Progressing Innovation: My Key Takeaways from the SESAR Annual Conference

Last month I attended my first SESAR Annual Conference on behalf of NATS. It was a fantastic event, with world-leading innovation and cross-industry collaboration on full display.  

As well as the conference itself, featuring panel discussions and keynote speakers, there was also an exhibition showcasing SESAR projects and their findings – including 13 of the 19 projects NATS is working on. With c.500 attendees from ANSP’s, airports, airlines and regulatory bodies across the continent, it was great to catch-up with colleagues and make new connections. 

This year’s conference was centred around the launch of the updated European ATM Master Plan, which sets out strategic deployment objectives and development priorities for the SESAR programme. Sustainability is a key priority for the refreshed Master Plan and successful implementation could save c.400 million tonnes of CO2. 

This topic, among others, was the subject of keynotes from Dariusz Klimczak, Minister of Infrastructure of the Republic of Poland; Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the new European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism; and Jan-Christoph Oetjen, Member of the European Parliament.   

I was invited to speak on the first panel of the day, discussing how we can make Europe the most environmentally friendly sky in the world.  

Enhancing operational efficiency in today’s operation is one of the main ways we can reduce emissions ahead of cleaner aircraft and sustainable fuels, and cross-industry and cross-border collaboration is essential if we are to achieve it. Given that, it was a pleasure to share a platform with colleagues from Brussels Airlines, Eurocontrol, Brussels Airport and Airbus, all of whom agreed that all parts of the industry must work together on the drive to net-zero. 

We also discussed how previous SESAR initiatives that have been deployed into operations are already having a positive effect. For example, the most recently deployed solution in the UK, ‘Pairwise’ separation, enables air traffic controllers to safely reduce the gap between some pairs of aircraft landing at Heathrow Airport based on the characteristics of each aircraft type. Deployed in December 2024, we are already seeing an increase in the landing of flights per hour. At a capacity constrained airport like Heathrow, this can make a hugely positive difference to airline punctuality, operational resilience and carbon emissions. 

Air Traffic Management has a key role to play in the pathway to net-zero, and the SESAR conference was a great opportunity to see that, while there is still a long road ahead, we are already well on the way.