Winners Announced!

IHS Jane's rewarded collaborative and innovative efforts to improve airspace management on 9 March, in a ceremony held during the CANSO ATM Dinner in Madrid.

The 15th annual IHS Jane's ATC Awards included entries from major consortia as well as relative newcomers to the airspace management industry, with 42 nominations received in total. These were shortlisted and pared down to the winning entry in each category by a panel of experienced judges representing the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Eurocontrol, the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations (IFATCA), and IHS Jane's .

The winners in the six categories are summarised below, with honourable mentions for those shortlisted entries which came close.

Environment Award: DFS in co-operation with Eurocontrol and Lufthansa

The two-year Free Route Airspace Maastricht and Karlsruhe (FRAMaK) project ended in May 2014. Trajectory-based direct and User Preferred Routes over Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands could save airlines up to 9,000 tonnes of fuel and 30,000 tonnes of CO ₂ emissions per year. FRAMaK partners drew up 466 cross-border direct route options, which could cut 1.5 million n miles for airlines each year.

 

Theo Hendricks, MUAC Capacity programmes manager, Klaus-Dieter Scheurle, chairman and CEO DFS, and Marita Lintener, DLH head of SESAR deployment, accepted the Environment Award. (IHS/Patrick Allen)

Shortlisted

Eurocontrol and ACI Europe: Collaborative Environmental Management (CEM) Specification

FAIR STREAM consortium led by DSNA (including DFS, skyguide, Air France, SWISS, DLH and Airbus ProSky): FABEC ANSPs and Airlines in SESAR Trials for Enhanced Arrival Management (FAIR STREAM).

TOPFLIGHT consortium (NATS, British Airways, NAV CANADA, Airbus ProSky, Boeing, and Exelis): TOPFLIGHT environmentally optimised transatlantic flights.

Enabling Technology Award: NATS, Snowflake Software, DSNA, EUROCONTROL, IAA, and Exelis

Representatives of NATS, Snowflake Software, DSNA, EUROCONTROL, IAA, and Exelis received the Enabling Technology Award. (IHS/Patrick Allen)

Heathrow Cross-Border Arrival Management (XMAN) exchanges arrival information relating to aircraft landing at Heathrow with air traffic controllers in different European countries, enabling collaboration to reduce the time aircraft spend circling in 'holding stacks' around London by slowing aircraft 350 n miles from the runway. The result is a saving in fuel and carbon emissions, as aircraft are more efficient when flying at high altitude.

Shortlisted

Airbus ProSky: China ATFM/CDM concept of operation.

FAA and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, supported by Harris, Mosaic ATM, Metron Aviation, and CSSI: NextGen Mini-Global Demonstration.

NAV CANADA: domestic Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC).

Service Provision Award: NATS, NAV CANADA

Andy Smith, head of Operational Strategy and Requirements of NATS, and Kim Troutman of NAV CANADA picked up the Service Provision Award. (IHS/Patrick Allen)

NATS and NAV CANADA envisage multiple benefits from their Collaboration on Oceanic Airspace Systems and Tools (COAST) programme, and have already successfully implemented the GAATS+ ATM Platform to transform services across the North Atlantic. Expected benefits from GAATS+ include annual fuel and CO ₂reductions of 38,800 tonnes and 123,400 tonnes, respectively.

Shortlisted

Airports Authority of India: air navigation service improvements in India.

Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore: use of inter-ANSP ADS-B data for air traffic control.

HungaroControl: re-opening of upper airspace over Kosovo (KFOR sector).

Technology Award: CS

Laurent Regulier, CS product manager, received the Technology Award. (IHS/Patrick Allen)

SEDUCS from CS protects ATM systems against cyber intrusion. First factory acceptance tests of the target systems were successfully completed in 2014. SEDUCS is engineered to meet civil and military requirements, and has been implemented in IP-based voice communication, recording, and replay solutions.

Shortlisted

AEROTHAI: Flight Data Management Center (FDMC).

Eurocontrol, Frequentis: SWIM-enabled open architecture for the advanced tower controller working position.

Isavia, Frequentis: Europe's largest ATM air/ground IP voice communication system.

Innovation Award: Aeronautical Services and Procedures

Ian Whitworth, MD of ASAP, with the Innovation Award. (IHS/Patrick Allen)

ASAP and Norwegian company Aurinko teamed up to provide the Norwegian Air Ambulance (NLA) service with Point in Space (PinS) instrument flight procedures directly into hospitals. A complex structure of en route GPS flight procedures, covering southern Norway, enables the NLA to carry out lifesaving helicopter operations under adverse weather conditions, which previously grounded flights. To date ASAP has created 33 PinS procedures, and it plans to develop 40-50 more.

Shortlisted

AirIT: Video Analytics Management System (VAMS).

Aveillant: 3D Holographic Radar.

C Speed: LightWave Radar.

Runway Award - Federal Aviation Administration

Teri Bristol, COO of the FAA Air Traffic Organization, accepted the Runway Award. (IHS/Patrick Allen)

The FAA Air Traffic Organization led the development and phased implementation of intersecting flight paths known as Converging Runway Operations (CRO). Working with MITRE Corporation, an FAA-led task force developed a customised automation tool that provides air traffic controllers with an optimised reference to avoid possible conflicts between arriving and departing aircraft. The aim is to proactively prevent risk and possible conflicts between departures and arrivals.

Shortlisted

Eurocontrol, Airbus, EASA: RECAT-EU revision of wake turbulence categories.

Exelis: Exelis OSYRIS Arrival Manager (AMAN) integrated with Collaborative Flow Manager (CFM).

SESAR JU and its member projects: SESAR Airport Safety Nets.