Providing confidence in the future of ATM

A CANSO media briefing discussed the future of the air traffic management (ATM) industry.

A major element is the Airspace World event, with the 2025 Lisbon version confirmed as record-breaking with some 7,000 attendees and 220 exhibitors. “The content in this event drives the industry forward,” said Simon Hocquard, CANSO’s Director General. “I’m learning something new every day.”

Alongside the global edition, CANSO has announced Airspace World Asia Pacific in December 2025 in Hong Kong and Airspace World Abu Dhabi in October 2026. To further bolster its representation in the Middle East, CANSO will also open a new Middle East office in Riyadh.

“We are the global voice, and we need to be globally represented,” said Hocquard.

With that in mind, he noted CANSO’s intent to move its headquarters to Montreal, Canada – the home of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and other industry associations. This will enable CANSO to better influence the key decisions that will be made in the coming years.

Such efforts are necessary as the pace of change in the industry is accelerating and the next two decades will see a massive transformation. Travellers are clearly showing a demand for air connectivity and every national economy has a reliance on air transport. In the next two decades, traffic will double.

The airspace and air traffic services of today will not be able to accommodate such demand, which is why CANSO’s Complete Air Traffic System (CATS) is so vital. The CATS Global Council brings together everybody with an interest in the future of airspace management to deliver safe, seamless, scalable and sustainable skies by 2045.

CATS will deliver foundational transformation and performance breakthroughs. In terms of foundational transformation, the key principle is interoperability. This is about data sharing, cloud-based and open architecture, and a shift to True North. Performance breakthroughs will come from trajectory-based operations, automation, enhanced airspace management and intelligent separation.

CATS has already produced a concept of operations (CONOPs) to guide the industry forward. This strategic roadmap is a call to action and an open invitation to collaborate.

To demonstrate the importance of collaboration, Hocquard shared the stage with, among others, Rob Weaver from Eve Air Mobility, who agreed that ATM must evolve to allow new entrants to deliver on their promises of a more connected world. Eve Air Mobility is building an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that will be ready for entry into service in 2027. There are already some 30 customers for the product. He noted that the CATS CONOPS is essential to their business as it provides “confidence in the future of ATM”.

The session concluded with an intense panel discussion on all aspects of future skies, from cost through to workforce issues. Although the price of transformation through to 2045 is as yet unknown, the point is that the result will be a fit-for-purpose, more efficient, cost-effective airspace. The need to engage with young talent was also highlighted with CANSO’s Tomorrow’s Voices having a big role to play.

Photo: © ATC Network