IHS Jane’s ATC Awards 2013 acclaim the best of breed

The aviation community came together on 11 February for the IHS Jane’s ATC Awards 2013, celebrating excellence in global air traffic management (ATM).

The awards are an opportunity to celebrate the technical developments, product innovation, safety and efficiency initiatives that result in real savings for airspace users.

Almost 400 delegates representing air navigation service providers (ANSPs), industry bodies, aviation authorities, airports, airlines and regulators, attended the ceremony during the CANSO ATM Dinner at the Melia Castilla hotel in Madrid.

“This year our Awards attracted a record pool of nominations, highlighting the extensive efforts underway today to improve safety, efficiency and environmental sustainability in the skies. Not all nominations were lucky enough to be shortlisted, but their high quality contributed to another strong field of entries,” said Ben Vogel, editor of IHS Jane’s Airport Review. “This reflects the prestige of the event and to the continued importance of innovation and collaboration in civil aviation.”

Jeff Poole, director general of CANSO, said: “The IHS Jane’s ATC Awards are now well established and are rightly coveted across our industry. This is reflected by both the number and quality of this year’s entries. I congratulate those shortlisted and particularly the winners. They demonstrate the innovative mindset, the development of cutting-edge technologies, and the drive for efficiency and improved performance across our industry.”

Around 70 nominations were assessed and shortlisted by a high-ranking panel of judges, comprising senior officials from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Eurocontrol, CANSO, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers (IFATCA) and IHS Jane’s.

The winners

Operational Efficiency - Airways New Zealand for Southern PBN Implementation

The Southern PBN Implementation project more than doubled airspace capacity at Queenstown Airport, in addition to simplifying controller workload, with average delays falling to a fraction of previous levels.

Environment - GE Aviation, LAN Airlines, CORPAC , DGAC for the Green Skies of Peru Project

Performance-based navigation (PBN) procedures, designed by GE Aviation and implemented by LAN Airlines on the Cusco-Lima route, reduce journey times, cut fuel comsumption and reduce CO² emissions.

Enabling Technology - NATS, Lockheed Martin and Altran for predictive iFACTS controller tools

The iFACTS system predicts aircraft flight trajectories and enables tactical controllers to check for conflicting flights up to 18 minutes ahead, as well as testing ‘what-if’ options for optimising flight profiles. Controllers gain a predictive capability that improves their decision-making, and enables them to safely handle more flights while also reducing aircraft emissions.

European ATM Award - SESAR JU and its partners for the Updated European ATM Master Plan

The SESAR Joint Undertaking and its partners successfully delivered the Updated European ATM Master Plan', a work programme led by Eurocontrol with contribution from SESAR members.

Service Provision - Federal Aviation Administration ATO for the Proactive Safety Management Initiative

The FAA ATO continues to implement a proactive strategy for safety management that focuses on data collection, analysis and systematic identification and removal of risk as a core organisational value; committing resources to identify, prioritise and mitigate the most severe hazards in US airspace; and implementing the largest voluntary reporting system in the world.

Innovation - International Aeronavigation Systems for its Wake Vortex Flight Safety System

The Wake Vortex Flight Safety System gives situational awareness of current and predicted wake vortices for flight crews and controllers. It is the result of several years’ research and analysis work, involving many stakeholders, including Eurocontrol, and the results show significant potential benefit in terms of capacity and safety.

Technology development - Honeywell Aerospace for the SmartPath GBAS

This was the first Cat I Ground Based Augmentation System to receive FAA and international system design approval. It entered operational service at Bremen Airport in Germany in February 2012. United Airlines conducted the first successful US domestic revenue flight with GBAS at Newark Liberty International Airport in September 2012.

Special Award for Outstanding Individual Contribution to ATM - Martin Adnams

As programme manager for Link-2000, Martin is a key figure in the introduction of data link services in high-density en route airspace. Starting his career with communications between trial ground infrastructure and early pioneer aircraft in the 1990s, he progressed to the broad range of issues needed for data link implementation. These included agreement on technical specifications in the standards bodies of ICAO and EUROCAE, validation and interoperability tests needed for certification, and the ultimate political achievement of the European Datalink Mandate.