAR; what experience and expertise have you been able to lend to the project?

Frequentis has been working with SESAR since 2008. System-wide information management (SWIM), virtual centres, remote towers and integrated controller working positions are the fields of activities where Frequentis contributes to the SESAR programme. It is an honour to be a part of developing safer, more cost-efficient and environmentally responsible operations and services. With our insights and solutions in data and intelligence, air traffic communications, virtualisation and intelligent networks we bring this expertise into SESAR – for a safer world.

How important has it been to work with other stakeholders on the programme?

When the SESAR programme first began, the community realised that technology as well as individual interests of all parties needed to be well understood before we could start to harmonise. Collaboration is key – customers, partners and also competitors working closely together to let SES become a reality. We are impressed by the collaborative working environment to create a common European sky and one joint Europe.

What do you think have been the major challenges and achievements of the SESAR JU?

Working together with SESAR Joint Undertaking and the many other contributing partners is the only way to successfully manage the challenges air navigation service providers are facing: increasing air traffic, reduction of operational costs and ensuring increased safety. The challenge is (and will be) to bring together all the manifold interests of all stakeholders. However, the results that have been achieved within SESAR 1 show that this is possible and give an optimistic outlook on the future.

From Frequentis’ point of view, a major achievement and best-practice example was the demonstration of the feasibility of virtualisation within air traffic management held on 4 February 2016 at the Frequentis headquarters in Vienna. Together with the SESAR partners Eurocontrol, NATS and skyguide we demonstrated the first multi-vendor collaboration in compliance with the SESAR virtual centre concept, a very important concept for future air traffic management.

What are your hopes for the future?

European aviation is still facing many challenges for achieving a real pan-European, interoperable and high-performing air traffic management system. My hope for the future is that with SESAR 2020 further focus will be on interoperability and service orientated architectures with voice communication considered in a digital data communication rich ATM environment. These are important building blocks of the future ATM system. Together with partners, Frequentis is committed and involved in the development of future SESAR-compliant ATM solutions. Collaboration will remain key.