The Hindu Business Line : ‘Air navigation services need a paradigm shift’

Kolkata, April 4 Even as the number of global air passengers is expected to go up from 2 billion a year now to 2.5 billion annually by 2010, and further up to 4.5 billion by 2025, the global aviation community will need to appropriately address issues veering around congestion, delay and the environment. Towards this end, States must adopt a more forward-looking and contemporary approach to the issue of airspace sovereignty.

According to The Netherlands-headquartered Civil Aviation Navigation Services Organization (CANSO), even though the focus of airlines, airports and air navigation services providers (ANSPs) globally has been on increasing efficiency and improving performance, a paradigm shift in the way air navigation services are provided is required for air traffic management (ATM) to address the twin issues of safety and congestion. CANSO is the global voice of companies that provide air traffic control. Founded in 1996, it represents the interests of ANSPs worldwide.

Contemporary approach

CANSO General Secretary, Mr Alexander ter Kuile, has stated in ICAO Journal that States must adopt a more forward-looking and contemporary approach to airspace sovereignty to ensure the ongoing safe and efficient delivery of air navigation services in the 21st century. The ATM system of the future will need to be satellite-based and aircraft-centric, allowing aircraft to travel closer together and fly more direct routes in an environment-friendly manner.

Besides, in today’s information-intensive environment, air traffic control is expected to become less of a “control function” and more of an information management function, thereby permitting the freedom to organise and operate in the most efficient and effective way possible.

According to Mr Kuile, while much of what needs to be done in this regard has been accepted and agreed to by member-States of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the understanding of the word “sovereignty” is what is been getting in the way of “real progress”.

He states that ATM is still largely organised along national borders and States’ “obsession with a rather dated notion of sovereignty” is a hurdle to a more efficient organisation of ATM.

“CANSO’s vision of a globally-integrated, harmonised and interoperable aviation system that will deliver the necessary capacity and a seamless service experience in a safe, efficient and environmentally-friendly manner is highly dependent on a more mature understanding of sovereignty being adopted by states. Such a mature understanding of sovereignty does not require an amendment to the Chicago convention,” Mr Kuile has said.