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| EC to fund a litany of centralized services to improve ATM. Photo: Eurocontrol |
[Avionics Today 02-18-2015] The European Commission (EC) has announced that it will support proposed Centralized Services (CS) initiatives with funding from the Trans-European Transport Network Multi-annual Work Program 2013 in the field of Air Traffic Management (ATM). The idea behind CS is that there are a number of Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) services that could be run more efficiently at a central and network level. By implementing the nine proposed centralized service improvements, which include projects to enhance ATM performance, interoperability and reduce costs, the EC aims to up efficiency and competitiveness of the European ATM system.
“This is good news for Europe, as advanced technology coming out of the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) program will now be supported both in content and financially by the European Commission. These are technologies that will be implemented centrally beyond the borders of the EU and for all of the 41 Eurocontrol member states,” said Frank Brenner, director general of Eurocontrol. “Following the outcome of the recent ICAO Montreal High Level Safety Conference, it is timely to work intensively on the tracking of aircraft which we do with the European Tracking Service (EKTR) – CS3.”

Brenner believes the current ATM datalink deficiencies in Europe have resulted in a 5-year delay to implementing the EC 29/2009 mandate, and that the new support for CS will help to develop a fully managed air and ground datalink infrastructure. 


“With six calls for tenders already launched, the CS program is now well underway,” said Herman Baret, CS program manager at Eurocontrol. “The direct funding from the European Commission will help us to ensure that this development phase will successfully deliver a concept that will contribute to the establishment of CS in Europe and the opening of ATM services to market forces.”