Two continents, one sky: NAV CANADA becomes the first ANSP beyond Europe to join the SESAR Joint Undertaking

NAV CANADA has been granted associate membership in the SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking (SESAR JU), the European Union's public-private partnership for the modernization of air traffic management, becoming the first air navigation service provider beyond Europe to join. The decision formalizes something pilots and passengers experience every day: Canada and Europe already share a sky.

NAV CANADA manages more than 18 million square kilometres of airspace, including the western half of the North Atlantic, the world's busiest oceanic corridor and the gateway between North America and Europe. Membership gives the company a formal seat alongside Europe's leading air navigation service providers, manufacturers, airlines, airports and research organizations, providing a direct opportunity to influence air traffic management research while unlocking access to future SESAR funding opportunities. It also extends the Digital European Sky, SESAR's vision for modernized air traffic management, beyond Europe and deepens the interoperability that keeps traffic moving seamlessly across the Atlantic.

"Canada and Europe have shared a sky for as long as aircraft have crossed the Atlantic. Two years ago, we joined the iTEC Collaboration and now we are honoured to share the table where its future is designed," said Mark Cooper, President and Chief Executive Officer of NAV CANADA. "Our membership in SESAR will help shape a safer, more efficient and sustainable sky for travellers around the world."

While the membership is new; the groundwork behind it is not. NAV CANADA has secured a role in four major SESAR research projects, formalized through grant agreements signed earlier this month, with a combined contribution valued at approximately $7 million.Canada's participation is made possible by its association with Horizon Europe, the European Union's research and innovation programme, which it joined in 2024. The projects align directly with NAV CANADA's Trajectory-Based Operations (TBO) program and broader airspace modernization strategy, with work set to begin in September 2026.

The Four SESAR Projects

ARTEMISA, a project of the iTEC Collaboration, of which NAV CANADA is also the first member from beyond Europe, strengthens common system development across iTEC partners and supports long-term interoperability between Canadian and European air traffic systems.

NETWORK TBO 2, led by Eurocontrol, advances Flight and Flow Information for a Collaborative Environment (FF-ICE) concepts and supports early flight trials for trajectory-based operations, in direct alignment with NAV CANADA's TBO Phase 1 workplan.

GEESE 2, led by Airbus, extends flight trials of wake energy retrieval, in which a trailing aircraft draws on the lift of the aircraft ahead to burn less fuel and cut CO2 emissions. NAV CANADA's contribution focuses on the regulatory, standards and procedural work required to bring the concept safely into operations.

NATICA, led by Frequentis, integrates long-range air traffic flow management, target time of arrival, arrival sequencing and operational resilience research into a single framework, with the potential to influence operational models worldwide.

"These four projects are not adjacent to our modernization program; they are part of it," said David Sheppard, Vice President and Chief Technology and Information Officer at NAV CANADA. "Every concept we test with partners like Eurocontrol, Airbus and Frequentis, from trajectory-based operations to arrival management, feeds directly into the technology roadmap for Canadian airspace. The research flows both ways, and Canada's operational experience flows with it."

"This milestone rests on years of working shoulder to shoulder with partners across the North Atlantic," said Blake Cushnie, Director, TBO Airspace and European Programs at NAV CANADA. "Our long-standing collaboration with NATS in particular helped lay the groundwork, and this membership now lets us take that work further, establishing Canada as the gateway to Europe from North America and more closely aligning operations on both sides of the ocean."

Research for a Cleaner Sky

The projects also place NAV CANADA at the forefront of efforts to reduce aviation's climate footprint. Some target greater efficiency, cutting fuel use and emissions, including the wake energy retrieval trials in GEESE 2. Others advance research into contrails, a major contributor to aviation's climate impact beyond CO2, whose formation depends on precisely how and where aircraft are flown, making air navigation one of the most powerful levers to address it. With responsibility for some of the world's busiest oceanic airspace, where major international routes converge, NAV CANADA brings Canadian expertise to research whose results will be felt across the world's skies, not only over Canada.