Next week a major European aviation conference comes to London. Aerodays is the European Commission’s flagship event in aviation research and development.

GPS is widely used in the transport industry, most obviously by the sat-navs in our cars, but largely due to current levels of signal accuracy and integrity being too low, we’re yet to maximise its use in the aviation industry. This is starting to change, however, with the ongoing development of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS).

We are at the dawn of a third age of air traffic management, a world of airspace systemisation. It means that aircraft will again be separated procedurally, only this time based on technologies unimaginable to those pioneering pilots and controllers of the ‘40s and ‘50s.

The AMS-UK upgrade has gone live; but how does this messaging system shape communication in the aviation industry?

Engineers can imagine too! As we begin to deploy more SESAR air traffic management technologies and concepts, we are also imagining how we could further improve our services – now and in the future.

The new European Commission has indicated that they plan to review the effectiveness of existing legislation before introducing new legislation and I think that’s a good move. They could start by looking at the Single European Sky (SES) initiative.

UK airports already excel at single runway operations – but is it possible to get even better? NATS, in conjunction with SESAR, has been running a simulation to find out whether linked planning tools can help.

One of the most important ways in which NATS seeks to help reduce the environmental impact of aviation is through the Single European Sky ATM Research programme (SESAR). SESAR brings together stakeholders from across the European aviation industry to help develop and deploy new technologies and procedures that can improve the performance of European air traffic management (ATM).

One of the SESAR projects we have led, called TOPFLIGHT, has now been long-listed for a World Responsible Tourism Award in the Best Aviation Programme for Carbon Reduction category.

SESAR – the Single European Sky ATM Research programme – has been a major focus for Europe’s aviation industry over the last 10 years. Whilst technology is only one part of the change required if we’re going to achieve the objectives of the European Commission’s Single European Sky project, it’s a vitally important one.

This morning I took part in a panel discussion at the World ATM Congress discussing performance delivery and meeting airline (i.e. our customers’) expectations.