Winners Announced Janes ATC Awards 2012

The awards celebrate the improvements to air traffic control over the past 12 months across seven areas that are key to the future of the industry. The winners were announced at the CANSO ATM Dinner & Janes ATC Awards event on the 5 March 2012 at the Grand Krasnapolsky Hotel in Amsterdam.

Ben Vogel, editor of IHS Janes Airport Review, said: Once again the response from air navigation service providers and industry has been excellent, with almost 40 nominations received from around the world. Each of these winners reflect the importance of collaboration and innovation, as the air traffic control and airspace management communities continue to work towards greener, safer and more efficient operations.

Janes ATC Awards have established a reputation for recognising and rewarding excellence within the air traffic control industry. The judging panel is drawn from across the industry and includes representatives from CANSO, Eurocontrol, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers Association (IFATCA) and IHS Janes.

Operational Efficiency Award

Airports Authority of India upper airspace harmonisation

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is implementing a plan to enable uniform application of rules and procedures to upper airspace. Under this initiative, each flight information region (FIR) will have only one upper area control centre with multiple sectors to be operated from four major cities. The four main en route centres will be at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. In the first phase, on 22 September 2011, India successfully integrated all radars in the Chennai FIR to enable seamless upper airspace with a lower limit of FL 255.

Runners up:

• 2 ERA for the Namibian nationwide WAM system
• 3 Russia State ATM for the establishment of the Khabarovsk Consolidated Area Control Centre
• 4 Abu Dhabi Airports Company: Transition to new ATM complex
• 5 Norwegian Airlines, Gatwick: Sub 30 minute turn rounds

Environment Award

NATS 3Di environmental performance metric

The NATS 3 Dimensional Inefficiency Score (3Di) is an entirely new environmental performance metric. It is calculated as the difference between the actual flight profile, separately for climb, descent and cruise periods of flight and a modeled ideal flight based on the cruise altitude requested.  The project began in 2009 but it took more than two years to develop with collaboration from multiple airlines and IATA.

Runners up:

• 2 FAA for the Time Based Flow Management programme
• 3 The Boeing Company, Lion Air for the implementation of RNP-AR in Indonesia
• 4 GE Aviation, DECEA, ANAC, GOL: First RNP-AR paths at Rio de Janiero
• 5 Russia State ATM: RVSM

Enabling Technology Award

MUAC/Airbus/Noracon Initial 4D trajectory management operations

MUAC, Airbus and Noracon conducted the first Initial 4-D trajectory management flight trial within the SESAR technology validation programme, using an A320 test aircraft on 10 February 2012. The flight was the culmination of two years collaboration between several SESAR partners, including ground simulations and rehearsals of the flight. Initial 4-D trajectory management combines conventional three-dimensional data with time estimates computed by aircraft. Blended together, this data pinpoints aircraft positions accurately and predictably.

Runners up:

• 2 NATS for iFACTS entry into full operational service
• 3 The Boeing Company for 3D PAM trajectory-based operations
• 4 Metron Aviation, Airservices Australia: air traffic flow management system
• 5 Thales: Multi Sensor Tracking System (MSTS)

Service Provision Award

Airways New Zealand managing earthquakes and volcanic ash

Staff at ANSP Airways New Zealand had to respond to severe natural emergencies in a 10-month period over 2010-11. Earthquakes in September 2010 and February 2011 hit Christchurch and the surrounding region hard, causing widespread damage to essential infrastructure and disrupting operations at the Airways Control Centre yet within hours of both events, en route and approach services were restored. After the Puyehue Cordon Caulle volcanic complex in Chile erupted in June 2011, Airways rapidly designed new lower limits to upper airspace, allowing main carrier Air New Zealand to fly below the ash cloud.

Runners up:

• 2 DFS for entry into service of P1/VAFORIT automation system
• 3 Nav Canada for the GAATS+ oceanic flight data processing system
• 4 Kazaeronavigatsia: Kazakhstan national ATM system
• 5 Hungarocontrol: CRDS simulation and validation centre

Innovation Award

ATRiCS automated routing and guidance

Germany-based ATRiCS has developed dynamic routing, guidance and control through its SMAN surface management system. SMAN allows unambiguous guidance to individual aircraft by follow the greens or an onboard map. Controller intentions are translated from an intuitive HMI touchscreen to automatic guidance. The wide range of functionalities satisfies all requirements of the 2004 ICAO A-SMGCS manual, and ATRiCS claims that airports using SMAN would see runway incursions drop by 75 per cent.

Runners up:

• 2 Sunhillo for the Real Time Interface and Conversion Item (RICI)
• 3 Micro Nav for initial installation of the Airside Driver Trainer
• 4 Barco: ISIS main display with LED
• 5 Eizo Nanao: 4k by 2k monitor DuraVision FDH3602

Industry Award

Northrop Grumman Airport Systems Airport Realtime Collaboration

Airport Realtime Collaboration (ARC) from Northrop Grumman Airport Services is a suite of IT systems and professional services to support information sharing and collaboration at airports. An A-CDM module was launched in January 2011, followed by the PAXflow module in October for improved passenger movement through security. It is also developing ARC Analytics for better and more timely performance reporting across the entire operation.

Runners up:

• 2 Lockheed Martin Coherent Technology for the WindTracer Doppler Lidar
• 3 ITT Exelis for Symphony OpsVue 1.6 flight-tracking system
• 4 Thales: Integrated briefing on iPad
• 5 Rohde & Schwarz Topex: VCS-4G VoIP communication system
• 6 Egis Avia, DSNA, ENAC: RAIM GNSS integrity monitoring
• 7 SELEX SI: Model 3300 ADS-B radio with multilateration
• 8 Thales: Wind farm mitigation solutions

Contribution to European ATM Award

Eurocontrol route network development

Rolling improvements of the European airspace are necessary in order to meet demand growth and cater for changing patterns of traffic flows. The European ATS Route Network Version 7 is being implemented from 2011-2014/15, comprising more than 700 proposed airspace design changes. For the first time, Version 7 includes a detailed Network Free Route Airspace concept. It is also the first European ATS Route Network Version to consolidate Functional Airspace Block developments within a network approach. It is expected that, with the full implementation of ARN Version-7 in 2014, flying distances will be reduced by approximately 12 million nautical miles, leading to savings of EUR60 million.

Runners up:

• 2 Eurocontrol for the European Working Group for the Prevention of Runway Incursions
• 3 Eurocontrol Performance Review Board for support on implementing the SES performance scheme
• 3 DFS, Eurocontrol: Free Route Airspace
• 5 Entry Point North, Hungarocontrol: Entry Point Central
• 6 ESSP: EGNOS safety of life service for aviation