French air navigation services provider DSNA and Thales have partnered to develop the French component of the 4-FLIGHT air traffic management system.
The 4-FLIGHT program was launched in 2008 by DSNA and the Italian Air Navigation Service Provider (ENAV) and is based on the COFLIGHT flight data processing system, a new human-machine interface, and new controller decision support designed to comply with the SESAR program’s Single European Sky. The companies plan to have it deployed in two airspace control centers (ACC) by 2015.
"4-FLIGHT will allow the DSNA to start using, from 2015, a new ATM system which will provide interoperability with the systems used by its European partners … This will enable us to respond to the ever increasing volume of air traffic and will provide a foundation for the SESAR system,” said Maurice Georges, director of DSNA.
The program will gradually be rolled out in all of France’s ACCs and major approaches in the next 10 years. "As a result of this collaboration, we will be able to expand Thales’s new ATM product line, by adapting it to the Core Area of European airspace and the very dense and complex volumes of air traffic that are managed by French control centers. 4-FLIGHT will be a continuation of our current EUROCAT product, and will allow us to offer solutions to our clients for gradual migration as part of our European product policy,” said Jean-Loïc Galle, senior vice president, air operations, Thales.